In New York City, Mayor Michael Bloomberg took control of the board of education, with decidedly mixed results so far (see http://www.edexcellence.net/gadfly/issue.cfm?issue=140#1730). In Washington, D.C., Mayor Anthony Williams's similar proposal has met with stiff resistance (see http://www.edexcellence.net/gadfly/issue.cfm?issue=121#1523). And we are not sanguine about the prospects for Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich's proposal to take control of the education bureaucracy from the state board in the Land of Lincoln. The central issue in any restructuring, one that the governor has not yet adequately addressed, is not who controls what but what the person in charge plans to do. To sway opponents of the plan - and there are many - Blagojevich has proposed a four-year, $2.2 billion school construction and maintenance plan. Sounds to us like a pork-laden bricks-and-mortar program in return for bureaucratic reforms of dubious value and an indeterminate package of education changes. Bad deal, we think.
"Schools could get $2.2 billion," by Diane Rado and Ray Long, Chicago Tribune, March 23, 2004
"Blagojevich unveils new educational funding during Silvis stop," by Ed Tibbetts, Quad City Times, March 22, 2004