Despite legislation in 2002 that gave control of NYC's 1,400 public schools to the mayor, the mayor actually has absolutely nothing to do with the city's schools, city lawyers argued yesterday. "The New York City Board of Education still exists," argued Alan G. Krams before appellate judges in Manhattan in a case that will determine whether a ballot initiative to amend the city's charter to mandate that 25% of any Campaign for Fiscal Equity windfall go toward reducing class sizes can proceed.

Presumably, Krams made his argument with a straight face like they teach you in law school.

The city's bizarre claims that the mayor has practically never even heard of the city's school system shows how messed up this whole thing has become. It also shows that somewhere deep inside City Hall, the smart folks think the city will get its royal rump kicked if voters were asked to weigh in on this issue.

The mayor, obviously, doesn't want to run the 1.1 million student school system by referendum and would like to maintain his control -- which is why he has to argue (with his fingers crossed behind his back) that he currently has no control to maintain. Doing so raises legal questions about whether the city charter is the right way to influence how many kids are in a classroom. In terms of having clear lines of accountability, maintaining control that you claim you don't have would seem to be important and reasonable.

But the question of whether or not this baby should end up on ballots is slightly different than whether it represents a smart method of managing a school system. Clearly, the schools are being operated as a de facto city agency (that's a good thing.) They even changed their email addresses recently to look more like regular city agencies!

The Class Size Matters and United Federation of Teachers people hit the pavement and gathered more than 70,000 signatures supporting attempts to get it on the ballot. They did what they were supposed to. Sure it's macho, in a billionaire sort of way, to try to bend the rules to suit your policy needs, but I'm not sure the city is doing the right thing here.

Have some guts. Allow the thing to be put on the ballot and then make all the arguments you want to make about how this is a screwy way to manage the school system, how class sizes are already lower than people think in many schools, that lower class sizes aren't the silver bullet, etc. Make your case and let democracy play out. Otherwise you look more and more like the power-hungry hacks that used to run the show by playing these kinds of lawyerly games.

NY Times story is here. NY Sun version is here.