Oakland's Jerry Brown Could Join Mayors With Power Over Schools

By Robert C. Johnston

Mayor Jerry Brown of Oakland, Calif., has become the latest big-city leader to flirt with the possibility of exerting broad new power over local schools. A bill that was expected to be introduced late last week by state Sen. Don Perata would give Mr. Brown the authority to choose an administrator to oversee the city's 54,000-student school system.

"This was not my first idea. It's not the kind of thing you jump at," Mr. Brown said in an interview last week. "But if they want someone to do it, I'll step up to the plate."

Since the Illinois legislature gave Richard M. Daley broad authority over Chicago's long-troubled school district in 1995, the notion of putting mayors in control of schools has gained considerable attention. The mayors of Cleveland and Baltimore have been given a greater role in school district affairs, and the Michigan legislature is debating the idea for Dennis...