“When Elephants fight the Grass is Trampled” African Proverb
“No man’s life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in session” (1866, New York State Surrogate Court)
Back when I was teaching World History I always included sections from Machiavelli’s The Prince,
“The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him.”
“And here comes in the question whether it is better to be loved rather than feared, or feared rather than loved. It might perhaps be answered that we should wish to be both; but since love and fear can hardly exist together, if we must choose between them, it is far safer to be feared than loved.”
“If an injury has to be done to a man it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared.”
And a section from the Bible,
“But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.” Luke 36:5
And ask, can a ruler (substitute politician) be both a good Christian and an effective ruler?
We would debate the axioms in The Prince, the Bible, and today, I would show a video clip in the movie Lincoln when the president offers a bribe to a congressman to vote in favor of the 13th Amendment. Was Lincoln justified? Is there a “greater good”?
Kids would leave the class mumbling, “This is confusing,” …. I felt I was doing my job.
The world of politics can be confusing.
The governor chose not to put mayoral control into the April 1st budget. Remember de Blasio and Cuomo, although both progressive democrats have no love for each other. The Republican-led Senate “offered” a deal – reviving the “sunsetting” mayoral control law in exchange for raising the cap on charter schools or merging the caps. There are separate caps in New York City and for the remainder of the state. There are 150 unfilled charter slots outside of New York City and about 25 in the city. The Senate favors charter political action dollars, not charter schools in their districts.
If an extension of mayoral control is not passed by the end of the session the bill “sunsets,” the city returns to the previous organizational structure.
A seven-member board: one appointed by each borough president and two by the mayor and 32 elected school boards. Eric Nadelstern, the deputy chancellor under Joel Klein and a rebel principal under the old guard viewed the old central board with disdain.
Since mayoral control was adopted in 2003 we have seen numerous organizational changes – where are we now? Mayoral Control 5.0? Then again, there is no question that the borough president appointed board was driven by politics: is “politics” a dirty word? or, is politics the will of the electorate? Should all decisions be in the hands of the mayor, only accountable to voters every four years? Depends on the mayor …. Bloomberg/Klein succeeded in alienating parents, teachers and communities. The closing of 150 schools and the creation of innumerable screened schools seemed just s political as decisions by the former board.
Mayor de Blasio can claim credit for the pre-k for all program, settling the contentious teacher union contract, hiring an experienced school and district leader as chancellor; by September there will be more community schools than charter schools, well over 100 schools availed themselves of an opportunity to change union and/or board rules and policies to benefit their schools, reducing suspensions and working to improve the lowest achieving schools. The end of mayoral control could damage some or all of the mayor’s educational agenda.
This afternoon in the waning minutes of the Assembly session a lengthy bill came up for a vote – the bill would permit many upstate communities to extend specific taxes, in mostly Republican communities, and, in the last sentence, continue mayoral control for two years. The bill passed 101-26.
Capital Tonight reports,
The Democratic-led Assembly on Monday approved a two-year extension of mayoral control of New York City schools that was also packaged with a series of tax extensions and incentives for local governments.
In effect, Assembly Democrats are linking the two-year extension to the tax legislation, an early form of a mini-big ugly weeks before the mayoral control legislation is due to expire at the end of June. The Republican conference is largely composed of lawmakers from upstate and suburban districts that would be impacted by the tax extensions.
Perhaps the Republicans and the Democrats have “traded” highly targeted tax extenders desperately sought by Republicans in exchange for the mayoral control extension sought by Democrats.
Andy Pallotta, the newly elected president of NYSUT, the state teacher union excoriated the Republicans for their support of charter schools.
Why do the Republican state senators from Long Island and the rest of upstate continue to lobby to provide millions of dollars in state aid every year to the charter sector; money that could benefit their own local schools and constituents but instead ends up in the coffers of charter operators in New York City? It’s a question that is especially pointed for Long Island’s GOP Senate delegation, particularly Majority Leader John Flanagan.
Does Republican leader, and possible gubernatorial candidate want to spend a year and half defending his support of charter schools in Republican districts?
Yes, politics can be confusing, and, yes, Machiavelli would have been at home in the environs of Albany. With fourteen days legislative days left on the calendar (June 21) the “elephants” may continue to fight, or, actually legislate: New York State has among the lowest election turnouts in the nation due to archaic laws: no early voting, complex registration rules, and very little voter registration outreach, then again, maybe the Republicans fear new voters …. the grass is in trouble.
Ed In The Apple 
Mayoral Control should have been ended eons ago.
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