GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

Walter Mosley, with Hakeem Jeffries, speaking to supporters on Election Day last year. (Credit: The Local: Fort Greene / Clinton Hill)

Brand new Brooklyn Assemblyman Walter T. Mosley  wants to pick up where his high-profile predecessor left off: trying to block Mayor Bloomberg’s efforts to close schools.

Before he was elected to Congress last year, Hakeem Jeffries was the lead sponsor on a bill that called on a two-year moratorium for closures in New York City. It passed overwhelmingly in the Democratic-controlled Assembly, but then lost momentum. First, it died in the Republican-controlled Senate and then lost its sponsor when Jeffries headed to Washington, D.C.

Now, union officials and other advocates who oppose the Bloomberg administration’s school closure policies are looking for a new lawmaker to carry the torch for this year’s session.

“There’s quite a few people who are looking at doing it,” teachers union president Michael Mulgrew told GothamSchools this week. (more…)