Friday's final Assembly hearing on Mayoral control of schools was, at turns, spirited, vivid, and confrontational. The Brooklyn hearing was packed with stake holders who  felt Mayoral control should be either defended or amended. 

Large numbers of giddy parents, who themselves had experienced decades of seemingly deliberate miseducation in NYC public schools, applauded the improvements under Mayoral control – oblivious to the role NCLB plays in the new standards of accountability. Groups like East Brooklyn Congregations and Learn NY organized the turn out of many parents. 

Only retired Congress member Major Owens opposed “direct Mayoral control” and supported “the re-establishment of a citizens Board of Education.” Owens called for a Parents Bill of Rights and Responsibilities; opposed the use of vouchers as a subsidy for schools which have no public oversight or control; supported public funding of charter schools with clear enunciation of the requirements that they abide by the laws, rules, and regulations established for conventional public schools; and stated that charter schools “must accept the basic terms of collective bargaining agreements.”

Gregory Floyd, President of Teamsters Local 237, described the challenges of his union's 5,000 school safety agents as they walk the line between NYPD and the DOE. “Armed only with handcuffs, a flashlight, and a badge,” Floyd said, “School Safety Agents protect our children by confiscating drugs, firearms, and knives, and by arresting wrongdoers who would disrupt our schools.” When Hearing Chair Assemblywoman Catherine Nolan asked about the handcuffing of a 5 year old, Floyd explained the  agent  involved was called from an assigned post. Floyd suggested a social worker may have been a more appropriate personnel to deal with the child. 

Concerned by “distortion and sensationalism” in a recent report from the NY Civil Liberties Union that cited a claim of inappropriate sexual “touching” of a female student, Floyd said he was “confident that school safety agents follow a strict protocol which permits searches of female students to be conducted only by female agents.” 

Floyd said Local 237 rejects any implication that School safety agents are insensitive to the concerns of a largely-minority public school population. He said the majority of the safety agents are women of color; reside in the communities from which students are drawn; and many are mothers of public school students themselves. “They are not in any way estranged from the population they are charged with protecting.” 

Floyd said his members “are sometimes blamed for policies that others have devised, which have caused controversy. Our members are sometimes caught up in a confusing division of authority between their NYPD superiors and school principals,” taking the “brunt of students' frustrations over such issues as cellphone confiscation.”

Robert Troeller, President of Local 891, International Union of Operating Engineers, testified a loss of 1,000 school custodial engineers over the past several years, and spoke of a successful challenge to Chancellor Klein's plan to outsource custodial services. Troeller stated that during the same time, “the Chancellor issued a $60 million dollar emergency no bid contract for custodial services. Due to flaws in the recently enacted Mayoral Control Legislation, both [the NYC and NYS Comptrollers] claimed not to have oversight over the DOE's contracting process.” Troeller's “Local took the Chancellor and DOE to court. The State Supreme Court declared that contract and the process by which it was entered into to be illegal.” 

Troeller recommended that “the DOE  should accept competitive bids on custodial products and allow custodian engineers to purchase supplies from multiple vendors.” He  said that “the DOE compels custodians to purchase supplies solely through SDI. Supplies are delivered by third party vendors with a markup.” According to Troeller, “the current extremely lucrative contract held by SDI has led to millions of dollars in waste. SDI has been granted a virtual monopoly. As an unnecessary middle man, they add an additional cost to every purchase custodian engineers make.”

Elected parent member of the Citywide Council on Special Education Patricia Connelly has 2 children enrolled in District 15 and 75 in Brooklyn. Connelly admitted that “the current administration, with its repeated system-wide re-organizations over the past seven years, cannot be blamed for every barrier within and failure of the NYC public schools.” She said initial evaluations take longer today than they did before mayoral control was granted, and there are more special education students “in limbo” for longer periods of time – “that is, they are neither placed in a recommended program nor receive some or all of mandated services.” 

Connelly blamed the shortage of special education teachers and the dismantled preexisting network of community district- level special education administrators that put principals in charge of special education and related services within their schools. Complicating the matter, Connelly said “In addition to District 75, more than 18 distinct entities within DOE, reporting to at least three deputy chancellors and one superintendent, are responsible for providing some aspect of special education (such as evaluation, placement,transportation and delivery of related services) to our city's more than 180,000 students with an [Individualized Education Program].”

Connelly suggested adoption of the Parent Commission's recommendations, including accountability through checks and balances; all policies of the DOE subject to state and city law; establish a more independent and responsive Board of Education; require that the Chancellor be an experienced educator appointed by the Mayor from three candidates nominated by the board, with no waivers allowed; create an independent accountability office to produce regular reports on educational outcomes, an inspector general to investigate and report to the public any case of malfeasance, corruption, or mismanagement, and an ombudsperson to address and resolve parent complaints; and reform Community District Education Councils.

Comptroller Thompson recommended re-authorization of Mayoral control, but said, “we must strengthen it and do a better job of enforcing its existing provisions.” Thompson called for “greater accountability by the DOE in three critical areas: first, we must aggressively work to develop a better system of checks and balances that includes parents in the governance process; second we must create an independent body to assess student achievement from test scores to graduation rates; and finally, we must reorganize the structure and selection of the Panel for Education Policy to make it more inclusive and responsive to the needs of our many stakeholders.” 

Noting that under Mayoral control, the DOE budget has nearly doubled in size from $12.5 to $21 million, Thompson said no bid contracts should be held to the same procurement standards as other city agencies.

Congressman Anthony Weiner said Mayoral control should continue, “but not with this Mayor.” Weiner said under Mayoral control, there has been “less empowerment” of teachers, parents, and tax payers, and decried the “abject lack of transparency.” Instead of using local assessment data, Weiner used national assessments to compare NYC to the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Weiner found NYC 4th graders ranked 28  on ELA and 2 on math assessments. He found NYC 8th graders rank 24 in math. 

Weiner questioned the “governing of this Mayor, who will only be in office until the end of the year.” The Congressman said “Continue Mayoral control; discontinue this Mayor.”

A variety of other stake holders had their say. Deputy Mayor Dennis Wolcott spoke of concrete changes to the DOE. UFT members called for the central administration of the DOE to open its books. A representative of Bklyn BP Markowitz presented his suggestions for improving Mayoral control and noted Markowitz's own well -attended hearing on the issue.

Assembly members Nolan, Jeffries, Weprin, O'Donnell, Maisel, Brennan, Towns, Weinstein, Nullman, Benedetto, Colton, Camara, and Perry attentively listened to all testimony, and asked pointed questions. The ball is in their court.