28 THE QUEENS COURIER • JULY 6, 2017 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
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CLIFF KASDEN, SAMANTHA SOHMER, ELIZABETH ALONI
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VICTORIA SCHNEPS-YUNIS
JOSHUA A. SCHNEPS
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Make mayoral control of schools permanent
Last week, the state legislature fi nally got around to giving New York City
what it wanted: a continuation of mayoral control of the city’s public school
system.
State lawmakers in Albany -- about 152 miles north of the fi ve boroughs --
agreed to allow the city to operate its own schools for two more years. You
don’t need a crystal ball to foresee this battle being resurrected in June 2019.
So many political footballs exist in Albany. Mayoral control is the latest one
to be dumped on the fi eld; state lawmakers kicked it around a bunch of times
in recent years whenever mayoral control was due for an extension. Th ere’s
no reason to think that the same won’t happen when the question arises again
two years from now.
For as long as there’s an expiration date on the city’s control of its own public
school system, this preposterous exercise in government dysfunction will
be repeated. We can’t imagine why a Long Island state senator or a Buff alo
assembly member would want to block New York City’s mayor from running
the city’s schools -- unless, of course, they’re interested in what kind of political
favors they can get out of supporting it.
Well, we say enough is enough. It’s time for our Queens representatives in
Albany to launch a campaign for a state constitutional amendment to give
New York City control of its schools until the end of time.
New York City’s government gets billions of dollars in aid from the state
and federal government for virtually all of its functions. State and federal
agencies may pass down mandates and regulations, but in almost every
instance, the city alone is responsible for appointing the people needed to
manage itself.
Th e state government doesn’t appoint the city’s police, fi re or transportation
commissioners, so why should it appoint our schools chancellor?
Why should it have control over the functions of the city’s Department of
Education?
In the last year, the city’s public school system achieved its highest high
school graduation rate ever: 72.6%. Th e city has also made strides in changing
the school dynamic to improve overall academic performance and launched
a highly-successful universal prekindergarten program.
It is far from perfect, of course. Parental participation is lacking, and the
city has yet to do anything to give real power to the Community Education
Councils that replaced Community School Boards as the voice of parents in
each school district. Th at, of course, must change -- but the city alone should
be responsible for its changing.
New York City should control New York City’s schools. Our lawmakers
must step up now to make it so.
STORY: Teenage girl found in her underwear on a Woodside street
believed to have been sexually assaulted: cops
SUMMARY: A 16-year-old girl was found unconscious and nearly
naked after being sexually assaulted behind a warehouse at the
corner of 47th Avenue and 70th Street in Woodside on June 25.
REACH: 14,145 people (as of 6/30/17)
