Some Lawmakers Call for Return to Old School Boards

The old community school boards would be better than the Bloomberg administration's proposed education overhaul, a group of City Council members protesting the mayor's plan said yesterday.

At a rally on the steps of City Hall, several council members reminisced about the old boards — where many began their political careers — as they declared their support for a council resolution to stop the reorganization of the schools. Mayor Bloomberg dismantled the boards, many of which were plagued by corruption, patronage, and mismanagement, after taking control of the schools in 2003.

By the beginning of the next school year, the Bloomberg administration has said it will devolve more power and money to the school level in exchange for more accountability based mainly on state test scores.

"This system is out of control," Council Member Charles Barron of Brooklyn said. "I'd rather have the school boards back."

Other council members, including the education committee chairman, Robert Jackson, echoed Mr. Barron's sentiments, suggesting that the boards gave parents more access to the schools.

Also present at the rally — organized by a local political organization, the Working Families Party — were a dozen parents, including leaders from city parent groups and immigrant parents from Queens, the Bronx, and Brooklyn who shouted slogans at the mayor in Spanish.

The groups' central demand has been that the mayor consult with them before going forward with the schools overhaul.

A spokesman for the Department of Education, David Cantor, responded by touting improving test scores, which have risen in the fourth grade, and the rising graduation rate, which according to state calculations was 43% last year.

"During the past two months, we met with 5,000 parents, educators, and community leaders in more than 100 meetings in every borough to discuss the reforms," Mr. Cantor said. "We will continue talking and meeting, but we will also move forward without delay." Some council members also offered ideas for changing the schools plan to make it more palatable to their constituents, including more professional development for teachers and smaller class sizes, the central rallying cry of the United Federation of Teachers.