Kids in the city’s public schools may be about to catch a break. Big-time.
The signs increasingly suggest that Albany will renew the law that put City Hall in charge of the schools — thus preserving all the gains made in the system since the law’s passage in 2002.
Certainly, Mayor Bloomberg sounded optimistic about it last week.
“I think at this point nobody is going to want to roll back mayoral control, or . . . very few people will,” he said Friday.
Mike insisted that the key players — Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, Senate Majority Leader Malcom Smith and teachers-union boss Randi Weingarten — “all get it.”
He was suggesting that Silver, Smith and Weingarten understand that the enormous progress in the schools over the past few years is a direct result of changes made under his leadership and that of his schools chancellor, Joel Klein.
And that those changes wouldn’t have been possible without the ’02 law that gave him sole power to run the schools — and made him accountable for them.
Still, we’re talking Albany. A measure of caution is warranted.
Silver has voiced support for retaining mayoral control and last week floated a promising plan toward that end — but not all of his members were on board.
Smith, too, wants to keep the mayor in charge. And though Republicans will likely back him, he’s had trouble controlling his own Democratic members.
Weingarten, for her part, also seemed to show flexibility in a column she penned for The Post this month.
But no one should think the deal is sealed. Silver, for starters, is always unpredictable. And big questions remain about what he wants.
And what exactly might the Senate Dems force Smith to do?
On the brighter side, it’s getting ever harder for anyone to claim that city schools, under the current system, aren’t doing better. Today, for example, new math scores are expected to be released showing additional gains.
Getting lawmakers to renew the mayoral law has been a long but essential fight — one we’ve championed from the start. With a month to go before the law expires, things seem headed in the right direction.
Keep your fingers crossed.