File #: Res 0241-2004    Version: * Name: Denouncing the Mayor of the City of New York for unilaterally replacing two members of the Panel for Educational Policy.
Type: Resolution Status: Filed
Committee: Committee on Education
On agenda: 3/24/2004
Enactment date: Law number:
Title: Resolution denouncing the Mayor of the City of New York for unilaterally replacing two members of the Panel for Educational Policy who refused to be coerced into voting as instructed by the Mayor.
Sponsors: Eva S. Moskowitz, Gale A. Brewer, Bill De Blasio, Robert Jackson, G. Oliver Koppell, John C. Liu, Miguel Martinez, Christine C. Quinn, Domenic M. Recchia, Jr., James Sanders, Jr., Albert Vann, Charles Barron, Yvette D. Clarke, Helen D. Foster, Letitia James, Annabel Palma, Bill Perkins
Council Member Sponsors: 17

Res. No. 241

 

By Council Members Moskowitz, Brewer, DeBlasio, Jackson, Koppell, Liu, Martinez, Quinn, Recchia, Sanders, Jr., Vann, Barron, Clarke, Foster, James, Palma and Perkins

 

Resolution denouncing the Mayor of the City of New York for unilaterally replacing two members of the Panel for Educational Policy who refused to be coerced into voting as instructed by the Mayor.

 

                     Whereas, The New York City school system is governed, in part, by a thirteen-member board known as the Panel for Educational Policy (the “PEP”), which is the successor to the former Board of Education; and

                     Whereas, In 2002, the New York City school system was brought under Mayoral control through a series of changes to State law, such that the Mayor was granted the authority to appoint the majority of the members of the PEP, notwithstanding criticism that such authority would render the PEP ineffectual and little more than a rubber stamp; and

                     Whereas, Several PEP members had expressed reservations about voting in favor of the Mayor’s proposed social promotion policy, which would hold back the third grade students with the lowest scores on standardized tests; and

                     Whereas, The Mayor, in response, dismissed two members of the PEP late in the afternoon of March 15, 2004, mere hours before a PEP meeting was to commence; and

                     Whereas, The Mayor immediately thereafter appointed two new members to the PEP; and

                     Whereas, The Mayor’s actions were overbearing, disrespectful to the members of the PEP who had the courage and conviction to question his educational policy choices, and were made without regard to the political and pedagogical consequences of managing the City school system by dismissing those who display independent thinking; and

                     Whereas, By his actions, the Mayor has single-handedly eliminated the possibility of any future, principled oversight or reasoned decision making by the PEP, and diminished the PEP’s credibility for the remainder of the Mayor’s tenure in office; now, therefore, be it

                     Resolved, That the Council of the City of New York denounces the Mayor of the City of New York for unilaterally replacing two members of the Panel for Educational Policy who refused to be coerced into voting as instructed by the Mayor.

MHG
LS # 721

March 19, 2004