Mayoral control set to expire tonight

BRONXTALK/MONDAY, JUNE 22, 2009

Mayoral control of the city's public schools is set to expire at midnight tonight, unless the State Senate acts. GothamSchools has the latest, including the news that Bronx BP Ruben Diaz Jr. has appointed someone to the serve on a hypothetical Board of Education.

While a return to the old way of doing things is unlikely, a number outcomes are still possible. The Times has a good overview on this.

Above is a recent episode of BronxTalk featuring Joyce Johnson from Learn-NY, a pro-mayoral control group, and Vincent Wojsnis, a teacher at MS 399, who believes "mayoral control is out of control." Wojsnis has previously written about this issue for the Mount Hope Monitor.

Renew mayoral control says Bronx principal

Vincent Wojsnis, a teacher at MS 399 on 184th Street, wrote an op-ed in the last issue of the Mount Hope Monitor entitled Public Education at a Crossroads. In it, he criticized mayoral control of the city's public schools, which is up for review next month. (State legislators will vote to continue it, amend it, or end it.)

In response to Wojsnis' article, Learn NY, a pro-mayoral control group, e-mailed us this piece by Jason Levy, principal of IS 339, a school on Webster Avenue near the Cross Bronx Expressway.

Levy writes:

Under mayoral control, the DOE has been more effective and efficient. Principals have been given unique autonomy in exchange for accountability. The quality of our educational system has greatly improved - in large part because of the innovative structures and central governance. And for the first time in our great city, we’re aspiring to a culture of educational excellence.

More here.