Schools Chancellor David Banks traveled to Albany on Tuesday to push state lawmakers to extend the Adams administration’s control of the city’s public schools.
Fresh off his meetings with more than a half dozen legislators, he told reporters that most discussion centered on “adjustments” to the current system rather than dramatic changes to school governance.
“If you don’t want this system,” Banks said at a virtual press briefing, “there’s no perfect governance system, then what’s the system that you would want to see in place?
“Most of what we’ve been hearing [is] what are some adjustments we might make to the current system before signing off? I didn’t hear anybody who dramatically said get rid of it, it doesn’t work and we should go into a whole new system,” he added.
Banks met with State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, both Dems, and sponsors of the class size law that was passed in 2022 with the last extension of mayoral control.
A spokesperson for State Sen. John Liu (D-Queens), chair of the NYC Education Committee and one of the bill’s sponsors, said he had a productive sit-down Tuesday morning with Banks “reviewing the successes of this administration,” but did not commit to a renewal.
“Brainstorming how best to accomplish all that remains to be done for our school kids,” his representative said.
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Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images State Sen. John Liu (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
Gov. Hochul, a Democrat, has called for a four-year extension, but last month the state Senate and Assembly indicated little appetite for renewing mayoral control during budget negotiations. During the last renewal, lawmakers asked for a study of the school governance structure, due March 31 but yet to be released.
Some legislators have indicated they are waiting on that report, now expected early next week, to make a decision, according to Banks. But the chancellor, who has yet to review the study himself, was still hopeful about including mayoral control in the state budget — also on borrowed time after blowing past an April 1 deadline.
“That is my goal,” he told reporters. “May be a long shot, but it’s certainly part of reason why I decided to come up here.”
The city’s teachers union and some parent advocates are pushing for checks on the mayor’s power to dictate school programs and procedures.
Currently, the city’s Panel for Educational Policy is mostly appointed by Adams and pushes through the administration’s directives on contracts, school mergers and closures. Under the United Federation of Teachers’ plan, the chancellor would have to convince the majority of the PEP to vote in his favor.
“We can point to major failings of every mayor with mayoral control,” UFT President Michael Mulgrew said, “and we do believe if there was a check and balance on the mayor, those mistakes would not have happened.”
On the other side, a pro-charter school group last week released a 17-page report on the “sordid legacy” of decentralized school boards. Former Chancellor Dennis Walcott, who heads the Queens public libraries, backed its findings, as did former Deputy Mayor Richard Buery, the CEO of the nonprofit Robin Hood.
Adams indicated Tuesday that mayoral control is one of his priorities in Albany, alongside housing, mental health and unlicensed cannabis shop regulations. His director of intergovernmental affairs, Tiffany Raspberry, joined Banks and three of his deputy chancellors on the trek upstate, the chancellor said.
“We’re looking forward to the extension of that issue,” Adams told reporters at City Hall.
If not extended, mayoral control would expire at the end of June.
