United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew is pushing an agenda that would reduce mayoral control for the next New York City mayor. On March 14, Mulgrew laid out a new governance proposal that would reduce the number of members on the Panel for Educational Policy. If passed by the state Legislature, the mayor would only be able to appoint five out the 13 members on the panel. Currently, the mayor appoints eight.
Additionally, under Mulgrew’s proposal, the new governance law would grant the public advocate, the City Council and the comptroller the ability to appoint a member to the panel. There would be no waivers for school chancellors. The mayor would also only be able to select a new schools chancellor from a field of three candidates that the panel selects. In a press release, Mulgrew said, “By objective measures like the racial achievement gap on the college readiness rate and by public disenchantment with the governance of the schools, it is clear that mayoral control, in its current form, has not worked.”
The mayoral control law expires in 2015.