Saturday, February 27, 2021

NYC School Chancellor Leaves: The Toxic Intersection of Mayoral Control and Mayoral Politics | Ed In The Apple

NYC School Chancellor Leaves: The Toxic Intersection of Mayoral Control and Mayoral Politics | Ed In The Apple
NYC School Chancellor Leaves: The Toxic Intersection of Mayoral Control and Mayoral Politics



Richard Carranza, the New York City School Chancellor unexpectedly announced he was leaving his position.

The cognoscenti were not surprised, for months the chancellor and the mayor have been dueling; it was only a matter of time before the chancellor packed it in.

Highly effective leaders select subordinates and give them the authority to carry out their role. Interestingly a number of the mayoral hopefuls had major roles in city government: Kathryn Garcia was the NYS Sanitation Commissioner, Sean Donovan the HPD (Housing Preservation and Development) commissioner and Maya Wiley, the mayor’s counsel, all served with distinction. Micromanaging schools has a sad and long history; mayors claimed credit for positive education news and blamed and fired chancellors to deflect bad news.

Unfortunately from day one the mayor attempted to keep a tight rein on the Department of Education. He selected Carmen Farina, a retired Department deputy chancellor and friend to temporarily fill the job; she stayed for de Blasio’s entire first term. Farina’s one major initiative, the Renewal Schools, pumping mega dollars into the hundred lowest achieving schools was a dismal failure. Read here.

Renewal’s ideas were untested, and, almost from the start, the program was hobbled by bureaucracy and a tight timeline imposed by a mayor eager to show on a national stage that schools could improve without censure, CONTINUE READING: NYC School Chancellor Leaves: The Toxic Intersection of Mayoral Control and Mayoral Politics | Ed In The Apple