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Comptroller Bill Thompson. (Via ##http://flickr.com/photos/azipaybarah/2376506857/##Azi\’s Flickr##.)

As the debate over mayoral control mounted this winter, Comptroller William Thompson, himself a mayoral hopeful, conspicuously did not address the essential question of whether the mayor should control a majority of members on the city school board. Today, Thompson revealed his position: The mayor should appoint every board member — but he shouldn’t have unlimited choice.

Instead, according to a plan that Thompson outlined before Assembly members at a hearing on school governance in Brooklyn this morning, the mayor should select board members for two-year-long terms from a slate of candidates put forth by a 19-member ”nominating committee” representing a diverse set of interests. Under the plan, the committee would be composed of

• Five members appointed by the Mayor;
• One member apiece appointed by Borough Presidents;
• Four parent members chosen by the Chancellor’s Parent Advisory Council;
• A teacher selected by the United Federation of Teachers;
• A principal chosen by the Council of School Supervisors and Administrators;
• A college or university president selected by the New York State Education Commissioner;
• A member of the business community appointed by an organized business entity selected by the Mayor; and
• An education school faculty member selected by the college or university president member

In a statement, Thompson said the arrangement would allow the mayor to set education policy but would ensure that the perspectives of parents, teachers, and education experts are included in the decision-making process. A chief complaint of Mayor Bloomberg’s control over the schools since 2002 is that those constituencies have been ignored.

The man most considered most likely to join Thompson in the mayor’s race (other than Bloomberg himself), Rep. Anthony Weiner, has said he supports “unfettered” mayoral control, with the mayor continuing to control most seats on the city school board.

Thompson’s full statement, which includes his proposals for strengthening parent involvement and monitoring education department data, is below the jump. (more…)

The New York Post’s editorial board read President Obama’s speech on education yesterday as a ringing endorsement of both Chancellor Joel Klein and mayoral control.

 As I noted yesterday, Obama did not mention New York City in his speech. But at a press conference at a Brooklyn charter school last month, Obama’s new secretary of education, Arne Duncan, praised Klein’s reforms and hailed Mayor Bloomberg for taking control of the city schools.

From the Post’s editorial today:

Mayor Bloomberg’s fight to retain control of city schools got a boost yesterday from a formidable source: the president of the United States.

OK, President Obama didn’t explicitly call upon Albany pols to renew mayoral control when it expires in June.

But he might as well have.

Indeed, many of the reforms Obama demanded yesterday, in his first major education-policy address as president, could have been ripped point-for-point from Bloomberg’s seven-year effort to reform the New York school system.