School & District Management

Mayors Gather to Explore, Debate Leverage Over Schools

By Catherine Gewertz — October 01, 2003 3 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

The mayors of 25 cities gathered here last week to brainstorm about how they can improve schools in their communities, even though most lack legal authority over education. The message they heard from a panel of experts was encouraging: You still can exert tremendous influence, even if you don’t hold the reins.

Facing one another around a massive table, the city leaders explored the leverage points and political difficulties of their roles in school improvement. Many expressed frustration at being held responsible by their constituents for inadequate schools when they lack clearly defined power to change them.

But they agreed that, with or without specific powers, mayors need to embroil themselves in making schools better.

“Mayors are getting more involved because the quality of our future depends on the quality of our schools,” James A. Garner, the mayor of Hempstead, N.Y., and the president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, which sponsored the meeting, told reporters. “Mayors have to be educational leaders whether or not they have a formal role in how schools in their cities are run.”

Mayor Anthony A. Williams of the District of Columbia offered a timely illustration. In his remarks to the mayors, he reiterated his support for a controversial pilot program that would provide federally financed tuition vouchers to schoolchildren from low-income families in Washington. That program is being debated in Congress.

The day after the summit, Mr. Williams, who currently appoints four of the nine members of the school board, revealed that he is developing a plan to gain more formal authority over the city’s schools.

Philosophical Differences

Some of the mayors at the conference have been involved in school improvement efforts for years, and they advised the novices in that arena on how they could forge strong relations with school leaders to offer their city governments’ help. But despite their broad areas of agreement, a divide emerged: charter schools and vouchers.

Mayor Bart Peterson of Indianapolis, the only mayor in the nation who has direct authority to grant a charter, described his city’s burgeoning charter school movement as a change for the better.

Mayor Kirk Humphreys of Oklahoma City challenged the organization to take a stand in support of vouchers. The U.S. Conference of Mayors, however, has taken no position on the issue since 1985, when it came out against federally financed national voucher programs.

Some city leaders, such as Mayor Thomas M. Menino of Boston—one of the few mayors who control their school systems—opposed vouchers, saying they are tantamount to “giving up on the public schools.” Others opposed charter schools as well, worrying that they drain public school coffers.

Despite their differences on those issues, the mayors shared common ground on the need to get involved, especially as the federal No Child Left Behind Act exerts increasing pressure on schools to succeed.

Among the avenues of involvement they outlined were acting as the conveners of many education stakeholders, and exploiting their bully pulpits to rally community support for school improvement. They explored ways cities can direct resources to schools for such purposes as construction and after-school programs, and how they can coordinate city services needed by children and families.

Michael W. Kirst, a Stanford University education professor who has written extensively about mayoral influence on schools, warned the leaders that they are “up against a deeply ingrained educational view that mayors are not relevant in education,” an attitude recalling the corruption that drove a movement to separate city and school governance in the early 1900s.

The main challenge for mayors, he said, is to “move beyond incrementalism” to ensure improvements actually touch the classroom.

Lisa Graham Keegan, the former state schools superintendent in Arizona who is now the chief executive officer of the Education Leaders Council, a Washington-based group of state and other officials, urged the mayors to advocate more parental choice, through such means as charter schools and vouchers, in order to exert pressure on the existing school system to improve.

Related Tags:

Events

This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Equity & Diversity Webinar
Classroom Strategies for Building Equity and Student Confidence
Shape equity, confidence, and success for your middle school students. Join the discussion and Q&A for proven strategies.
Content provided by Project Lead The Way
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Professional Development Webinar
Disrupting PD Day in Schools with Continuous Professional Learning Experiences
Hear how this NC School District achieved district-wide change by shifting from traditional PD days to year-long professional learning cycles
Content provided by BetterLesson
Jobs Virtual Career Fair for Teachers and K-12 Staff
Find teaching jobs and other jobs in K-12 education at the EdWeek Top School Jobs virtual career fair.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

School & District Management Q&A There's a Good Chance Your Superintendent Has One of These 15 Names
A researcher's findings highlight just how white and male the American superintendency is.
5 min read
Image of male and female professional silhouettes, with a central male figure punched out in color.
melitas/iStock/Getty + Edweek
School & District Management After a Lesson on Michelangelo's David, a Florida Principal Loses Her Job
Parents complained that images of the famous sculpture were "pornographic" and that they weren't notified of the lesson in advance.
Michelangelo's marble statue of "David", is seen in Florence's Galleria dell' Accademia on May 24, 2004.
Michelangelo's marble statue of "David" is displayed in the Galleria dell' Accademia in Florence, Italy.
Fabrizio Giovannozzi/AP
School & District Management A New Federal Plan Could Make Free School Meals a Reality for More Students
The plan will mostly benefit districts in states where lawmakers have enacted universal free school meal policies.
5 min read
Young boy in a school lunchroom cafeteria line and choosing a slice of pizza to put on his tray which includes an apple.
SDI Productions/Getty
School & District Management Did Principal Turnover Increase During the Pandemic? Here's What We Know
The data are still scant, but what’s emerging shows a drop in 2020-21 and an increase the following year.
6 min read
Black and white male and female figures walking in different directions on a light blue textured background. One male figure is walking out of an open door.
Anton Vierietin/Getty