Mayoral Control of the New York City Schools

Throughout the last forty years, the New York City public school system has changed its governance style a number of times. Through the switch from centralized to decentralized to mayoral governance, New York has been an example (for good and bad) that many other large cities parallel or follow.This Book focuses on the political dynamics of the governing overhaul and how the management styles of Mayor Bloomberg and School Chancellor Klein affected its design and implementation in the Mayor s first term (which ends at the beginning of next year). But to be clear This is not a New York City phenomena. Mayoral governance is happening in other large cities, which is stimulated in large part by business leaders, big city mayors, and states concerned about how the schools have contributed to the declining global competitiveness of the U.S. Economy and to continued socialand economic problems of inner cities.