Urban Education

You wouldn't think that Louis R. Maldonado, the president of Community School Board 12 in the South Bronx, would have much nice to say about New York City's new school governance structure.

After all, Mr. Maldonado was at the center of a protracted power struggle with Schools Chancellor Rudy F. Crew in 1996 after Mr. Crew tried to oust the board in a dispute over its choice of a superintendent.

That headline-grabbing clash was widely seen as the final straw that led state lawmakers to grant Mr. Crew's demands for greater control over the city's 32 subdistrict boards. The resulting law deprived those boards of nothing less than their authority to hire...