Mayor Bloomberg Retains Control Of NYC's Public Schools

New York City's hastily appointed seven-member Board of Education has voted to reappoint Schools Chancellor Joel Klein with full authority to run the school system.

The Board of Education was reinstated by city officials on Wednesday after the state Senate failed to act on a bill to renew Mayor Michael Bloomberg's control of the schools. The bill expired at midnight.

The new board's action gives Bloomberg continued control of the city school system. The mayor carefully prepared the way for the vote in meetings with board members before the panel convened.

At a news conference at City Hall, Bloomberg said the new board and his administration will do their best to keep city schoolchildren "from becoming victims of the Albany train wreck."

He said, "It will serve until Albany rectifies its inaction and reauthorizes mayoral control."

The board voted 7-0 to reappoint Klein during a nine-minute meeting. It also voted 6-0, with one abstention, to urge the state Senate to act on the mayoral control bill.

The board then adjourned until Sept. 10.

The city school system has 1.1 million students.

The state Senate has been paralyzed, with neither the Democrats nor the Republicans able to assert control. Efforts by Gov. David Paterson to end the chaos have so far been a failure.

Comments

[blackcat]

Why would the Board of Ed vote NOT to be leaders?
And why won't the Democratic party offer someone to compete with Mr. Bloomberg?

NYC voters would really like to choose change but so few opportunities are presented to us.... Look what's happening in Albany now... our state politicians have forgotten that they are there as representatives of the people who elected them. Again and again at the polling booth it is the same candidate across the entire ticket- john smith= democrat,r­epublican, socialist, religious right etc NO CHALLENGERS

[EddiePages]

Help us stop Bloomberg!

Most politicians brag about their degrees from expensive universities. They list which corporate and bank board of directors they have sat on. They make sure to point out that even if they had humble beginnings, they “made it” into the political establishment.

That’s because they are talking to the powers-that-be.

Not Frances Villar.

Ever since she came to New York from the Dominican Republic when she was 3 years old, Frances has faced the challenges of growing up poor in the richest city in the world. She grew up watching the NYPD arrest her friends for the crime of being poor and Black or Latino. Like millions of New Yorkers, she struggles every month to pay her rent, buy groceries, help her kids with homework, and go to school.

For most of her life, she faced those challenges on her own, believing that she had no power to change a system where she was at the bottom, and no one she knew ever met the ones on top.

Frances Villar isn’t your typical politician. In fact, she isn’t a politician at all—at least not like the ones that run this city and country on behalf of the billionaires.

Please visit http://www.votepsl.org

and follow her at twitter.com/francesvillar

[Trilby]

Dictator!

[Matt Sewell]

I find it ironic that Pres. Zelaya in Honduras was literally forced out of bed at the barrel of a gun and shipped off to Costa Rica when he tried to do an end run around their constitution and abolish/extend term limits while he was still in power. Ahem Mr. Bloomberg are you listening.

It's a pity our city council was too meek to stand up to an admittedly popular mayor (Zelaya is well liked too) when Mr. Bloomberg contravened the democratic process. I've only lived in NYC for 4 years but having grown up outside Wash DC know that it's all image with Bloomberg and little substance. The middle class he touts in his ads have been harmed the most over the last couple of years.

[ThatOne4Me]

New York City Public Education, as a whole, is HORRIBLE. If you can't afford private schooling or don't live in the "right" neighborhood, your kid is scre.wed.

[BrotherOrchid]

The Lord High Mayor, and his royal courtiers care nothing about the kids (serfs) in the NYC School System, just today a new scandal has surfaced about his administrations cold and calculated, misuse of Federal Funds allocated to help poor kids, Bloomy is great at Ribbon-Cutting Ceremonies , Sports Events, and Cocktail Parties ( for the moneyed elite) But after the parties, after the glitz, and glamour Mayor Bloomy smugly tells poor, and middle-class New Yorkers to either tighten their belts, or “eat cake”, ( he then reminds them that his billionaire buddies, “JUST HAPPEN” to be selling **** CAKE)

[felixthecat]

About 53% of Queens students attended crowded schools in the 2006-2007 school year - far more than other boroughs, according to a new report.

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

I'm sure that number is higher now.

Bet you'd be surprised to hear that Bloomberg's and Klein's policies are making -- and will continue to make -- the situation worse.

Fewer teachers, more computer-based instruction, etc.

Wii the People, etc.

[felixthecat]

never believe anything that Screwburg says. He recently said that the construction of the new Yankee Stadium "Didn't cost the taxpayers a thing." After the press conference was over, and the cameras were off, his aides quietly admitted that over $170 million of taxpayer dollars were used to help the poor Steinbrenner family build a new stadium, with fewer seats and MUCH higher price

[MIKEinNYC]

Mike Bloomberg deserves to be re-elected. The city is running as well as it ever has in my lifetime.

Anyone know somebody who can do better?

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

Dude, make up your mind. See below.

[MIKEinNYC]

How do these idiots, the Board of Education, adjourn until September 10 when the school year commences approximately two weeks prior to that date?

Are their vacations more important than the kids?

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

Dude, make up your mind. See above.

[123dee]

Vote Bloomberg out

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

You got another billionaire to run against him? Sheesh.

[Nommo]

This is all about the voting citizens of NYC. The gauntlet has been tossed. Fish or cut bait.

[quindy]

Just few days ago my friend told me she will not be working next school year in one of the New York City high schools, but will stay at home instead and be pay a full amount of her salary. She told me that NYC has too many teachers and is sending some of them home with full pay. They can be called if someone gets sick or quits, but otherwise she has nothing to do. I don't know if Michael Bloomberg runs his business the same way he is running the city, but something is terribly wrong with the system where people get paid to stay at home in time of recession.

[larry278]

Mike Bloomberg is determined to be re-elected as Mayor of NYC. He aims to become an even stronger mayor. In the event Pres Obama asks Mike to come to Washington, DC to take a more powerful job, Mike can be expected to say no to Pres Obama.

[bklynnupe]

Mike is a power hungry jerk.