Mayoral Control Expired! Now What?
July 01, 2009, 5:32 pm
Mayoral Control of New York City's public school system expired at 12:01am this morning, leaving everyone to wonder: what happens now? Some people (aka Bloomberg) predicted chaos and a return to the Soviet Union. Other rejoiced in an afternoon-long party at which attendees carried eviction notices for Joel Klein. In the end, what actually happened was incredibly anticlimactic. The newly formed Board of Education reconvened for the first time in 7 years, and in a meeting that lasted only 9 minutes voted unanimously to keep Joel Klein as Chancellor and urge the Senate to approve the Mayoral Control bill that the Assembly passed 2 weeks ago. Check out GothamSchool's live blogging of the meeting here. There was a tiny bit of excitement when parent activist Jane Hirschmann of Time Out From Testing stole the Mayor's podium, said a few words, and was promptly escorted from the room. Needless to say, there are a lot of very relieved people and a lot of really pissed off people right now, and many questions remain. Will Bronx borough president appointee to the Board of Ed, and lone dissenter against Mayoral Control, Dolores Fernandez, cause enough of a fuss to make a difference? Will the Senate ever get their act together and vote? Stay tuned folks.
Tips for Parents (27)
July 01, 2009, 5:32 pm
Mayoral Control of New York City's public school system expired at 12:01am this morning, leaving everyone to wonder: what happens now? Some people (aka Bloomberg) predicted chaos and a return to the Soviet Union. Other rejoiced in an afternoon-long party at which attendees carried eviction notices for Joel Klein. In the end, what actually happened was incredibly anticlimactic. The newly formed Board of Education reconvened for the first time in 7 years, and in a meeting that lasted only 9 minutes voted unanimously to keep Joel Klein as Chancellor and urge the Senate to approve the Mayoral Control bill that the Assembly passed 2 weeks ago. Check out GothamSchool's live blogging of the meeting here. There was a tiny bit of excitement when parent activist Jane Hirschmann of Time Out From Testing stole the Mayor's podium, said a few words, and was promptly escorted from the room. Needless to say, there are a lot of very relieved people and a lot of really pissed off people right now, and many questions remain. Will Bronx borough president appointee to the Board of Ed, and lone dissenter against Mayoral Control, Dolores Fernandez, cause enough of a fuss to make a difference? Will the Senate ever get their act together and vote? Stay tuned folks.