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After some last-minute drama, Mayor de Blasio has retained control of New York City schools—and now state legislators have joined the city’s nearly 1 million public school kids on summer vacation.
But while the fight over mayoral control is over—for the moment at least—the larger debate over the direction of the city’s schools rolls on.
This week on BRIC’s BkLive we brought together three education policy experts and advocates to discuss what issues they feel most need attention as the city prepares for the 2017-18 school year and the 2017 municipal elections: Charles Sahm, director of education policy at the Manhattan Institute; Clara Hemphill, director of Education Policy and Insideschools at the Center for New York City Affairs and Zakiyah Ansari, advocacy director at the Alliance for Quality Education.
Ansari emphasized the continuing need for the state to more adequately fund city schools. Hemphill focused on the importance of attracting and retaining talented principals. And Sahm suggested a common school assignment system pooling charters and regular public schools.
One question we wrestled with: Is the lower profile of education issues under Mayor de Blasio a problem, or an asset?
