Inertia in Albany may have saved the late Governor Malcolm Wilson from the dustbin of history -- but New York City schoolchildren weren’t so lucky last night.

Like students who went on summer break without bothering to take their final exam, Albany lawmakers left the State Capitol with the ghost of a Board of Education looming over New York City. This is like lawmakers forgetting to re-ratify our schools’ constitution so now the Articles of Confederation are about to go back into effect.

Because Mayor de Blasio and Assembly Democrats wouldn’t agree to add more charter schools to New York City’s mix, the Republican-led Senate wouldn’t renew de Blasio’s control of the school system. Unless lawmakers reconvene in a special session, this means that the school system will be decentralized with a Board of Education that will be appointed by Borough Presidents. That’s great news for five people who most New Yorkers have never heard of – and a lousy development for almost everyone else.

For those of you who don’t remember what happened before Mayor Bloomberg won control of the school system in 2002, think of non-existent voter turnout in school board elections, political fiefdoms spilling over into classrooms, and a Schools Chancellor who was held hostage to an unwieldy Board of Education. It was sort of like if the UN tried to teach you math.

It’s pretty outrageous that a Long Island lawmaker, Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan, can have such a disproportionate impact on New York City schools by just walking away.

And let’s remember to thank those Democratic State Senators from New York City (Jeff Klein, Jose Peralta, Tony Avella, Diane Savino, Jesse Hamilton, and Marisol Alcantara) who all thought it was a better idea for Flanagan to be running the Senate rather than a Democrat who would have signed off on mayoral control in a heartbeat.

Flanagan did have time last night to push through a bill to rename the new Tappan Zee Bridge after late Governor Mario Cuomo – at the current governor’s request. Never mind that the bridge was already renamed after another dead governor, Malcolm Wilson, in the final year of Mario Cuomo’s administration. (And I can already hear aides to the current governor, Andrew Cuomo, try to explain how the new Tappan Zee bridge is a different bridge. I’m sure the Wilson family will understand.)

In the end, Governor Cuomo and the Senate had enough time and political willpower to find a savior for the city’s mass-transit system in Joe Lhota but weren’t willing to save the city’s school system.

The State Assembly didn’t sign off on the governor’s bridge renaming game with Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie adding that he’s unwilling to come back for a special session. That means for New York City to dodge the bullet of dysfunction, the State Senate will have to reconvene before the school year starts. (And if you’re confident that’s going to happen, I have some bridge renaming rights to sell you.)

Hopefully, Malcolm Wilson would find some of this funny. The rest of us should be too angry to be laugh.

 

Bob Hardt