Photo: Mayor de Blasio (l.) and former Mayor Giuliani this week urged Gov. Cuomo (r.) and the state Legislature to renew mayoral control of the city public school system. Photo Courtesy of CUNY.
The old adage is that politics makes for strange bedfellows.
But even Charles Dudley Warner could not have imagined this pairing.
Mayor Bill de Blasio and former Mayor Rudy Giuliani on Monday sent a joint letter to Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the state Legislature urging them to renew and protect mayoral control of the city public school system.
“This is a proven reform with broad support among parents, educators and officials from all ends of the spectrum,” said de Blasio, a progressive Democrat, and Giuliani, a staunch Republican and one-time candidate for president.
Mayoral control, which is up for renewal every six years, is set to expire on June 30. Should that happen, the city public school system would return to the arrangement prior to 2003, when mayoral control was first ratified. That system featured local elected school boards under the direction of the Board of Education.
Cuomo wants to renew mayoral control, but for three years instead of six.
“Proposals that would limit mayoral control will only take us backward to a time of blurred lines of accountability,” wrote de Blasio and Giuliani. “Graduation rates, college readiness rates, and test scores are showing signs of improvement, and the success of our children demands that we move forward.”
In closing, the mayors acknowledged their differences, and reiterated their common view.
“It is no secret that the two of us disagree on a great many things—but we both know that mayoral control of the public school system ensures direct accountability and is absolutely essential for the future progress and development of New York City schools,” they said.
By Michael V. Cusenza michael@theforumnewsgroup.com
