CECs: Why Mayoral Control Needs to End NOW!

Earl C. Rickman? His is not a name readily familiar to us. And no wonder. He is the recent past President of the National School Boards Association. Since we no longer have elected school boards, this Black man's national leadership of a huge and diverse body of elected community members who (hopefully) are above all else, deeply concerned about student achievement, is seemingly meaningless to us in NYC.

Or is it? I found Mr. Rickman's address to the attendees of the National Conference of School Board Associations invigorating. He has given me a renewed quest to understand how it is that we continue to let our ability to participate in democracy (and accountability) be usurped by the mayor and the State of NY. 

 

https://youtu.be/CbnT_NiqKx8

For the most part, our mayor has successfully put a nail in the coffin about elected school boards. I've been searching for news about bringing back to life this dead issue, but I can't find even the slightest chatter.

Why not?

Yes-yes-yes, I know that out of the community school boards we once had, some were rotten to the core. But not all. By NO means all. Because of a few bad ones, the mayor got permission from the state to send the baby by way of the bath water, and our school communities are none the better for that.

With regard to giving parents and community a voice under mayoral control (IMHO), the joke of it is the push in the last few weeks to elect and appoint members to Community Education Councils (CECs) in all of NYC's school districts. A placebo designed construct, the CECs hold no power in either shaping or changing polices, yet those who seek election and appointment by the Public Advocate and Boro Presidents' appear to be genuine in their concern for both our children and city schools. No one who serves does so without a commitment to civic duty. . . and a ton of patience. Since most, if not all, are indeed tireless, selfless individuals-- and since I've had the privilege to know a few personally-- let me take a moment here to applaud them for their service and sacrifice because no one in that volunteer role is ever sufficiently thanked.

Still, I think they ought not to do what they do.

The Office of Family Information and Action (OFIA) has so mismanaged the CEC's recent election process that Manhattan Boro Prez. Scott Stringer has written to Chancellor Walcott and asked for them to be halted, and done over. Most outstanding in his comments, was when he made obvious the fact that CECs have not amounted to being the "cat's meow" for anymore than a mere 500 candidates who are vying for a panel position in a system that should support the diversity of parents' voices for hundreds of thousands who parent the 1.1 million children in our city's public schools.

The hard truth is that the CECs continue to exist because (again, just MHO) well intentioned folks still want to think it matters and that CECs can make a difference. In the grand scope of how the DoE operates and how business gets done in NYC - behind closed doors- it doesn't.

Many of the city's 32 CECs are not well attended, and those that are serve as a Tweed construed (and very welcomed) buffer between community venting sessions, the DoE and City Hall. But as long as parents are willing to participate, as long as CECs still exist on their sweat, time and tears, to the unsuspecting public-- the mayor gets away with spin doctoring about how well his dictatorial methods of governance are working. CECs and DoE designed Councils give the appearance that NYC's parents have a say, and by electing one another to represent them-- they have a duty to bring their decisions to fruition-- even though the representation is meaningless. The DoE doesn't care about decisions made by local parents on any level. Like the power taken from SLTs and PTAs, CECs and DoE Councils actually undermine authentic parent organizing and involvement for change. They are ruled by stacks of regulations non-parents and legal elites have created and they are threated with the "Good for Thee, but not for ME" philosophy of managing the masses. CECs and Councils have been craft-fully designed as just another highly-time consuming hoop that 500 parents are now jumping through to hold 350 meaningless seats to prove they care, and are actively engaged in the public education of our city's children.

CECs and DoE sanctioned parent Councils do make important resolutions all the time, but they fall on deaf ears-- especially the CECs since their only state granted power concerns zoning. Sadly, none of their time, energy, listening, learning, citizen participation and recommendations for bettering the system have anywhere to go beyond the four walls of the auditoriums where they conduct their business. Parents on Councils and appointed community CEC panel members get to have the distinction of a title, but to little avail except when used by the press to strengthen a quote in one of their stories about schools. But within the school district, Tweed or with the PEP-- the title holds no real power to persuade policies or decisions.

Because of the most recent election fiasco, I am even more convinced that no one in NYC should participate in the CECs, in CPAC (what a waste of time) or the Councils. In fact, parents ought to boycott these things altogether. Just shut them down. Like Audre Lorde famously said-- "You can't dismantle the master's house using the masters tools."

But I think parents in NYC are so desperate to have a meaningful role in their children's schooling, that they are willing to accept these measly crumbs in place of demanding the entire cake. They need to be reminded of their right to a democratically elected community school board that has a real role in policy and decision-making, and who can provide the city with needed checks and balances on runaway authority in school governance. Regrettably, without public consent and with far too little outcry or outrage, we have allowed that right since 2002 to be completely erased.

Besides Detroit (I'm still doing research)-- I don't know of any other governance system of public education that has usurped the people's right to a democratic process like our city has.

From the research I'm doing it looks like it's mostly well financed, White folk who think they alone know what's good for our country's education future-- and they have determined it sure isn't elected school boards who are standing in the way of privatization and experimenting with kids' learning. Especially in urban districts.

I've posted below, a recent panel discussion found on YouTube about whether or not elected school boards are obsolete in 21st century America. After I watched it, I wondered what it might take to defend our right to have communities here in NYC, once again elect our own parent and community members to fully participate-- and potentially lead local education reform.

The only answer I came up with is: get rid of mayoral control.