I'm siding with all those people who are taking the "wait and see" approach before they praise/slam the mayor's latest plans for the newest reorganization of the repeatedly redesigned 1.1 million student school system. If we've learned anything the last few years, it is that the devil is always in the details and that implementation is as important as the idea.

But what has already been made clear the last few months is that the mayor and Chancellor Joel Klein are indeed committed to shifting power away from the bureaucracy to the schools. The Chalkboard has long been a fan of this approach, but there are a lot of caveats.

In order for this to work, the bureaucracy must be forced to completely alter its role to one of support for schools. It can't be pushing principals, teachers, and parents around from the edges. The bureaucracy has to be held responsible for adequately serving the schools, where the real action is, of course.

That's not an easy thing to pull off. It means giving up internal power and completely changing habits, mindsets, etc. As a rule, bureaucracies don't give up power. Especially when the org charts change as often as they do in NYC, there is always a sense that you can ride this kind of thing out and go back to running your fiefdoms when the fad passes.

So who is this man, and why is he suddenly so important? His name is Ernest Logan, and he is succeeding Jill Levy as head of the city's principals' union. I've written here before that the principals' union has been teetering on the verge of irrelevancy for some time. But if Logan plays his cards right, I think he can revive not only his union, but protect the very ideals of decentralization that Bloomberg and Klein are championing right now.

How does he do that?

Every day, as often as 6-7 times a day, he has to remind the public/Tweed Court House/City Hall/etc. that principals are, in fact, in charge of their schools. He has to call out the bureaucrats early and often when they cross the line - and they will. Every time they try to creep back toward their centralized, order-giving roles, Logan needs to throw a yellow flag. I mean every time. If principals are going to be held accountable for their schools, Logan needs to be the one pulling the bureaucrats off their backs from sun-up to sun-down. He has to look Mayor Bloomberg in the eye weekly and say, "I don't believe you are as committed to empowering my principals as you claim in your speeches. Prove it to me."

I'm not kidding. Decentralization can help unleash the power of school communities, but somebody needs to be the bad guy and keep swatting at the paws of the bureaucrats for it to work.

Otherwise, this is all just buck-passing.

Alexander Russo has something on the mayor's plans here. Eva Moskowitz is here.