ARCHIVES OF THE MAYOR'S WEEKLY COLUMN Archives of Rudolph W. Giuliani

New Ideas to Educate Our Children

It was my great pleasure last week to announce the formation of the Independent Committee for Education (ICE), a group of major business leaders who will advocate for State legislation to give the New York City Mayor, as well as Mayors of other large cities in the State, authority over their individual public school systems.

Our city's school system should be about educating our children and creating a better environment in which they can learn, but unfortunately, for too long, it's been about job protection and bureaucracies. Now, the business leaders of New York are telling the parents of our city that they understand the need and importance of reform in our school system and that only by holding the Mayor accountable for our public schools will fundamental reforms take place.

On behalf of New York City's children, I want to thank Jerry Speyer, CEO of Tishman Speyer Properties, and David Rockefeller, former president of Chase Manhattan Bank, for creating this group. ICE is proposing changes to the State education system similar to those school reforms that have been implemented in Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit and other large cities.

Under the proposal, the Mayor would appoint -- with the advice and consent of the City Council -- a Chancellor or Commissioner of Education who is accountable for the day-to-day management of the school system. ICE will also support other efforts to further streamline accountability and reduce unnecessary bureaucracies and administrative expenses.

The ICE proposal is definitely something that can be accomplished. People did not think that giving the Chancellor the authority to remove and select superintendents was possible. We were able to put together a coalition to do that. Skeptics also didn't think that we could end principal tenure. It was a three-year battle, but we ended principal tenure last year.

Any legislation would take effect following January 1, 2002, so this is not about whether I get to run the educational system. It's about having real reform in place for the next Mayor, and for the children of the city.

I don't think there's anyone in the city or the country who isn't concerned about the decreasing quality of American education. There are hundreds of studies that indicate that American students are falling behind their European and Asian counterparts, and that's something that should concern all of us. Part of the problem is due to the fact that there's been a decline in public education in American cities.

At Wednesday's New York City Conference on School Choice, we'll be joined by former U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, Governors Frank Keating (Oklahoma) and Gary Johnson (New Mexico), Mayors Bret Schundler (Jersey City) and John Norquist (Milwaukee), and other dignitaries, to look for ways to improve student achievement.

With unaccountable education bureaucracies often standing in the way of meaningful reform, we must not reject promising new ideas that increase competition and choice.

That's why, despite intense resistance from defenders of the status quo, I have repeatedly advocated for a school choice program in one of the city's 32 community school districts, to offer some of our poorest families the same ability to attend the school of their choice - public, private or parochial - that the richest families have.

Parents with children in failing schools are sending an unequivocal message: they want more alternatives. That's why a flood of more than 168,000 families responded when the privately funded Children's Scholarship Fund made 2,500 partial school choice scholarships available. We can't ignore that demand. We have to do our best to answer it.

New York City should respond to parents who want choice by implementing a voucher program. School choice is a vital, critically important idea that can extend educational opportunity to thousands of children and reinvigorate existing public schools through competition. We must not be afraid of new ideas, especially when they have the potential to enrich and educate our children.