Christine Quinn has mayoral control issues for NYC schools

Christine Quinn opposes a teacher union plan to water-down mayoral control

From Capital New York :

City Council Speaker and Democratic mayoral candidate Christine Quinn opposes a plan presented today by the teachers union that would undo mayoral control, a spokesperson for her campaign said this afternoon.

The United Federation of Teachers announced it would like to change the structure of the Panel for Education Policy in order to reduce the number of appointees the mayor makes the board, and to protect those appointees with fixed terms, so they cannot be replaced at will.

Quinn, who leads the other Democrats in the polls by a wide margin, "opposes this proposal," according to her consultant and spokesman Josh Isay.

What does Christine Quinn do about school closings, other than enable more and more school closings ?

What does @chriscquinn do about #schoolclosings, except enable them bc of her support of #mayoralcontrol ? christine-quinn-sold-out.blogspot.com/2013/03/Christ…

— Stop Christine Quinn (@stopchrisquinn) March 19, 2013

Two Queens Schools Set To Shutter

By Luis Gronda

Despite protests from parents and community activists, the Panel for Educational Policy voted on March 11 to approve a plan that would phase-out or co-locate several schools in the City and many in Queens.

The decision means that two Queens schools – and many others throughout the City – will soon no longer exist, while other area schools will have new inhabitants come the new school year.

Two schools based in Cambria Heights - Law, Government and Community Service High School and Business, Computer Applications and Entrepreneurship High School – will be phased out beginning next year.

Other Queens schools that will see changes are Newtown High School in Elmhurst and Flushing High School. Those two will have new schools located in its facilities.

At Monday night’s meeting, parents and teachers shouted and jeered at Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott and anyone else representing the Board of Education whenever they spoke.

Explaining why he supports the plan, Walcott said that while it is not an easy decision to make regarding which schools are phased-out, he said that it is one that falls on his shoulders and it will benefit those institutions in the future.

“We understand the anger, the reaction on the part of the parents, teachers and community as far as phasing out an institution that they’re very close to,” Walcott said, as he was met with a loud chorus of boos from the audience.

Before the vote, many people commented on the proposals that urged the PEP to pass a moratorium that would freeze school closures and co-locations until each school that is on one of these lists gets more of an opportunity to comment on what could happen to them.

One of many opposed to the closures was United Federation of Teachers secretary Michael Mendel, who said that the DOE does not care about how the children feel when they want to make changes like the one proposed.

“When the history of education is written for this decade, it’s going to be the black hole of education,” Mendel said. “No administration has hurt children more than you.”

Ultimately, the moratorium was voted down by the panel by a 7-4 vote, which paved the way to approve the co-locations and phase-outs later that meeting.

Dymtro Fedkowskyj, the Queens representative on the panel and one of the co-sponsors of the moratorium, said that he was disappointed that it was voted down, because the schools that the DOE said are failing began to show signs of improvement this year. He added that more time was needed to fix whatever problems those schools had.

He also said that while he knew beforehand that it was an uphill battle to get the resolution passed, they felt that this issue needed attention.

“We needed to bring a spotlight to what our community desires,” Fedkowskyj said.

Reach Reporter Luis Gronda at (718) 357-7400, Ext. 127 or at lgronda@queenstribune.com.

10 schools scheduled to close in Queens and Brooklyn #Walcott #Bloomberg #Quinn #collapseofpubliceducation bqbrew.com/2013/03/17/10-…

— Informed Voting (@informedvoting) March 18, 2013

Quinn Wants Mayoral Control

New York City Speaker Christine Quinn would keep mayoral control over schools.

Speaker Quinn told parents that she thinks that mayor's absolute powers should be preserved, so that when Mayor Bloomber helps her to defeat all her Democratic Party rivals in the primary elections, she could keep that power for her own discretionary use.

Quinn CityTime Ethics Investigation

If the U.S. Attorney General won't appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the CityTime scandal, can we ask Public Advocate Bill De Blasio to launch an independent ethics investigation into the Bloomberg-Quinn administration ?

Michael Bloomberg, our control-queen mayor who is famous for fighting for more and more mayoral control over everything, including public education, is spinning the tall tale that he was never in control over the fraud being committed during the cost over-runs during the CityTime payroll system scandal.

"The fraud-riddled CityTime payroll system is being transferred to the city's control in the wake of indictments, guilty pleas and the public demand by Mayor Bloomberg that he wants $600 million back from the company in charge of the project.

"Rather than rely on contractors caught up in the corruption scandal to oversee the system, the city will assemble a team of roughly 70 technicians under its own control -- including many who worked for the companies now under investigation," reported The New York Post.

Just a week ago, Mayor Bloomberg was defending the hundred million dollars in cost over-runs in the CityTime project. (As if mayoral control hadn't yet been exposed to be a joke (take, for example, the Cathie Black appointment) Mayor Bloomberg is now trying to extend mayoral control from public education to the juvenile justice system.) And if that wasn't enough, now that Mayor Bloomberg claims that ''control'' over CityTime is being transferred to City Hall, one wonders who is the man behind the curtain, who is pulling all the levers, flipping all the switches, and turning all the dials ? Meanwhile, to no one's surprise, now that the CityTime milking project has gone bust, the Bloomberg administration is now on the prowl for another "new" payroll system.

"Buried in the agency's resolution was the surprising announcement that, come January, the city will seek new proposals for computerized payroll management," The Post report added.

During these three terms of Bloomberg mayoral control, he and Deputy Mayor Christine Quinn have complete and total control over the city budget, including approving appropriations of most, if not all, of the cost over-runs on the CityTime project. Will Mr. de Blasio do the right thing -- and launch an independent ethics investigation ? For more coverage, please visit the CityTime cover-up reporting by True News From Change.