Non-City Legislators Weigh Decision on City Schools
Mon, 27 Apr 2009 13:40:00
There are 95 Assembly members and 36 state senators who represent areas of the state outside of New York City. Yet these 121 men and women will determine the fate of the city’s one million school children and its $21 billion budget when they decide whether or not to renew mayoral control of the city’s schools later this year.
Not a single upstate member, though, attended the public hearings the Assembly held this winter on mayoral control.
But that does not mean they are unable to make informed judgments.
“I can’t say I’ve read every page, but I’ve read the substantive arguments on both sides,” said Assembly Member Marc Molinaro (R-Dutchess/Columbia), a member of the Education Committee.
Molinaro, 33, spent his early years near New York City, and almost had the chance to see firsthand what city schools were like in the gritty 1980s.
“I was born in Yonkers,” he said. “My family’s decision to move upstate was based on my mother’s concern that she not have kids go through the public education system in the city.”
Molinaro said he would listen to his colleagues from the city, adding that he has “not been intimately involved in the New York City school system.”
Assembly Member Bob Reilly (D-Albany/Saratoga) could not remember when he had last been in a New York City public school, but had an idea of what they were like.
“My quick image, my first impression, is antiquated buildings that look more like jails than schools, and that have a very offensive smell to them,” he said.
He said schools over 60 years old should be rebuilt and class sizes limited to 14.
The State Senate, meanwhile, has held a total of nine public hearings on mayoral control, which were also sparsely attended by non-city legislators.
“I cannot say that people from Syracuse, Buffalo—no, they’re not coming down to these hearings, no,” said Suzi Oppenheimer (D-Westchester), chair of the Senate Education Committee.
The Senate vote from outside the city will be informed by a conglomeration of testimony from those hearings and from at least 10 public interest groups, Oppenheimer said. Oppenheimer herself made a site visit last week to P.S. 41 in Manhattan, where her granddaughter is a kindergartener, and will visit public and charter schools in Harlem in May.
“We’re really just at the beginning of the process,” she said.
A month ago, upstate Assembly members had the chance to meet with New York City Department of Education Chancellor Joel Klein, but only a few attended. Assembly Member Jane Corwin (R-Erie/Niagara) and Reilly were two who did. They said the questions to Klein came exclusively from city legislators.
“What I heard at the meeting with the chancellor is dissatisfaction with the amount of parent involvement,” Reilly said.
Reilly, a former educator who worked six months in the early 1960s at Holy Cross High School in Queens, said that, like Molinaro’s and Corwin’s, his decision would give great weight to the concerns of city legislators. He cautioned, though, that he wants to make sure that if parents are given more power they are capable and ready for the responsibility.
Then there are those from the city who wish their colleagues from elsewhere in the state would leave them be. State Sen. Toby Ann Stavisky (D-Queens), for example, said she does not believe giving non-city legislators a say in how city schools are run is fair.
But that, she admitted, is not likely to change anytime soon.
“That would take massive constitutional changes, passed by separate sessions of different legislatures,” she said.
Not a single upstate member, though, attended the public hearings the Assembly held this winter on mayoral control.
But that does not mean they are unable to make informed judgments.
“I can’t say I’ve read every page, but I’ve read the substantive arguments on both sides,” said Assembly Member Marc Molinaro (R-Dutchess/Columbia), a member of the Education Committee.
Molinaro, 33, spent his early years near New York City, and almost had the chance to see firsthand what city schools were like in the gritty 1980s.
“I was born in Yonkers,” he said. “My family’s decision to move upstate was based on my mother’s concern that she not have kids go through the public education system in the city.”
Molinaro said he would listen to his colleagues from the city, adding that he has “not been intimately involved in the New York City school system.”
Assembly Member Bob Reilly (D-Albany/Saratoga) could not remember when he had last been in a New York City public school, but had an idea of what they were like.
“My quick image, my first impression, is antiquated buildings that look more like jails than schools, and that have a very offensive smell to them,” he said.
He said schools over 60 years old should be rebuilt and class sizes limited to 14.
The State Senate, meanwhile, has held a total of nine public hearings on mayoral control, which were also sparsely attended by non-city legislators.
“I cannot say that people from Syracuse, Buffalo—no, they’re not coming down to these hearings, no,” said Suzi Oppenheimer (D-Westchester), chair of the Senate Education Committee.
The Senate vote from outside the city will be informed by a conglomeration of testimony from those hearings and from at least 10 public interest groups, Oppenheimer said. Oppenheimer herself made a site visit last week to P.S. 41 in Manhattan, where her granddaughter is a kindergartener, and will visit public and charter schools in Harlem in May.
“We’re really just at the beginning of the process,” she said.
A month ago, upstate Assembly members had the chance to meet with New York City Department of Education Chancellor Joel Klein, but only a few attended. Assembly Member Jane Corwin (R-Erie/Niagara) and Reilly were two who did. They said the questions to Klein came exclusively from city legislators.
“What I heard at the meeting with the chancellor is dissatisfaction with the amount of parent involvement,” Reilly said.
Reilly, a former educator who worked six months in the early 1960s at Holy Cross High School in Queens, said that, like Molinaro’s and Corwin’s, his decision would give great weight to the concerns of city legislators. He cautioned, though, that he wants to make sure that if parents are given more power they are capable and ready for the responsibility.
Then there are those from the city who wish their colleagues from elsewhere in the state would leave them be. State Sen. Toby Ann Stavisky (D-Queens), for example, said she does not believe giving non-city legislators a say in how city schools are run is fair.
But that, she admitted, is not likely to change anytime soon.
“That would take massive constitutional changes, passed by separate sessions of different legislatures,” she said.
