By Fritz Edelstein
July 26, 2004

Mayoral leadership and involvement in education has become one of the hot and controversial political topics. The book, Mayors in the Middle, edited by Jeffrey Henig and Wilbur Rich, is comprised of case studies on mayoral leadership and in some cases control of the public schools, and a set of theoretical chapters on the mayoral role. The case studies are of Baltimore, Chicago, Boston, Detroit, Cleveland and Washington (DC).

Only half of the cities have mayors in charge of the public schools and the other three have mayoral involvement in a variety of ways. Chicago, Boston and Cleveland are clearly cities with school systems that have a mayor deeply engaged. They are the exception to the rule for the rest of the country. The other three cities Baltimore, Detroit and Washington (DC) are in very different stages of mayoral involvement.

One major problem for any book of case studies is it may become out of date the moment it goes to print. This is situation for the latter three cities that makes it difficult for the authors to make their case for mayoral control. Clearly, all six cities have mayoral involvement, but it is definitely not the same. The book does clearly achieve its title of mayors in the middle.

The authors state that mayoral involvement in education is complex stuff. But, they do mention that each city starts from a different situation effected by different events and issues that are the driving force behind each mayor's decision about their level of involvement. Often the determinants are personality, politics, timing, and situation.

Mayors are able to do something very important which is acknowledged in the book. They can bring people together from across the city and assist in forming coalitions around an issue such as education. This has been an important part of each mayor's role in each of the cities. Another mayoral strength is linking broad concerns and issues together. This is why education fits so well as part of a mayoral role because other areas of responsibility include children and families, health, workforce development, transportation, environment, energy and management.

Each case study tells a different story about mayoral leadership and engagement in education. This is very helpful in understanding the politics and events that created the environment for an increased mayoral role. Unfortunately, three of the cities have mayoral roles in a state of flux rather than a "final solution." Therefore, the reader is left to his/her own knowledge to understand what is currently happening. For the three other cities with mayoral control, the decision is already made and actions taken, but the stories do not end with this book. There is much more to come in each and more to be told.

Henig and Rich in the concluding chapter do state some empirical reasons why mayoral control might work, but other factors are very critical for success. These are personality of the mayor and the culture of the city.

The book provides historical and additional information about what transpired in each city that caused a change in the mayor's role in education. As was stated earlier, each city's situation is different. In the end, the mayors get into the middle one way or the other by either being put there by a state legislature; by default; asked to be; take a position that inevitably puts them there; or the role evolved so they were in the middle of educational issues and management.

Given the importance of education to every city, mayors are not going to allow themselves to be left out of the room or have no place at the table. The story has yet to be fully told and many more chapters are going to be written about mayoral leadership and engagement in education before there is any definitive analysis of what that role should be.