So my friend, Rick Hess, is caught up in the firestorm in St. Louis because of a paper he wrote highlighting mayoral control of schools. For me, this is the key paragraph:

If mayoral control is to be effective, the mayor must be willing to expend political capital and enlist the support of business and civic leaders on behalf of his reform agenda. Business and civic leaders, in turn, must be willing to hold the mayor's feet to the fire, insisting that he set high standards for the district... [emphasis The Chalkboard's.]

When the final chapters of this run of mayoral control are written for NYC, it will be worth noting that we as a community didn't uphold the second part of the equation. But it is not too late. As Maisie at EdWize notes, for example, there will soon be an opportunity to raise the bar for the city's Leadership Academy for training new principals. It was initially funded with philanthropic cash, including from the NYC Partnership, but at some point it's going to need public money to keep it running. That will be a golden opportunity for those who like the mayor and support the concept of mayoral control to ask Bloomberg: Is this all you've got?

Side Note: The messy school bus route reorganization will be the subject of public hearings today by the City Council. If we see anything emerge, it will be the glaring lack of accountability that exists under mayoral control when business and civic leaders don't do what Rick Hess is talking about and demand basic competence from the school system. You'll hear more stories about real people who got screwed here, but it won't matter. The movers-and-shakers still think things are going swimmingly.

Side Note II: The NY Post editorial board, which is never accused of carrying water for Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum, seems to think Gotbaum is right about Bloomberg's alleged thin skin when it comes to criticism. "Arrogance in the face of criticism," is how the Post put it.

Note to Rick Hess: How about a comparison between "thin-skinned mayoral control" vs. "stiff upper-lip mayoral control"?????? You'll come up with better terms, I'm sure, but see what I'm driving at?