Silver's School Plan: Keep Mayoral Control But Involve Parents

SHELDON SILVER: Conditional support for Mayor.

State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver has indicated his willingness to renew the state law granting mayoral control over the city school system but with some caveats, particularly in the realm of parental involvement.

The Speaker, who was a crucial ally in Mayor Bloomberg's original bid to gain control of schools in 2002, told the New York Post last week that "Nobody wants to go back to the past ... we don't want to go back to community school boards," referring to the city's former education system. The law is up for renewal in June.

'Involved Parents Key to Success'

But Mr. Silver does want to tweak the law somewhat, according to his press secretary, Dan Weiller. "There's been some concerns raised, and we want to look at those concerns," he said in a phone interview. "There was a concern about parental involvement, and the Speaker says very frequently, if you look at schools where parents are deeply involved, those tend to be successful schools."

The call for broader parental involvement by the Assembly Speaker echoed last month the recommendations of School Supervisors and Administrators President Ernest Logan in his School Governance Report, which also called for some adjustments in the law but endorsed its renewal overall.

United Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, who counts Mr. Silver as a close ally in Albany, has not yet weighed in on the subject, although she has expressed her members' concerns over the prospect of another term for Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein at the DOE if Mayor Bloomberg is re-elected to a third term.