(From The New York Times, July 5, 2009)
By JAVIER C. HERNANDEZ
There was a moment in mid-June when Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg seemed confident the State Legislature would leave his power over the New York City school system virtually untouched. The Assembly had just approved a bill that maintained his control of schools, and the Senate, with its legions of Republicans friendly to the mayor, seemed poised to do the same.
More than two weeks later, however, the idea that the bill will sail, unchanged, through the Senate appears more doubtful. In the strange world of Albany politics, the Senate’s 31-to-31 deadlock could mean the mayor would have to concede more than he would care to, even though the Assembly bill would most likely have enough support to pass if it were brought to a vote today.
Though relations have been cordial lately between the two factions fighting for power in the State Senate, they remained without an agreement on Sunday evening. Senators filed into the Senate chamber just after 6 p.m. to comply with Gov. David A. Paterson‘s call for an extraordinary session. But they quickly adjourned without taking any legislative action.
The Senate is still reeling from a leadership crisis that has left it unable to function, but one possible outcome is that John L. Sampson of Brooklyn, the Democratic leader, could become Senate president.
Mr. Sampson is seeking to amend the Assembly bill to give parents more of a voice in education decision-making, and he has also expressed support for curbing the mayor’s power to fire members of an oversight board, the Panel for Educational Policy, which must approve his policies.
Critics of mayoral control say that the panel is toothless because the mayor appoints 8 of the 13 members and can remove any of his appointees on a whim. In its seven years, the panel has never rejected any of Mr. Bloomberg’s policies or proposals.
If Mr. Sampson became Senate president, he could have the power to squelch any debate of the bill, even if a majority of senators wanted to bring it to a vote. However, various power-sharing arrangements being negotiated would make it more difficult for any single senator to scuttle a bill. And city officials cautioned that the leadership crisis could be resolved in other ways that could be favorable to Mr. Bloomberg.
Further complicating the issue is Mr. Bloomberg’s ramped-up criticism of lawmakers in recent weeks.
Mr. Bloomberg said last month that if the Senate changed one word in the Assembly bill, it would be the equivalent of telling the city: ” ‘We want to resurrect the Soviet Union. We want to bring back chaos.’ ” On Wednesday, he admonished lawmakers’ “reckless behavior” and denounced the stalemate in Albany as a “train wreck.”
In response, Mr. Sampson convened a news conference and said senators deserved time to debate the bill, even though the 2002 law authorizing mayoral control expired at midnight Tuesday, forcing the city to hastily resurrect the old Board of Education that ruled city schools for three decades.
“It’s called school governance,” Mr. Sampson said. “It’s not called mayoral control.”
Mr. Sampson said he spoke with the mayor twice on Tuesday, but it appeared those conversations did not yield any immediate solutions. Asked on Wednesday if he had made any promises in negotiating with Albany, the mayor quipped, “I haven’t made a promise to anybody in a long time.”
Billy Easton, a spokesman for the Campaign for Better Schools, which is lobbying for changes to the mayoral control law, said he remained optimistic that a compromise would emerge. He said that there was no “gaping gulf” between Mr. Bloomberg and Mr. Sampson, since they both agree the mayor should have the power to appoint a majority of the Panel for Educational Policy. But he added, “You don’t have to read very far between the tea leaves to understand that the Senate Democratic leadership is saying they cannot be hurdled in this debate.”
Mr. Sampson said in an interview on Thursday that he did not believe there were great differences in the goals of the mayor and senators who wanted changes to mayoral control. But he said the two sides needed to reconcile those differences in a bill that both could agree on.
“The mayor has his passion,” the senator said. “His passion is to make sure that our children get a sound education. And our members have that same passion. A lot of our members have been educated in the public school system, and all our members want an opportunity to have some say and some input, especially when looking at the parental involvement piece, to make sure there is some accountability to that.”
On Sunday, senators reported that some progress had been made on resolving smaller issues, like the division of resources and power in Senate committees. But the question of who would lead the Senate was unresolved.
“Except the leadership issue, tremendous progress has been made,” said Senator Thomas W. Libous, a Republican from Binghamton.
Senator Diane J. Savino, a Democrat from Staten Island, said she was confident an agreement could ultimately be reached but cautioned patience. “You’re talking about creating a new paradigm for the Senate,” she said.
Senators seemed to be coalescing against the idea of removing the mayor’s power to fire members of the panel, despite Mr. Sampson’s prior support for the idea, according to supporters and critics of the bill alike. In addition, senators said that one solution being floated was forming a one-time coalition of Republicans and Democrats to pass the Assembly’s bill as is.
Mr. Bloomberg has said that there appears to be enough support in the Senate to pass the Assembly bill, which preserves the mayor’s authority but adds a few checks, like limiting his ability to close schools and giving the Independent Budget Office the power to audit finances and data.
Republicans would probably need only a few Democrats to join them, but the odds of Democrats’ breaking with their brethren are low, given the underlying power struggle in the chamber.
“There’s more at stake here than just the mayoral control issue,” said Joe Williams, executive director of Democrats for Education Reform, which supports mayoral control. “It’s all part of a jigsaw puzzle.”
Meanwhile, the leadership of the New York school system remains in limbo. The Board of Education convened for the first time in seven years on Wednesday and prolonged mayoral control by delegating its authority to the mayor’s appointed schools chancellor, Joel I. Klein, until a new bill is signed into law.
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