In the past year, the New York City public school system has undergone an historical and seismic shift—with the blessings of Albany and the Department of Justice, schools are once again under mayoral control and the locally elected school boards have been disbanded with no clear provision for community involvement at this time.

The mayor, his predecessor, and some education critics want to get rid of the community school boards. They want to lay the blame for declining test scores, declining education standards, and deteriorating physical plants at the feet of the community school boards.