(2002-05-29) e

Mike Bloomberg's plan for Educating Kids In Nyc is out. The Board of Education would be blown up. In its place would be a Panel for Educational Policy, a diluted, 13-member board of volunteers with no real budgetary authority. The mayor would choose eight panelists, including the chancellor, while the city's five borough presidents each would get one pick. But The new Panel for Educational Policy would still hold the strings on two hot-button topics: privatizing city schools and providing vouchers to parents to send their children to private schools. City Hall aides said the two issues were written in as a way to appease Sheldon Silver, who along with the city Teachers Union has long opposed any effort aimed at School Vouchers or privatization. In other words, there would be no/weak vouchers/privatization.

Silver will make his own plan. His measure would let the mayor Appoint the chancellor and eight of 13 members on a revamped Board Of Education. The board's role would be reduced to overseeing budgets, capital projects and educational policy. Those powers go beyond the purely advisory function the mayor wants. Silver also would phase out community school boards within the next year. The state Senate bill would leave them intact.