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Those who missed last week’s panel on the history of school governance in New York can catch it on video:

(Via NYC Public School Parents, AfterEd TV)

“All the levers are in the hands of two people… and they don’t have to listen to any of us,” historian of education Diane Ravitch said on Wednesday night at the first of five public forums about mayoral control sponsored by the Parent Commission on School Governance.

Ravitch and her fellow panelists, community organizer and retired educator Jitu Weusi and New York State Regent and former educator Betty Rosa, provided an overview of the history of school governance to a crowd of more than 200 parents, education activists, teachers, and others interested in the future organization of the city school system. The current school governance law, establishing mayoral control of the schools, sunsets in June 2009; the state assembly will begin holding public hearings on the issue in January.

The Parent Commission is planning monthly panels on different aspects of school governance to help answer the overarching question of what model will serve New York’s children best.

Ravitch launched her overview of 200 years of changing school governance in New York with the statement, “You’re in school, here’s your history lesson.” You can read a detailed account in her paper advising the Public Advocate’s Commission on School Governance, but here are a few highlights:

In 1869 Boss Tweed took over the school system, shut down the existing Board of Education, and created a created a Department of Education run by the mayor. When Tweed was jailed in 1873, reformers returned power to an independent Board of Education, however, all members were appointed by the mayor and no school officials at any level were elected. The boroughs were consolidated in 1898 to form the City of New York, and a central board was created along with 4 boards representing the boroughs (Manhattan and the Bronx were combined). Conflict among these boards soon led the state to abolish them and create a large central school board and many small, powerless district boards. This system lasted until 1969, when, in response to the Ocean Hill-Brownsville conflict, a new 7-member central board was created, with 1 elected member from each borough, plus two mayoral appointees. Due to concerns about unfair representation since borough populations varied, elections never took place and instead borough representatives were appointed by the borough presidents. Finally, in 2002, Mayor Bloomberg took over control of the schools, created the Department of Education and reorganized the school bureaucracy.

“At no time has there been so total an absence of democratic participation in control of the schools,” Ravitch concluded, (more…)