Four years later it is clear that no substantive educational improvement has resulted from the substitution of mayoral control. The drop-out rate has remained the same; the achievement gap remains as wide as ever; initiatives like new small high schools and charter schools have increased the segregation of English Language.

Learners and special education students from their peers; Regents requirements in history, science, the arts, and physical education are routinely ignored in favor of mandated curricula in literacy, math and preparation for standardized tests; middle schools, the weakest link in the educational chain, have seen no improvements.

Yet confidence in the accountability of the system to the public has been undermined by a host of issues ranging from the integrity of standardized tests to a lack of transparency in the mayor controlled education budget.

Moreover, the connection between public education and the infrastructure of a working democracy has become increasingly tenuous. Regulations and practices regarding school and community level decision-making from educational planning and principal hiring have been changed to favor top-down decision-making by the mayor. Ballot box accountability for the school system competes with other issues for voter attention and offers no recourse for individual complaints during the school year.

The legislation for mayoral control sunsets in 2009. However, without a committed, imaginative effort to design something new, in all likelihood the legislature will re-authorize mayoral control of the current system for lack of an alternative.

Campaign for a New System
An increasing number of parents, teachers, students, and advocates recognize that New York City’s century old public school system is beyond reform and that no sustainable alternative can be devised without informed civic participation in a fundamental redesign. In April 2005 representatives met at an Education Action Summit organized by the Independent Commission on Public Education (iCOPE) and subsequently produced a unity platform calling for a fundamental and thorough redesign of New York City’s public education system based on Human Rights standards. The platform calls for the formation of a Taskforce for 2009 to design a blueprint for that new system. This platform has been endorsed by a coalition of over 20 education and human rights groups. (See www.icope.org for the Unity Platform and its endorsers.)

The Human Rights framework provides a coherent language for education as part of the development of individuals and societies. Human Rights are “indivisible and interdependent”, meaning that certain rights, like the right to an education, can not be fulfilled if the government curtails other rights, like the rights to participation and oversight.

The mechanism for envisioning an alternative, human rights-based system of public education is an on-going dialogue between the Taskforce for 2009 and Independent Borough Education Commissions with strong links to their neighborhoods. The National Center for Schools and Communities at Fordham University has agreed to convene and co-ordinate the Taskforce whose two-year project will begin March 2006. iCOPE is in charge of convening and co-ordinating the work of the Independent Borough Education Commissions (IBECS) which will give feedback and ideas to the Taskforce.

Independent Borough Education Commissioners
ICOPE is seeking individuals to serve on Independent Borough Education Commissions in each of the five boroughs for a two-year commitment. The responsibilities of these individuals are:

•Attend an orientation and a semi-annual retreat to develop a working knowledge of human rights in relation to public education issues; attend occasional trainings and briefings as needed.
•Build or re-enforce an ongoing relationship with five to ten community or school based groups to engage them in the process;
•Review quarterly reports of the Taskforce to 2009;
•Hold public forums and/or focus groups to elicit community reactions to and input about work of the Taskforce;
•Work with fellow Independent Borough Commissions to develop a mobilization plan for the borough in support of a public education system designed on human rights standards.