President Obama’s education czar is urging Albany to keep Mayor Bloomberg in control of New York City’s schools — citing “real progress” under Hizzoner and his handpicked chancellor, Joel Klein.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan told The Post that having the mayor in charge of education is essential in providing accountability and stability and spurring the innovations necessary to improve student learning.
“I absolutely, fundamentally believe that mayoral control is extraordinarily important. I’m absolutely a proponent,” said Duncan, the former superintendent of the Chicago school system, which also had mayoral control.
The school-governance law giving City Hall direct authority over the schools was approved in 2002 and expires June 30. Critics — including the teachers union — are pushing to weaken the mayor’s grip over education, arguing that Bloomberg and Klein have run the schools like autocrats.
But the powerful statement from Duncan is a boost for Bloomberg as he seeks to renegotiate the school-governance law in Albany, as well as his bid to win re-election to a third term.
Duncan — a former professional basketball player who is a hoops buddy of the president from their days in Chicago — said Big Apple schools have “absolutely” been better off under Bloomberg’s and Klein’s tenure. He said the results speak for themselves.
“They’ve made very significant strides in the right direction. To go in a different direction wouldn’t make sense,” Duncan said in an interview.
“I’m looking at the data here in front of me. Graduation rates are up. Test scores are up. Teacher salaries are up. Social promotion was eliminated . . . Dramatically increasing parental choice. By every measure, that’s real progress.”
“It’s absolutely going in the right direction. The mayor and chancellor deserve great credit for that,” he said, though adding there was much “unfinished business.”
Duncan said he’ll preach the gospel of mayoral school control during an education forum at the Sheraton New York in Midtown on Thursday.
His support undermines critics such as the United Federation of Teachers, which wants to curb the mayor’s control over school policy.
On education, Obama has pushed a number of school initiatives resisted by union officials for years, including merit pay, revising tenure laws and eliminating state legislation that limits charter schools.
Duncan’s views have been shaped by his service as Chicago superintendent under Mayor Richard Daley, who took over the low-performing school system in 1995, triggering an overhaul. Student performance improved under Duncan and his predecessor as superintendent, Paul Vallas.
Bloomberg and Klein replicated some of the Chicago initiatives, such as curbing social promotion and closing large, failing schools.
Having the mayor in charge enables his hand-picked education boss to push through controversial but much-needed reforms that might not have happened otherwise — such as tightening the promotional policy and dramatically expanding charter schools, Duncan said.
“I would say broadly, beyond charter schools, there’s been a level of innovation, a level of creativity you very, very rarely see without mayoral control. That creativity, that innovation, that flexibility . . . You need the courage and the vision to be able to do that. And strong mayoral leadership,” Duncan said.
With Mayor Daley’s support, Duncan was able to run Chicago’s school system for 7½ years before Obama tapped him to be his education secretary. Duncan noted that Klein’s six-year presence has allowed the city to follow through and refine reforms, while in other urban areas, there’s constant turnover of school chiefs.
“In places, because of political chaos or political whatever, every two years the superintendent’s getting fired. No wonder the children can’t learn,” Duncan said.
Told of complaints from parents that they don’t feel they have a voice under the current city regime, Duncan said the law could be tweaked to include more parental input without sacrificing mayoral control.
“You need to be inclusive. You need to be collaborative . . . But let’s keep the fundamental structure for children. Let’s continue to improve,” Duncan said.
“Again,” he said, “by any objective, reasonable standard, what’s happened in New York under Mayor Bloomberg’s leadership is good for children.
“And that should be just our fundamental criteria. Have children benefited from the mayor’s leadership and the chancellor’s leadership? Undoubtedly, unquestionably yes.”
Duncan even cited the successful New York school-governance experiment as evidence to push for mayoral control in other troubled school districts, particularly Detroit.
“Detroit right now is an educational disaster. I’m pushing them very hard to think about taking on mayoral control. What’s going on there for children . . . it’s an absolute travesty,” he said.
“You need that leadership from the top. If you look at DC, if you look at Chicago, if you look at New York, you get cities where . . . but where there’s real progress and a real sense of momentum.
“What do they all have in common? It’s mayoral control.”