Mayoral Control of Public Schools

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that, in recent years, the mayors of a number of large cities, including Chicago and New York, have asserted varying degrees of control over the schools in their cities, even though these cities often have independently-elected school boards, in an effort to improve educational quality. The author indicates that mayoral control can range from the mayor publicly supporting a slate of school board candidates to having the power to appoint several board members to having budgetary authority over the schools and the power to appoint the chief administrative officer. The paper relates that the research is not conclusive; however, in the cases of Chicago and Boston, where mayoral control has been in place the longest, the successes can be attributed to the right kind of mayoral takeover with clear authority and a highly motivated municipal leader.

Table of Contents
Introduction
Review and Discussion
Background and Overview
Rationale in Support of Mayoral Control of Public Schools
Rationale Opposing Mayoral Control of Public Schools
Likely Impact of Greater Mayoral Control

From the Paper:

"Citing the example of the first public schools system to adopt mayoral control, Chicago's public schools were by all accounts among the worst in the nation when Mayor Richard M. Daley received the authority to resolve the crisis - and a crisis it was: "By the time the Illinois Legislature gave Mayor Richard M. Daley control of the Chicago public schools in 1995," Merl says, "the system was by most accounts a mess. It was running a $1.8-billion deficit, schools were crumbling and student test scores were in the basement. A few years earlier, then-Education Secretary William Bennett had called Chicago schools the worst in the nation" Chicago in particular had invested much time and effort to reverse the trend toward big city government and a powerful mayoral office, so the Illinois legislature was clearly reaching for solutions."

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