Is it time for the Mayor to go to school? Perhaps not as a student, but as an administrator? A new study would say yes.
In a new book by Brown education Professor Kenneth Wong, The Education Mayor,
it shows how cities that disband their school boards in favor of mayoral control perform better on tests.
There is a lot to it, but, according to the study, the improvements would show the equivalent of an additional 4 months of schooling. If this is the case, Philly would be stupid to maintain its educational bureaucracy. One of the reasons that the Mayors can run schools better than boards is because they sit atop the foodchain and can cut through red tape to get things accomplished. If nothing else, the system would be more efficient.
The only real blockade would be that the schoolboard would almost certainly not go peacefully, so it would be up to the mayor to send acting school CEO Tom Brady and his crew packing. It would requirer a lot of intiative, but would be worthwhile? Almost certainly.