Schools Chancellor Joel Klein yesterday flunked the teachers union for its power grab to eliminate mayoral control of the schools and return to a divided and potentially dysfunctional educational system.
“I am saddened by it. I don’t think it’s right for the children,” Klein told The Post in an interview about the debate over City Hall’s authority to run the city’s 1,400 schools serving 1 million students.
“I am not surprised . . . They think they will have more power in a system of divided authority,” he said of the United Federation of Teachers.
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He added, “We need bold leadership in public education . . . You’re not going to get that with divided authority. The mayor has to be accountable.”
The state law granting the mayor control over city education, approved in 2002, expires June 30.
And the UFT is spearheading a campaign to strip Mayor Bloomberg or any future mayor of unfettered control over education policy.
Under the current law, the mayor appoints the chancellor and eight out of 13 members to the Board of Education commonly called the Panel on Education Policy that votes on education policy.
The members serve at the pleasure of the mayor, which means he could replace them at any time.
The UFT has proposed a reconstituted 13-member Citywide Education Policy Council, with the mayor having a minority of appointments and, therefore, a lack of control.
“I have confidence that our leadership and our elected officials in Albany will continue the system they devised in 2002,” Klein said.
“There are things in the system that can be improved, but not by changing the majority on the education panel so that the mayor can no longer have the authority.”
Klein said the key to improving the schools is “having the right governance structure for action.”
“You still need the right mayor, but you’ll need the right governance structure or you’ll get inaction,” he told The Post.
“You’ll get the kind of fights we saw between prior mayors and chancellors and the school board in the middle. You’ll see a lot of local politics. You’ll see a lot of deals cut. Patronage, preferences for people in the system. All of which we have tackled with considerable success.”
He added, “Have we’ve done it perfectly? Of course not. Are we remotely where we need to be? No, we’re not. But it’s a very different model from where we began.”
Klein cited many changes he and Bloomberg have implemented over the past six years such as ending social promotion, instituting a report card for schools, closing failing schools and dramatically boosting charter schools and other smaller schools to replace them. Those moves would not have happened without mayoral control, he said.
“Absolutely, clearly couldn’t have,” Klein said of the fight over curbing social promotion, noting that Bloomberg “had to actually remove two of his appointees [on the policy board] to get it done. It’s clear beyond speculation.”
By next fall, 100 charter schools will be operational in the city.
“I don’t think there’s any question that wouldn’t have happened [without mayoral control]. We all know the charter schools were controversial. Breaking up the big schools, shutting them down. These are things that required bold leadership,” he said.
Meanwhile, Klein defended the performance of students on standardized exams during the Bloomberg years.
The percentage of kids passing state tests has soared, up about 30 points in fourth- and eighth-grade math and 15 points in fourth- and eighth-grade reading since 2002 although some of the gains occurred before mayoral control. The increases were larger than elsewhere in New York state.
Critics argue the city’s “stricter” promotional policy and state test scores are more illusion than improvement, suggesting that Albany educrats practiced grade inflation with easier tests.
They point out that the city students’ scores on the national test considered the gold standard the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP were flat.
Fourth-grade math scores jumped 13 points since 2002, but didn’t budge in the eighth grade. Reading scores were stagnant.
“The fact [is], we’re closing the gap [with the rest of the state] and we’re way outperforming the other big cities . . . Those are the same tests. All of our children, all of the state children take it. It’s our accountability metric. That’s very powerful,” Klein said.