NEW YORK , NY (TIP): State Senator John Liu, Chair of the Senate Committee on NYC Education, today encouraged New Yorkers to take advantage of the upcoming five-borough public hearings on mayoral accountability, aka mayoral control of public schools. The hearings are hosted by the New York State Education Department (SED) and will be open to the public. The first public hearing will take place in the Bronx on Tuesday, December 5 at DeWitt Clinton High School from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

In 2022, the state legislature passed a two-year extension of mayoral control with new checks and balances that added more members to the Panel for Educational Policy and required the State Education Commissioner to conduct a comprehensive review and assessment of the overall effectiveness of NYC’s school governance system. This review must include a study of school governance models and best practices used by other major municipal school systems, including those that have already reverted from mayoral control to more democratic systems. Additionally, the State Education Commissioner must hold a public hearing in each borough to engage and solicit input from the public on school governance. SED has created a website with additional details for providing oral and/or submitting written electronic testimony by January 31, 2024 at 5 p.m.

State Senator John Liu stated, “It is time to seriously examine the now two decades of experience of running NYC schools under mayoral accountability/control, and SED has taken on this important work, as well as the work of analyzing changes made in other major school systems in recent years. Part of this process requires SED to hold public hearings in each of the five boroughs, and I encourage all stakeholders in our schools to participate. We should leave no stone unturned in considering how NYC schools can be best governed going forward, whether through mayoral control or otherwise.