Adams continues push for mayoral control extension- POLITICO

Good morning and welcome to the Monday edition of the New York Education newsletter. We’ll take a look at the week ahead and a look back at the past week.

Mayor Eric Adams is continuing his push for a four-year extension of mayoral control of New York City schools following the passage of the state budget without such an extension.

As Adams marked 100 days in office on Sunday, he expressed satisfaction with some elements of the budget, noting the city was able to get the funding it needed for child care. But he signaled he would continue to make his case for a four-year extension of mayoral control, which expires on June 30.

POLITICO had reported that mayoral control was unlikely to be included in the final budget ahead of the budget deadline. State lawmakers also left mayoral control out of their one-house budget resolutions.

“This is the first time we have an African American mayor, an African American chancellor. Both are public school educated,” Adams said during an interview with “Open Line” on WBLS on his first 100 days in office. “If we can’t have the control to fix our educational system, that just sends the wrong message and I’m hoping that lawmakers look at that and see how important it is to give Chancellor Banks, Mayor Adams the opportunity to fix the inequities in our school system.”

He said it is an opportunity for them to “take the helm and do the right things for the children of our city.”

Adams advocated for the four-year extension, which Gov. Kathy Hochul herself proposed in January. But state lawmakers, parent leaders and advocates expressed concerns about giving Adams such a long extension. They also called for more changes to boost parental involvement, including changes to community education council elections and the structure of the Panel for Educational Policy (PEP), the Department of Education’s governing body.

While making his case for a four-year extension at his alma mater, Bayside High School, Adams expressed concerns about mayoral control being weakened if any changes were made to PEP.

“If you lose power of the PEP, you lose power of mayoral accountability,” he said . “It’s just going back to the days of really not being clear and on a direction. Clarity is crucial. That’s the number one thing I’m hearing from parents — we need clarity on what we’re doing.”

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TEEN CHARGED OVER FATAL SHOOTING OF 16-YEAR-OLD GIRL — New York Times’  Liam Stack: “The police said that they had arrested a suspect in the fatal shooting of a teenager who was killed near her high school in the Bronx on Friday, the latest shooting in a monthslong string that has left New York City shaken. Jeremiah Ryan, 17, of the Bronx, was charged with murder in the killing of Angellyh Yambo, 16, who was shot as she walked home from school. At a news conference on Saturday, Deputy Police Chief Timothy McCormack said that Ms. Yambo and another 16-year-old girl were struck by stray bullets fired by Mr. Ryan from half a block away shortly before 2 p.m. on Friday.”

CHARTER CAP TO STAY PUT — New York Post’s Cayla Bamberger: “The $220 billion state budget will allow New York City to get new casinos, but state legislators refused to roll the dice on more charter schools. Charter advocates on Friday responded to the agreement that left them out in the cold on two key issues — increasing the number of charter schools and extending school system control for the charter-friendly Mayor Eric Adams.”

SEARCH FOR NEW SUNY CHANCELLOR CONTINUES: On Friday, the SUNY board of trustees announced the members of its Chancellor Search Committee. The 19-member committee will spend the next few weeks working alongside the executive search firm Isaacson, Miller to advise the search for the next SUNY chancellor. Candidates recruited by Isaacson, Miller will be referred to the committee for consideration before a list of finalists is submitted to the SUNY Board of Trustees. The committee includes a range of higher education leaders from across the SUNY system. — Meghan Brink

UNIVERSITY AT BUFFALO PRAISED FOR TEACHER RESIDENCY PROGRAM — The University at Buffalo’s teacher residency program was flagged by U.S. Department of Education as a model approach for other school districts and universities to address teacher staffing shortages. The one-year program allows individuals to earn New York State initial teacher certification through a hands-on, paid residency. It also prioritizes diversity in hiring to increase racial, ethnic, and linguistic diversity in Buffalo area schools. A statement from from a fact sheet prepared by the U.S. Department of Education said Education Secretary Michael Cardona is calling for the use of ‘innovative ‘ training programs to address the teacher shortage. — Meghan Brink 

PARENTS BEAT SCHOOL SAFETY AGENT OVER VAX MANDATE — Daily News’ Thomas Tracy and John Annese: “Three parents enraged they couldn’t get into a Brooklyn elementary school without proof of COVID vaccination beat up a school safety agent Thursday, sending her to the hospital, according to union officials. The parents, two fathers and a mother, were carrying cake and pizza when they showed up at PS 158 in East New York at about 2 p.m., said Gregory Floyd, the head of Teamsters Local 237, which represents the city’s school safety agents.”

SUNY EMPIRE PARTNERS WITH EDUCATION OPPORTUNITY CENTER — The Troy Record’s Melissa Schuman: “The Capital District Educational Opportunity Center (EOC) and SUNY Empire recently signed a partnership agreement, giving EOC students access to many of the educational resources available at Empire through its Opportunity Programs. Executive Director of CDEOC and Vice President at HVCC Lucille Marion and SUNY Empire Officer in Charge Nathan Gonyea met at the EOC building on River Street to make the agreement official.”

BRONX SCHOOL TAKES ON FENCING — PIX 11’s Magee Hickey: “En garde and touché. With protective body armor and headgear, third, fourth and fifth graders from PS 340 in Kingsbridge Heights are learning a new sport that used to be only for the upper, upper class. This is the first free fencing program in a New York City public elementary school and it’s teaching 9-, 10- and 11-year-olds to focus and concentrate.”

— Mayor Eric Adams is considering building a new specialized high school in each borough, via The New York Sun’s Caroline Vik. 

RUTGERS CREATED FAKE JOBS — NJ.com’s Ted Sherman: “Rutgers Business School is always keeping score… But in a whistleblower lawsuit filed Friday, a Rutgers administrator charged that the university fraudulently burnished those national rankings by creating totally bogus jobs to show the success its business school graduates had in finding employment.”

SCHOOLS SEE ENROLLMENT DECLINE — News 12 The Bronx: “Enrollment in New Jersey public schools has dropped from the 2020-2021 school year by 41,000. The state saw a drastic drop in public schools K to 12th grade. Just last year, there were over 41,000 fewer students enrolled compared to the 2019-2020 school year, according to the state department of education.”

CAMDEN PARAPROFESSIONALS BECOMING TEACHERS — Philadelphia Inquirer’s Melanie Burney: “After graduating from college in 2007, Kim Son was ready to pursue her dream of becoming a teacher… Now, Son, 40, and 14 other classroom aides, also known as paraprofessionals, are getting another chance to earn their certificates at little or no cost through the Camden Education Fund’s new ‘Teacher Pathway’ program…”

DELAY FOR TITLE IX TWEAKS — POLITICO’s Bianca Qilantan and Juan Perez Jr.: A delay could be in the cards for the Education Department’s Title IX proposal, which is expected to rewrite Trump-era rules on sexual misconduct and codify federal anti-discrimination protections for transgender students…The administration chose to speed up its timeline amid complaints by some advocacy groups that the administration was taking too long to reverse Trump administration policies that critics say deters the reporting of sexual misconduct.

UPTICK IN INTERNATIONAL STUDENT APPLICATIONS — Washington Post’s Nick Anderson: “Prominent U.S. colleges and universities are reporting a surge in international applications over the past two years, fueled by the easing of pandemic travel restrictions and new policies that allow potential students to apply without SAT or ACT scores.”

SELECTIVE HIGH SCHOOL ADMISSIONS POLICY CASE GOES TO SUPREME COURT — AP’S Tom Foreman Jr.: “U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts on Friday called for a response from a Virginia school system regarding a controversial admissions policy at a highly selective high school and efforts by a coalition of parents to overturn it. Roberts was responding to an emergency application from the group Coalition For TJ to vacate a stay pending an appeal filed by the Fairfax County Public Schools to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.”

RUSSIAN TEACHERS DENOUNCED FOR TEACHING ANTI-WAR RHETORIC — New York Times’s Anton Troianovski: “Marina Dubrova, an English teacher on the Russian island of Sakhalin in the Pacific, showed an uplifting YouTube video to her eighth-grade class last month in which children, in Russian and Ukrainian, sing about a ‘world without war.’ After she played it, a group of girls stayed behind during recess and quizzed her on her views.”

Marion Joseph, a champion of phonics-based reading, died on March 24.