NYC Educator: Another Advantage of Mayoral Control

NYC Educator: Another Advantage of Mayoral Control

Another Advantage of Mayoral Control

by NYC Educator

It's kind of incredible when we read of legislators voting on bills like the Patriot Act, which it's pretty much inconceivable they've read. You'd hope they'd vote no on the basis of not knowing what the hell the bills contain, but no one wants to be unpatriotic.

Closer to home, our Panel for Educational Policy often votes oncontracts they haven't seen. There is a distinction here, though. It doesn't much matter whether or not PEP members see contracts, read them, understand them, or agree with them. We've known for years that when 8 of 13 members are chosen by the mayor, they vote the way they're instructed. In fact, early in Bloomberg's term, he simply fired a couple of members who were planning to vote against him.

So the primary difference between the federal and city legislators is