For Immediate Release

Senate stalemate allows governance law to sunset

Jul 1, 2009 7:43 PM

On June 30, when the State Senate failed to act on the school governance law that authorizes modified mayoral control, the law sunset, which meant the city was required to revert back to the old system where a Board of Education controlled the schools. On July 1, the mayor and the five borough presidents selected appointees who met as a reconstituted seven-member Board of Education. The two mayoral appointees and one appointee for each borough president unanimously voted to retain Joel Klein as chancellor. They also voted to elect Deputy Mayor Dennis Walcott the president of the board and to call on Albany to enact the Assembly’s version of mayoral control.

UFT President Randi Weingarten issued the following statement in response:

As we said with the governor and the mayor earlier this week, we at the United Federation of Teachers did not want to revert to the old system of school governance. But given the state senate’s failure to renew mayoral control of the New York City public school system, we have a duty to protect children by taking the steps necessary to ensure that schools open safely and without chaos both now during summer school and in September with the start of the new academic year.

The bill proposed by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver would maintain the cohesion and stability of mayoral control while including additional checks and balances to ensure a greater role for parents and provide more transparency. Could that bill be improved upon? Of course it could, and we are still advocating additional tweaks.

We commend the borough presidents and the mayor for following the law and maintaining stability for the sake of our children.