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State Assembly Democrats are moving to block New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ bid to extend mayoral control of city schools for four more years, demanding “tweaks” that would lessen his direct control over public education in the Big Apple.
The chairman of the Education committee in Albany’s lower chamber, Assemblyman Michael Benedetto (D-The Bronx), confirmed to The Post that Democrats in his chamber will not include the measure in their budget bill.
The provocative move takes aim at not only Adams, but Gov. Kathy Hochul, who included a four-year extension of mayoral control in her budget proposal.
“Given its vital importance to the nearly one million students in our education system and the fact that parents right now do not know who will be responsible for their schools in mere months, it would be disappointing for mayoral accountability to be omitted from the budget,” said Adams in a statement responding to the move late Friday.
It comes at a time when Adams is facing off against powerful Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-The Bronx) over his request for significant tweaks to the state’s controversial criminal justice reforms, which Heastie and many progressive Democratic lawmakers who loosened the laws under bail reform vigorously oppose.
“The mayor has good reason to be concerned. It’s not going to be considered in the budget bill,” Benedetto said.
The chair of the state Senate’s committee on public schools in the five boroughs, state Sen. John Liu (D-Queens), declined to comment.
The Assembly budget bill is the chamber’s answer to the budget proposal already introduced by Hochul. Lawmakers and Hochul have until April 1 to hammer out a deal on the must-pass legislation.
Mayoral control expires on June 30.
State lawmakers and disgraced ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo have frequently held up renewals of mayoral control as a way to gain political leverage over New York City’s mayors.
“That’s really the only plausible explanation of what’s going on here,” a senior DOE official said Friday. “It’s a touchy subject and they aren’t going to say it publicly, but that’s the perception.”
Schools Chancellor David Banks and the mayor have made grand pronouncements about their ability to reform the DOE — and losing mayoral control would badly hobble that effort.
In 2009, the tumult in among Democratic lawmakers in the state Senate delayed extending mayoral control for so long that New York City was forced to temporarily reinstitute the much-maligned Board of Education — when Adams was a state senator.
— Additional reporting by Selim Algar
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