Education Week - November 13, 2013 - 8

Boston, New York City
Election Wins Signal
Changes for Schools
New mayors vowed action on education
By Lesli A. Maxwell
& Alyssa Morones
Control over public schooling in
Boston and New York City promises
to look different in both cities
after voters last week anointed new
mayors who have pledged to move
quickly to make their imprint on
K-12 education.
New York voters elected Democrat
Bill de Blasio, the city's public advocate,
in a lopsided victory
over Republican
Joseph J. Lhota, a
former chairman of
the area's transportation
authority. In a non-
partisan and much tighter race in
Boston-the city's first open mayoral
election in 20 years-state Rep. Martin
J. Walsh defeated City Councilor
John R. Connolly.
Both cities' school systems are
under mayoral control. Both new
mayors will select new executives
to run the schools. And both cities
still have enormous education
challenges to tackle. Large achievement
gaps-including in graduation
rates-stubbornly persist between
black and Latino students and their
white and Asian peers.
Changes in policy are likely to be
most dramatic in New York, where
the selection of Mr. de Blasio signals
a likely shift away from some of
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's more
controversial education initiatives of
the past dozen years.
Mr. de Blasio has promised to scrap
Mr. Bloomberg's A-F grading system
for schools during his first year in office,
halt school closures, and consider
charging rent to some charter schools
that share building space with the
city's regular public schools. He's also
pledged to elevate the role that community
education panels, comprised
of parents, play in major decisions,
including how school buildings are
utilized.
Lever for Change
Under Mayor Bloomberg and
former Schools Chancellor Joel I.
Klein, the 1.1 million-student New
York City system became a hotbed
of change that included a rapid
expansion of charter schools, closures
of large, comprehensive high
schools, performance pay for teachers
and principals, and a citywide
curriculum.
"A lot of reformers for a long time
have used mayoral control as a win,
as something that enabled many
great things to happen," said Andy
Smarick, a partner at Bellwether
Education Partners, a Washington
research and policy-consultant group.
"But the other side of the coin is that
if [Mr. de Blasio] does what he said
during the campaign, reformers could
be ruing the day that they viewed
mayoral control as a blessing."
Some charter school operators
and advocates, in particular, are on
edge about Mr. de Blasio, and what
his campaign positions might mean
for the 200 or so independent public
schools serving 70,000 students
across the city.
Nina Rees, the president and chief
executive officer of the Washingtonbased
National Alliance of Public
Charter Schools, put out a statement
congratulating the new mayor,
but urged him to make sure that
charters remain available to New
York families.
Mr. Smarick suggested that the
new mayor may take a less adver-
FROM ABOVE: New York City
Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio, left,
joins Mayor Michael Bloomberg
in the "Bull Pen," the mayor's
main City Hall office, the day
after his election win.
In Boston, Mayor-elect Martin
Walsh, right, his girlfriend
Lorrie Higgins, center, and
Higgins' daughter Lauren, left,
celebrate Mr. Walsh's narrow
victory on election night.
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8 | EDUCATION WEEK | November 13, 2013 | www.edweek.org
Bebeto Matthews/AP
ELECTION
2013
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Education Week - November 13, 2013

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