Suddenly, clouds are gathering over the deal granting Mayor Bloomberg control of the city’s public schools. At Washington, the chief of the voting section of the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, Joseph Rich, is claiming that the city has been “insufficient” in proving that the new governance structure — in which the mayor is both in control of and accountable for the performance of the schools — will not abridge the rights of the city’s minorities in Brooklyn, Manhattan, and the Bronx, who are covered by the Federal Voting Rights Act. This is in relation to the mayor’s appointed chancellor’s power to hire and fire district superintendents without seeking the input of local school boards. Steven Sanders, the chairman of the Assembly Education Committee, considered by many to have been one of the obstacles to the achievement of a control deal, weighed in with the mayor on the broad issued of being rid of the school boards, which are slated to be dissolved next year, pending approval from the Justice Department. He was quoted on Tuesday by our Anna Schneider-Mayerson as expressing the view that there would not have been an overall agreement on the governance issue without the elimination of the boards.

This ought to be a no-brainer. The school boards are hardly representatives of their communities. Nor are they imbued with any serious powers. Their main power is the right to pick a slate of candidates for superintendent positions, among whom the chancellor must choose. But even this is only the appearance of power, since the chancellor can refuse all the candidates. While the board can then offer other candidates, the chancellor can simply appoint his own man to the position on a “temporary” basis that can be for as long as the chancellor chooses. Voter turnout in these elections, which are held in May, separate from all other elections, has been running below 5%.The boards have slowly had their powers stripped. On May 30,The New York Sun ran a report from the director of community school district affairs at the Board of Education, Doreen DeMartini, that detailed fraud, corruption, and numerous violent and embarrassing incidents, including public drunkenness, face scratching, intimidation, and, in one instance, murder. This last was punished by a suspension from the board, and an eventual resignation, but was not, apparently, a firing offense. The boards are not fulfilling any serious function, as a representative body or otherwise.

Meantime, Mr. Sanders and his ally, State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, have been blowing smoke about undoing the deal for mayoral control. With the city facing a budget gap of more than $5 billion next year, the mayor has announced his intention to cut just less than $400 million from a schools budget of more than $12 billion for this year. This move came a week after Mr. Bloomberg announced his intention to prepare 7.5% cuts to all city departments and raised the threat of layoffs. Yet Mr. Sanders has taken a menacing tone, saying that “The mayor and the speaker have an agreement — no cuts to the classroom this year. If there turn out to be cuts to the classroom, that would certainly be contrary to that agreement.” Mr. Bloomberg has said that the system can absorb this less than 5% cut strictly through administrative efficiencies. Mr. Sanders might do well to let the mayor try.