Assembly's mayoral control hearing tour ends in Brooklyn today

The five-borough tour by members of the State Assembly’s education committee to listen to public comments about mayoral control ends today with a marathon hearing in Brooklyn.

The hearing begins at City Tech at 10 a.m. and, like its predecessors, is likely to stretch long into the evening. Education committee chair Cathy Nolan says today’s hearing will focus on the Department of Education’s business contracts, as well as on academic achievement under mayoral control, reports Helen Zelon for Insideschools. One person who will testify on behalf of the DOE for the first time is Eric Nadelstern, the official who was recently promoted to “chief schools officer” for the system, Zelon reports.

Some mayoral control fans got an early start this morning. An e-mail sent by an intern at Learn NY, the group lobbying to preserve mayoral control, suggested that attendees arrive an hour early, at 9 a.m., “for visibility.” East Brooklyn Congregations, a coalition of churches, is also holding a pre-hearing rally to support mayoral control; David Brawley, a co-chair, said in a press release that the coalition is bringing 350 parent and community leaders to represent the roughly 350 new schools created under Mayor Bloomberg’s school leadership. Last month, Elizabeth met an EBC leader, Reverend David Haberer, and took this video of him explaining why he supports mayoral control:

Then, late in the afternoon, after they get off from work, parents who support changing the school governance structure will pour into the hearing, according to April Humphrey, who organizes the Campaign for Better Schools, which is calling for more community involvement in school governance. About 150 Campaign for Better Schools supporters arrived at last week’s Bronx hearing around 5:30 p.m., Humphrey told me.