Amid Fight for Mayoral Control in New York, Adams Agenda Suffers School Board Losses

Even as Mayor Adams is fighting to renew mayoral control of New York’s public schools, it seems fair to ask whether he currently has that power.This question was brought to the forefront after the Panel for Education Policy, the city’s school board, recently decided not to renew the funding formula for New York public schools — in what should have been a routine approval.According to a professor of education at the CUNY Graduate Center, David Bloomfield, this vote “puts the system stability in jeopardy” because the Department of Education now has no plan for school funding. “There needs to be an allocation formula in place for September,” Mr. Bloomfield says.This was the second time the mayor and his education chancellor, David Banks, have put forward an initiative that the PEP has voted down. In March, the panel declined to approve an $82 million consulting contract for temporary school employees.In both cases, the mayor’s initiatives had a plurality of the 15 votes but failed to reach the eight-vote threshold required to pass.The Manhattan borough president’s appointee to the PEP, Kaliris Salas-Ramirez, had initially planned to vote in favor of renewing the formula but says she abstained based on public comments from Community Education Council presidents. The funding per student did not accurately “represent” students living in temporary housing, students living below the line of poverty, or students with disabilities, she said. She abstained alongside the four other borough president appointees to the panel.“It’s the strategy of us as BP appointees — us as a voting bloc and having a common voice,” Ms. Salas-Ramirez, herself an opponent of mayoral control, told the Sun. “It’s important. Because if Adams really wants three to four years of mayoral control, and he’s calling it mayoral accountability, then it’s my job to hold you accountable.”The PEP has not traditionally been an accountability measure for the mayor — who makes the majority of appointments to the panel and therefore usually ensures his agenda’s passage.The mayor is short one appointment on the PEP, which would likely translate into a vote for his agenda. He made his PEP appointments in mid-March — nearly two months after taking office — but that same day withdrew the appointment of the Reverend Kathlyn Barrett-Layne, after the Daily News reported on her anti-gay rhetoric.Another critic of mayoral control on the PEP, Tom Sheppard, said Mr. Adams has only himself to blame for the recent losses. “It’s not like he doesn’t have the ability to put one more member there. He just hasn’t done it. So I mean, whose fault is that?” he asked.Mr. Bloomfield said the recent “mistakes … raise serious questions about [the mayor’s] interest in a well-run DOE.”“There just may be too much on the mayor’s plate right now … to focus on what has generally been a minor issue,” he speculated.Despite his delay in appointing a new member, the mayor has campaigned hard to renew mayoral control. The current mandate expires at the end of June, and lawmakers have been cagey about its future, after mayoral control failed to make it into the state budget.In recent weeks, Mr. Adams has made several announcements about education that reflect his intended agenda, including the expansion of Gifted and Talented programs and funding for charter summer schools. One proposal lawmakers are considering is a modified form of mayoral control with additional PEP seats reserved for public school parents. Mr. Adams has opposed such changes.“If you lose power of the PEP, you lose power of mayoral accountability,” the mayor said in March.The Department of Education has not responded to a request for comment.

Amid Fight for Mayoral Control in New York, Adams Agenda Suffers School Board Losses

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