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Reports that a deal has been reached on mayoral control have been exaggerated, according to sources in Albany.

The New York Post reported today that Senate Democrats had reached an agreement on mayoral control and would abandon their demands for fixed terms for members of the citywide school board.

But sources in Albany said that no deal had been made and that senators were still haggling over the details. Though most sources said the deal outlined by the Post is likely to happen eventually, they said that until senators found a way to end the gridlock, no agreement could be considered final.

According to the Post, the compromise amounts to the Senators agreeing to vote for the Assembly’s bill, in exchange for an amendment that would be passed later and would provide for more parental involvement in the system.

The article notes that Senator John Sampson, the Democratic conference leader who has led the opposition to reviving mayoral control without substantial changes, has “signed on to the deal.”

“There is no deal yet,” said a source involved with the negotiations. “I think that this won’t get settled until they have a path back into the chamber.” (more…)

We’re five days away from the expiration of mayoral control, and there’s stronger-than-usual rumbling today that a deal is in the works to bring a power-sharing agreement to the State Senate.

That means that mayoral control could come up for a vote today. The Senate will convene at 3 p.m. for a special session Governor Paterson called for yesterday evening.

Mayor Bloomberg demanded that the Senate pass the Assembly’s mayoral control bill.

“If the Senate passes something that differs by one word or more it is saying to the city: We want to resurrect the Soviet Union, we want to bring back chaos,” he said today.

An official at the governor’s office told me that Paterson put the Assembly’s mayoral control bill on his agenda for the session. Senator John Sampson, a critic of the 2002 mayoral control law, introduced his own bill on Tuesday. His proposal calls for two-year fixed terms for members of the Panel for Educational Policy, the citywide school board. It also provides $25 million in funding for a parents’ training academy that would instruct parents in how to navigate the Department of Education’s bureaucracy.

Update: Billy Easton, of the Campaign for Better Schools, responds to the mayor’s quote. “Unlike the Soviet Union, we live in a democracy. And in this democracy, the mayor needs to negotiate with both houses of the New York State Legislature. By throwing around inflammatory rhetoric and refusing to negotiate with Senator Sampson and the Senate Democratic leadership the mayor is becoming yet another obstacle as the June 30th deadline looms ahead.”

Update 2x: Liz Benjamin is reporting that, rather than make a deal and get to work, the Senate Republicans and Democrats refused to vote on any bills today. The saga continues.

This is the memo Governor Paterson sent out listing the order of business for today’s special Senate session. He’s called the items “basically non-controversial.” Mayoral control is No. 3, and Paterson plans to introduce a copy of the bill the Assembly passed last week — the one that Mayor Bloomberg supports, without too many “tweaks.”

The session starts at 3 p.m., but of course, in order to vote, the senators have to know who’s in charge. And they still don’t.

(Postscript: Here’s why people don’t like the Wicks Law.)

The full agenda: (more…)

There are 10 days to go before mayoral control expires and one day left of the legislative session. Given the standstill at the state Senate, that equation is leaving both supporters and opponents of the mayoral control in a state of high alarm.

Invariably, their panic is fueled by the complete unpredictability of the situation. No one has the answers to questions about what would happen if the Senate allowed the 2002 law to sunset, as State Senator John Sampson has threatened to allow.

“If everybody goes home for the summer we’ve got 32 school boards on July 1. Mayoral control is over. The clock is ticking and it doesn’t seem like anybody’s doing anything,” said Joe Williams, the executive director of Democrats for Education Reform, which favors preserving mayoral control.

Should the Senate pull itself together and reconvene, either by choice or by force, before the law expires, it remains unclear what kind of bill it will support. A bill has already passed the Assembly, but Sampson and other Democrats have said they want to amend that to add stricter checks to the mayor’s power. (more…)