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  June 15, 2003
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A New Day IS Arriving For New York City's Schools

By Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg

One year ago yesterday, the State law finally giving New York City voters direct control over our public schools went into effect. That ended a school governance structure that was notorious for its unresponsive bureaucracy, waste and endless red tape. Our Administration vowed to replace it with a school system that puts children and parents first. And we're making good on that promise.

The school governance law gave us the opportunity to reorganize the way our 1,200 public schools are administered. Last Thursday, we reached an out-of-court agreement that removed the last roadblocks to that new management structure. Now, instead of the old system of diffused and confused authority, we'll have a clear and simple chain of command. Think of it as a pyramid: 1,200 school principals will report to approximately 100 Local Instructional Supervisors, who will in turn answer to ten regional Instructional Division Leaders. They'll be accountable to the School's Chancellor's office. And the buck will stop where it ought to: at the Mayor's desk. School zone and district lines won't change, and there'll still be local school district offices. But the community school boards that too often were little more than patronage mills will become a thing of the past by the end of this month; they'll be replaced by local panels that will give parents a real voice in their children's schools.

The goal of our reforms is better education in the classrooms. Outstanding leadership at all our schools will be key to making that happen. That's why we've established a Leadership Academy to recruit and train new school principals and provide ongoing professional development to incumbent principals. The Academy's board of directors includes top educators and private sector executives. And last week, the New York City Partnership—an organization made up of the chief executives of 200 of our city's top businesses—pledged $30 million to fund the Academy. Our business leaders clearly understand that improving education is crucial to New York's future—and that investing in people is the secret to success.

School governance reform also has let us make dramatic progress in an area long marked by legendary inefficiency, delays and cost overruns: school construction. The price of designing, building and repairing schools had far exceeded what it is elsewhere in the region. That had to stop. Under the new school governance system, the school construction system has been thoroughly reorganized. The result: the price tag for the first major project being done under this new system—a substantial addition to Queens Vocational High School—is 29% lower than the average cost of previous school construction jobs. Now we're going to duplicate that for projects across the city, allowing us to modernize our schools and end classroom overcrowding faster, better and more economically. That's a winning formula for students and taxpayers. And like every element of our school reform plan, it shows that a new day has arrived for New York City's schools.

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