Mayoral Control of Schools: The New Tyranny

Our Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, has been on a "listening tour" where he's done most of the talking. He advocates, repeatedly, that mayors should take control of urban schools. Obviously he cannot take an honest look at his own accomplishments under this governance system or -- he'd have to shut up.

The usual rationale for a mayoral power grab is it brings more accountability and a clear line of authority. School boards are generally elected in off years and few people vote, allowing special interest groups (usually education unions, some claim) to essentially rig the elections. School boards are fractious and try to micromanage. They are amateurs and prisoners of deeply rooted school bureaucracies.

But do mayors do better? Depends on how you feel about democracy. The Spring 2009 issue of Rethinking Schools said that, as Daley's man, Duncan "has shown himself to be the central messenger, manager and staunch defender of corporate involvement in, and privatization of, public schools, closing schools in low-income neighborhoods of color with little community input, limiting local democratic control, undermining the teachers union and promoting competitive merit pay for teachers."

The most important corporate involvement involves the 132-year-old Commercial Club of Chicago. Yet that organization recently published Still Left Behind, slamming Chicago's public schools as awful and that the reforms they've endured were designed to make the adults running the schools look good, not improve the lives of children. You could say the Club stabbed Arne in the back except that they did it upfront in the open, without once mentioning Duncan's name. The Club report backs up its case with many data.

If we look at the other most visible case of mayoral control, we see an even more autocratic system in place. When the New York legislature handed control of the schools in 2002 to Mayor Mike Bloomberg and his Chancellor, Joel Klein, it created the Panel for Educational Policy, attempting to establish a "balance of authority." The group is universally referred to as the Panel of Educational Puppets. The panelists, "an investment banker, a lingerie store owner and an expert on electromagnetics among them -- rarely engage in discussions with those who rise to address them. They do not debate the educational issues of the day, but spend most sessions applauding packaged presentations by staff. Some have barely uttered a public word during their tenures" (New York Times, April 23, 2009).

And if they do utter a public word, it damn well better be in support of Hizzoner or else they're history. Said Bloomberg, "Mayoral control means mayoral control, thank you very much. They are my representatives, and they are going to vote for things I believe in."

Both Bloomberg/Klein and Daley/Duncan have touted rising state test scores as proof of their success. But analysts in both cities have shown that the rises only show how easy it is to manipulate test scores. In New York, a narrow range of standards is tested and the content from year to year is highly predictable. In Illinois, the state made it easier for systems to meet the standards with new item formats and lower passing scores.

But if one looks at the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), both cities look dreadful and show little progress. This is especially true for black students, the group most affected. Compared to kids nationally in math, for example, NYC's black eighth-graders rank at the 26th percentile, while Chicago's come in at the 18th percentile. In 2003, 9 percent of NYC's black students were proficient or better in math and by 2007 the proportion had "jumped" to 10 percent. In 2003, 4 percent of Chicago's black eighth-graders were proficient or better in math, and by 2007 the figure had risen to 6 percent. The black-white achievement gap shrank slightly in NYC, but grew in Chicago.

A June 2009 Chicago Tribune article noted that two-thirds of all new Chicago teachers leave within five years and that half of the teachers in high poverty areas disappear after only three. Hard to have a turnaround with that kind of turnover.

Of course, some of the teachers got a push. Ron Huberman fired the faculty and staff of 16 schools in less than three months after replacing Duncan. If Duncan had worked the miracles his PR machine claimed, Huberman should have been able to spend most of the day smoking cigars, tweeting and embellishing his image on Facebook. Newsweek said the district "is mired in urban woes -- and, in some cases, a sense of complacency." Complacency? Daley has had control of Chicago's schools for 13 years and Duncan was there for seven of them, but the test scores above are evidence that they didn't do much to stir anything but the public relations pot.

Bloomberg's authority expired in June, but about then collective insanity infected the Senate and the legislature adjourned for the summer without passing a new authorization. Bloomberg says he will ask the governor to call them back into session until he gets a bill, his bill. Checks and balances, anyone?

Comments

[Billie]

Bloomberg is an authoritarian with no tolerance for disagreement. We all know this by now.

Either New Yorkers will vote him out, or the mayor will continue to keep squashing authenticity in NYC.

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

Re:"Said Bloomberg, "Mayoral control means mayoral control, thank you very much. They are my representatives, and they are going to vote for things I believe in."

If this is the way he treats his appointees to the Board of Education, imagine how he treats his direct reports.

Bloomberg surrounds himself with sycophants and toadies, and believes them when they tell him what a bee-yoo-tiful new suit he's wearing.

I'm sure his personal golf pros tell him how much his swing has improved and that the designer of that pesky sand trap is a political enemy casting him as Neville Chamberlain.


P.S. Note that the state did not create the Panel for Educational Policy. The Chancellor did. The state, per the city, created the "The Board of Education of the City of School District of the City of New York." (sic) And NO ONE proof read the PEP bylaws in seven years !?!
http://schools.nyc.gov/NR/rdonlyres/81EC748F-A8E8-4EA4-9C02-AC372918A065/1076/By_Laws.pdf

[mvny]

Great article. Bloomberg's control of schools has been awful. Yet his ability to control the message has been superb, as always. So far the Huffington Post seems to be running a New York section that is pro-Bloomberg. There are many corporate liberals who are fond of Bloomberg. But anyone who honestly believes that the pattern of wealth distribution in this country is a major problem, cannot also tolerate New York's richest man as the city's mayor. Somebody should tell the editor's of the New York section of Huff Post that the real leftists in New York can't stand Bloomberg. These editors seem to have forgotten that Mayor Mike locked up more than 1,000 people for peacefully protesting the Republican Convention in 1994. It doesn't say much for the Obama liberals at Huff Post that they can't recognize a Bush Republican like Bloomberg. Mayoral control of schools has got to go...In the name of Frank McCourt.

[Billie]

you said it! I agree

[RobinSeattle]

Education is too important to be left to amateurs, be they school board members or mayors.

L.A. mayor Antonio Villaraigosa staged a takeover of some of his city's schools, only to earn the enmity of teachers due to bureaucratic hindrances in his office that some charge are worse than what they put up with from the incompetent LAUSD.

There is no doubt that school boards need to be abolished and replaced with an elected regional superintendent system, those superintendents being required to have had a minimum of ten years in classroom as instructors dealing with hard humanities or sciences (no PE or driver's ed teachers) and allowing teachers to run their own schools through five or seven person committees. The superintendents would then comprise a state school board, with the governor being able to nominate his own member to represent the interest of the state. If test scores fall in a given area, the superintendent would be ineligible for re-election and the teaching staffs at failing schools would be fired. This is the only way to make everyone from teachers, the public and the governor own the educational outcomes of our school systems.

[Poboy]

The new tyranny?

No.

It's the failure of OUR FEDERAL GOVERNMENT to enforce Brown v. Board of Education.

The central issue is equitable resources. The white flight left the city school systems unsupported by an affluent tax base.

This supports my central thesis on neighborhood schools. They are a microcosm of the neighborhood.

If you have a poor and dysfunctional neighborhood, you will have poor and dysfunctional schools.

All the neighborhood problems are brought into the schools:

1. Poverty

2. Homelessness

3. Hunger and malnutrition

4. Drugs

5. Physical abuse

6. Unemployment

7. Health issues

8. Digital divide

9. Mental issues

10. Powerlessness

Essentially, to tackle the neighborhood problem is to tackle the school problem.

[LeM22]

Aarrgh! Why does this always happen? I haven't figured out Obama yet, whether he is trying to change for a real reason, or he is following some plan, but education is a personal learning experience that cannot be dictated from above. Bureaucracy adds its layers and requirements that result in little improvement. Methinks the local community has more impact. Arne is pushing the NEA for "real" change and I agree with you, he hasn't provided any of his own. He is just a mouthpiece for change (for change's sake). I don't agree and don't waste my time listening to politicians or bureaucrats. It's not he who votes who counts, it's he who counts the votes. I will make effective change today where I am in my community, not by creating a pseudo-vision and rallying supporters around the flag. If I'm wrong then yeah for them, but I would be surprised that any mandate or NCLB requirement will improve real learning. Why does that exist anyway? We should ask Arne.
http://sites.google.com/site/editinghelpsite/

[RobinSeattle]

"education is a personal learning experience that cannot be dictated from above. "

Absolutely on target. That is why the current factory model with its byzantine and restrictive bureaucratic red tape must be put asunder and a system that allows teachers to innovate on the local level in a way that addresses the peculiar needs and sensibilities of each student.

But that isn't going to happen without abolishing the shortsighted management characteristic of the amateurs that comprise school boards. Put the job in the hands of the pros, but with accountability (i.e., firing) in case a school fails thanks to the incompetence of the teaching staff.

[FearlessFreep]

Is anyone running against Bloomberg this year?

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

Comptroller Bill Thompson.
Queens City Council member Tony Avella.

But the real story is how Bloomberg's back room bare knuckle operation forced
Congressman Anthony Wiener out of the race.

Making a run for it:
http://www.nypost.com/seven/01272009/news/regionalnews/hot_weiner_catching_up_to_bloomy_in_poll_152244.htm

And the reaction....

"Mr. Weiner said that despite backing away from plans to run for mayor this year, he remains the target of a well-orchestrated smear campaign that can be traced to the re-election bid of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.

The mayor, he said, is running “the most consistently and relentlessly negative campaign that I and many people I know have seen.”

Mr. Weiner characterized the research behind critical news articles about him as “daily Dumpster diving.”"
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/12/nyregion/12weiner.html?_r=1