Don’t Let Mayoral Control Expire

Allowing mayoral control of New York City schools to sunset would tragically leave the 1.1 million students dependent on the system in the dark.

For years, our schools were shameful—disorder and disorganization ruled, crime and dropout rates climbed, and fewer kids were graduating high school and moving on to college. To make matters worse, schools were underfunded and in need of vast improvements, and major decisions were often left in limbo.

Direction was finally delivered, however, in 2002, when Mayoral Control was instituted. In the 13 years since, it has significantly advanced our entire school system, and established stability and accountability where there previously was none. Graduation rates have reached an all-time high, schools are safer, and transparency and parental involvement have increased, as well.

Through mayoral control, our schools have also received the funding they need to help our children thrive and important choices by our city’s elected leader can be made in an expeditious manner. During his tenure, Mayor Bill de Blasio has worked hard to continue to enrich the city’s educational standing, and used mayoral control to successfully institute major initiatives, such as universal pre-kindergarten.

Now, with mayoral control expiring at the end of June, all the progress we’ve made to enhance our schools is in serious jeopardy. While you read this, the New York State Legislature is deciding the fate of mayoral control, and there has been some chatter that it may not be renewed. I can assure you and all our elected officials in Albany that doing so would be the worst possible fate for the over 1,800 schools in New York City. Playing politics may always be the prominent practice, but our kids should never be thrown into the fray.

Rather than renewing mayoral control, the legislature should go one step further and make it permanent for the betterment of schools.

I was a part of our education system before and after mayoral control was enacted, first as a member of Community School Board 20 in 1999, and after as President of the Community Education Council for District 20 in 2004. Schools are undeniably healthier, run smoother and deliver greater benefits to both students and faculty with mayoral control in place.

As an appointee to the reconstituted Board of Education in 2009—the last time mayoral control lapsed—I witnessed firsthand the deep concern parents, teachers and principals felt. The last thing they wanted was to return to the mismanaged system they all thought they had put behind them. That’s why I wrote a resolution giving full authority to the New York City Schools Chancellor to run the school system until mayoral control was re-established.

Although New York City’s educational situation has substantially improved, there is still a tremendous amount of work to be done and numerous issues to be resolved, and mayoral control is the key to the successful future of our schools. Mayor de Blasio deserves commendation for not only taking on, but fighting for, the responsibility of leading the largest school district in the country, and he and future mayors should be rewarded with the permanent enactment of this duty.

If the state legislature doesn’t see the light and eliminates mayoral control, they would undoubtedly send us back to the educational Dark Age—rife with waste and mismanagement—that we all hoped never to see again.

Carlo Scissura is the President and CEO of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce