At City Hall, legislators speak against mayoral control — very loudly

Click on the pictures below to see David Bellel's video clips of the Barron/Barron/Jackson press conference at City Hall today condemning Mayoral Control.

With outspoken legislators like these spearheading the campaign, the issue of mayoral control is far from settled.

For the whole story, read what Ednotes posted Tuesday morning here: Praise to Politicians (a few at least) on Wanting to Put a Stake in the Heart of Mayoral Control

I.

Assemblywoman Inez Barron:
The relationship that exists between the City of NY's Education Department and the State is codified in law is a Board of Education, not a Panel. So this body that the mayor has constructed has no codified legal status with the State.
The chancellor is not qualified.
We have a system where the chancellor and the mayor defy the Campaign for Fiscal Equity . . . They now want to take that decision and rearrange the money that should be coming to reduce class size and use it in other manners other than what has been codified for them to do.
A person who disregards the law, who circumvents the law, and who juggles the figures for his own benefit.
This is a mayor who flaunts the law, and tells you to take him to court, and when you do that and get a decision in your favor, he still continues to flaunt the law.
Data: This is a mayor who has fudged the data, manipulated the data.
The number of black students in gifted and talented programs has dropped dramatically. The number of African-American teachers has gone from 20% overall to 14%. And we also know that the number of black superintendents has gone from 3 to zero.
The mayor has failed to reduce class size, he's ignoring and defying those legal edicts.

II.

Council Member Charles Barron:
To Espada and to Monserrate, you can sit with the Republicans and sit with the mayor all you want. You can try to fool parents into thinking you achieved something for them with this last deal that you cut with the mayor . . .
This movement is not going away.
It's not about parents having a voice. It's about parent power.
It's about the parents having power on the PEP. It's about the council having power on the PEP. It's about the borough presidents having power on the PEP, and it's about the mayor not being an educator but a dictator and reducing his power on the PEP so it is not there at all.
A change will have to come.
We shall win.

III.

Chair of the Education Committee on the City Council Robert Jackson:
Mayor Bloomberg and Joel Klein have a dictatorship on the Dept of Education.
In my opinion the PEP and the Board of Education are just another rubber stamp. And we don't need rubber stamps.
Don't believe the hype.
I didn't hear anything on giving parents full partnership.
We as parents want to have on the Board of Education or the Panel of Educational Policy a majority of parents in order to decide our children's education.
Parents are not going to be silent.
Parents should speak up and say the system is not working for our children.
If you had billions of dollars, you could put out the media hype too.

— JW