This morning, Schools Chancellor Joel Klein is set to appear before the education committee of the state Assembly, and he is likely to get raked over the coals by the committee’s Democratic chairman, Steven Sanders of Manhattan. Mr. Sanders’s hearing, billed as oversight of the Bloomberg administration’s Children First program, is more likely to be a forum for chiding a chancellor who has drawn the ire of United Federation of Teachers by shaking up the status quo. Mr. Sanders, as New Yorkers well know, is one of the leading recipients of teachers union money in the state, and he seldom acts against the unions’ interests. The charge that he will level is that Mr. Klein is moving too slowly to put together the 32 “district education councils” written into being by the state Legislature in late June, to replace the defunct community school boards. We say Mr. Klein is punctual until proven tardy.

The new councils are supposed to come into being on December 1, after being elected October 31,but Mr. Sanders says he doesn’t believe there is enough time for this to happen between now and then. The new councils need to be approved by the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, a step that typically takes 60 days — though the city plans to ask for an expedited review. “They’re not going to meet the deadlines,” Mr. Sanders’s chief of staff, Stephen Kaufman, told the Sun.

Meantime, the Department of Education has posted on its Web site a draft regulation spelling out eligibility requirements and the nomination and selection processes for the councils. The final submission will not come until after September 25 because the city will have been busy holding public hearings in all five boroughs — something required by the law Mr. Sanders himself sponsored. If the Justice Department takes is sue with the new district education councils, there indeed could be a delay before parents have a replacement for the defunct community school boards. But at bottom this fight has more to do with a power struggle than parents’ valued input. It’s a further reminder that for poor parents, who cannot afford private school, the only way out is a voucher system under which parents can afford to make their own choices on where best to send their children to school in the city.