By Fritz Edelstein and J.D. LaRock
October 20, 2003

(This article was published as the Commentary in Education Week, October 1, 2003, page 44)

Mayoral takeovers of public school systems have received a lot of attention as of late. Indeed, as scholars like Michael Kirst, Michael D. Usdan and Larry Cuban point out, they-ve come to be considered something of a movement in urban education. And to be sure, they-ve led to some very positive changes. Mayor Thomas M. Menino led Boston to be one of the first cities that moved to mayoral control, and Superintendent Thomas W. Payzant has presided over the schools for 8 years — an eternity in this age of revolving-door superintendents. After Mayor Richard M. Daley assumed authority over Chicago's public schools in 1994, citizens there saw both school budgets and standardized test scores rise steadily. And since Harrisburg Mayor Stephen J. Reed took over his city's school system in 2001, student enrollment — which had been plummeting for decades — has risen nearly 20 percent.

But mayors don't have to take over their school systems in order to make a difference. Indeed, in many cities, the strategy may not even make much sense. In the South and West, for example, many school districts cover metropolitan areas that are bigger than the city limits. Conversely, many cities contain dozens of independent school districts in their boundaries — San Jose, for example has 19. And despite all the criticism being lobbed at school boards these days, they nonetheless remain popular in many places, especially in smaller municipalities.

However, these impediments haven-t stopped mayors from getting more involved in public education. In fact, as big-city mayoral takeovers have been grabbing the headlines, dozens of mayors have embraced smaller, more targeted initiatives to gain a toehold in their local school systems. These "toehold issues," as we call them, may lack the dramatic sweep of full-scale takeovers, but they nonetheless address real problems schools face today. They can be initiated without the political donnybrooks that often accompany more drastic reforms. And taken together, they represent what we believe is the real movement in urban education today: that mayors recognize the importance of providing leadership in public education, and are finding lots of ways to do it. Here are some of them:

After-School/Out-of-School Programs: Many mayors have turned to after-School and out-of-School programs as an initial way of showing support for the public schools. Since most mayors have authority over youth development and recreation agencies, supporting these programs is easily done. And since most schools want more of these programs, the mayor's involvement is usually welcomed. Recently, several mayors have even helped school systems respond to the federal government's call to make after-School programs more academically oriented. For example, Tulsa Mayor Bill La Fortune's office worked with the city's community college, Urban League chapter and school district to create a summer youth academy focused on literacy. In Louisville, Mayor Jerry Abramson's office helped the school district implement "KidTrax," a system that monitors student progress in after-School and out-of-School programs.

School Safety: Providing for public safety is a core responsibility of every mayor, and in this post-Columbine and post-9/11 world, mayors are connecting city law enforcement agencies and the public schools as never before. In Fort Worth, former Mayor Kenneth Barr and newly elected Mayor Mike Moncrief have committed to funding 50 percent of the cost of all the police officers in the city's middle and high schools, for example. Norfolk Mayor Paul Fraim arranged for specially-trained police officers, known as "school resource officers," to be placed in the local school district's high schools. And in Omaha, Mayor Mike Fahey brokered an agreement with his city's school districts to expand the number of police officers on middle and high school campuses. Increasingly, mayors are also bringing police officials and school administrators together to develop comprehensive school safety plans in case of terrorism and other violent events.

School Finance: Although many mayors have little to no formal authority over their cities- education budgets, quite a few have used their bully pulpit to bring more money to the public schools. In Seattle several mayors, including the current one, Greg Nickels, have been instrumental in securing and maintaining its Families and Education Levy. The initiative is providing $69 million over 7 years to support almost two dozen programs aimed at removing barriers to effective student learning, including early childhood, health care, and other services. Buffalo Mayor Anthony Massielo has won praise for his proposal to increase taxes for the specific objective of funding pre-kindergarten and kindergarten classes. Countless other mayors have helped their school district apply for major grants from foundations and corporate partners as well.

School Facilities: Mayors are also providing needed help to modernize old school buildings and build new ones. Recently, Birmingham Mayor Tom Kincaid helped push through a recent school bond issue that is expected to generate $168 million for school construction and repair. Nashville's Bill Purcell has so far made good on his promise to provide city funds every year to support school construction, modernization, and maintenance. Other cities have taken creative routes: Portland Mayor Vera Katz helped establish a Real Estate Trust of city, school district, and business officials to facilitate the sale and lease of buildings that are being converted into schools. St. Petersburg Mayor Richard Baker has pledged to dedicate all local permit and development fees to support tree-planting and landscaping in that city's schools. And in Fort Worth, the mayor's office has helped local school districts with the bureaucratic side of school construction, establishing a special process to expedite the issuing of building permits, inspections and certificates of occupancy.

Access to Technology: As school districts are focusing on narrowing the "digital divide" within schools, a number of mayors are either assisting districts in their efforts, or launching programs aimed at increasing families' access to computers outside schools. In Seattle, for instance, the Mayor's Department of Information Technology is overseeing an initiative that provides matching funds to community groups that want to establish neighborhood technology centers. Riverside Mayor Ronald Loveridge's office administers a program that gives computers directly to low-income families — nearly 400 so far. And in San Jose, Mayor Ron Gonzales is encouraging schools to establish more after-School programs in the city's libraries, which provide Internet access and training for students.

Higher Education Issues: Mayors have the unique power to bring important groups in their cities together, and increasingly, they-re using it to address pressing issues that impact both the K-12 and higher education communities. St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay, for instance, recently convened a meeting of school district officials and area university presidents to examine why students- ACT scores and four-year college articulation rates are lagging. Other cities like Milwaukee and Louisville have had long'standing "roundtables" of university and school system officials. Among other things, they-ve worked to improve teacher preparation courses and created programs that allow promising high school students to take courses at the local public colleges.

Showcasing Education: Finally — and perhaps most importantly — mayors are not just intervening in aspects of their cities- school systems they find lacking. Quite a few mayors are doing an admirable job of calling attention to what students and schools are doing right. Scores of mayors visit schools regularly, giving awards to exemplary students and faculty as they go. Other mayors have gone the opposite route, bringing students into City Hall by establishing youth councils and holding events geared toward families. From one-day events like "Walk Our Children to School Day," sponsored by Birmingham's and Buffalo's mayors, to Nashville, where the mayor sponsors a lineup of events the entire first week of school, mayors are recognizing the importance of enhancing pride in public education — and increasing public engagement in the process.

There is much more we could mention — mayors- efforts to allow employees to attend school conferences more easily, initiatives to tie city health and social service agencies more closely to schools, or collaborations with business leaders interested in education reform, for instance. The point here is that successful mayoral involvement in education is not only about assuming more authority over school systems — it's about using what authority one does have constructively. Even the mayor who has no formal power over the public schools has a valuable trump card: that person is the chief executive officer in their city. They have enormous leverage to shape the public discourse around education in their cities. They can bring diffuse interests together to focus on the issue and engage citizens in their schools as no one else can. And they can bring to bear every city service they do control to benefit children and schools.

That's why voters — quite rightly, in our view — hold mayors accountable for the performance of the schools in their cities even if the mayor doesn-t control them. And it's why mayors are — also quite rightly — being impelled to get more involved.