NYC's next mayor will oversee the Department of Education and has control of appointees within the department. But in terms of control over charter school expansion, two departments within the Department of Education are in control, the New York Post reports:
"The Office of Space Planning is akin to a surveying team that finds unused or underutilized buildings — now estimated at 200,000 seats. The Department of Portfolio, by contrast, assigns the space."
"In the weeks between now and November, our candidates for mayor will each be asked many things about education: about their plans for new contracts with the unions, about the Common Core standards, about teacher evaluations and so on.
"All worthy questions. But the one that will tell us what we need to know about a candidate’s commitment to school reform is this one: Who will you appoint to head the offices that control space for new charters?"
