The battle over Mayoral Control of city public schools likely won’t be taken up anytime soon, but that hasn’t stopped the war of words between City Hall and a number of Democratic State Senators from escalating to new heights.
On Sunday, July 19, a group of Senate Democrats rallied on the steps of City Hall calling on Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his aides to negotiate with them further on the issue of school governance.
“Enough with the fighting, enough with the finger pointing,” said Brooklyn State Senator and Democratic Conference Leader John Sampson. “The mayor has to understand that the passion we are exhibiting is passion for the love of our school children.”
The war of words began when Bloomberg stirred the ire of some Senate Democrats with comments he made during his weekly radio address on Friday, July 17, the morning after Senate Democrats bought a bill to the floor that would take away much of Bloomberg’s control over schools.
“I cannot for the life of me understand what the agenda is of the people – there were 15 people last night who voted for a bill which would end all of the progress that we’ve made in the schools, in terms of bringing down crime and improving test scores and graduation rates and bringing down the drop-out rate,” Bloomberg said during his address.
Queens Senators Joseph Addabbo, Toby Stavisky, Shirley Huntley and Hiram Monserrate voted in favor of the bill, Senator George Onorato was not present and Senator Malcolm Smith voted against the bill – which failed by a 40-15 margin.
Last month when the State Senate failed to act on a bill that the Assembly passed with overwhelming support to reauthorize Mayoral Control of public schools, the city took steps to appoint a temporary Board of Education – reverting to a system from more than seven years ago.
The board, which is made up of two appointees of the Mayor and one from each of the five borough presidents, met early on Wednesday morning, July 1, and quickly voted to keep Joel Klein as Chancellor of the newly-constituted board.
Although some argued that Bloomberg now has more control over the schools, Mayoral Control advocates claim that if the Senate does not pass the legislation, legal challenges could arise and more problems could surface when school resumes in September.
