The next mayor of NYC will have the challenge of managing the largest school system in the country, which consists of 1.1 million students, 75,000 teachers and about 1,800 schools. The new NYC mayor will be responsible for the installation of the new Common Core learning standards and curriculum tests, negotiating a new contract with teachers, installing a new teacher evaluation system, while improving the percentage of students who are college-ready upon high school graduation.
The New York Times’ Editorial Board discussed what the city should expect to hear in the NYC mayoral campaign as candidates compete for the opportunity to implement their education policies. The editorial board wrote that the three major educational issues of the NYC mayoral campaign surrounds the mayor’s role in the education policy, failing schools and charter schools.
According to the New York Times’ Editorial Board:
“Nearly all of the candidates speak passionately about education. And some — notably Bill de Blasio, Christine Quinn and William Thompson Jr. — have been thoughtful and specific in terms of what they would do to move the system forward. But emotional flash points in this campaign have centered on three issues: mayoral control, specifically whether the State Legislature gave Mayor Michael Bloomberg too much power when it consolidated authority over the schools in City Hall in 2002; failing schools and when to close them; and the role of charter schools, which receive public money but are exempt from some state regulations.”
