Poll: Mayor Should Share Schools Control
Education was listed as the most important problem facing New York City today by 16 percent of all those polled, beating terrorism, the economy, crime, housing, transportation, health care and immigration, among other issues.
BY RICHARD GENTILVISO

At the start of the 2007- 2008 school year, five years after Mayor Michael Bloomberg became the first mayor to gain control over the city's public schools, a majority of Queens voters think the next mayor should share control of schools with an independent school board, according to a recent poll.

The poll, conducted by Quinnipiac University, reported 53 percent of Queens voters saying the next mayor should share control with an independent board in response to the question: "When Michael Bloomberg leaves office, do you think that the next mayor should retain complete control of the public schools, should share control with an independent school board, or should give up all control of the public schools?"

The Quinnipiac poll, conducted July 18 through 23, surveyed the opinions of 1,194 registered voters in New York City. Citywide, the poll found that when Bloomberg leaves office in 2009, 51 percent said the next mayor should share control of the public schools with a board of education, 28 percent said the next mayor should continue total control of the public schools and 9 percent said the next mayor should give up all control.

"Education remains the city's top problem, but most New Yorkers think that Bloomberg is doing a good job," Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute said in a July 26 press release.

"There's ambivalence, though," said Carroll. "Most call Bloomberg's takeover of the public schools a success. But a majority thinks it should stop with him, that his successor should share control. And a large majority would like parents to have more say in how public schools are run."

In Queens, 54 percent of voters said they believe Bloomberg's takeover of the public schools has been a success, but 62 percent also said they think that parents do not have enough say in how New York City public schools are run and think they should have more say. Citywide, 81 percent of voters responding who are also parents of children attending public schools, said they do not have enough say in how schools are run and think they should have more say.

Asked, "Are you generally satisfied with the quality of public schools in your neighborhood, or are you not satisfied?", 45 percent of Queens voters said they are satisfied, while 42 percent said they are not satisfied. Another 13 percent either said they did not know or did not respond.

But 60 percent of Queens voters said they were not satisfied with the quality of public schools in New York City as a whole and only 43 percent said they approved of the way Joel Klein is handling his job as New York City Schools Chancellor.

Education was listed as the most important problem facing New York City today by 16 percent of all those polled, beating terrorism, the economy, crime, housing, transportation, health care and immigration, among other issues.

Mayoral control of the New York City public schools will expire at the end of 2009 and will have to be reauthorized by the state legislature at that time.

On August 9, Mayor Bloomberg vetoed a bill passed by the City Council in July that indirectly challenged the Department of Education's ban on cellphones in public schools.

The council bill, passed by a vote of 46-2 in July, would allow students to carry cellphones to and from school The DOE has said it is looking into the possibility of installing lockers provided by private vendors for students to store their cellphones.

Bloomberg has steadfastly maintained that cellphones in school disrupt learning but the council is expected to override the mayor's veto.

On August 13, Bloomberg announced an additional $5 million will go to about 50 of the city's lowest performing middle schools. Historically, students in middle schools have sharp dropoffs in performance on standardized tests, compared to elementary schools.

The mayor's action came just as the city council released a report on problems in the middle schools, including retaining teachers and class sizes. The council report said that only 41.8 percent of middle school students are at grade level in reading and 45.6 percent are at grade level in math. There are about 220,000 students in the city's public middle schools.