A bunch of stuff in the papers and in blogs today on yesterday's City Council hearing on the city schools' growing use of no-bid contracts. NYC Controller Bill Thompson, who has been strangely silent about most everything that has happened in the school system under his watch, says he can't be responsible unless state law is changed to reflect that the schools are a city agency rather than a state agency.

Meanwhile, Councilman Robert Jackson is quoted on the NY Times' news blog saying:

There is virtually no oversight of the Department of Education’s contracting practices, even though D.O.E. is the single largest purchaser of goods and services among city agencies.

I have no idea whether State Comptroller Alan Hevesi was at the hearing, but since this seems to be a question of whether the city or the state has actual oversight of DOE spending, shouldn't Jackson have been the one to take both Thompson and Hevesi to the committee's woodshed until one of them took responsibility? He could say something snappy to his fellow elected Dems, like: "We're not leaving this hearing until one of you bean-counters admits you've dropped the ball on this one."

Sure the NY Times would have looked unkindly upon this form of elbow-throwing come re-election time for Jackson, but isn't that part of his oversight responsibility here?