The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle obtained emails revealing that the New York State Education Department and the New York Board of Regents are considering a plan to oust the elected school board, take over the Rochester public schools, appoint a five-member interim school board, and appoint a temporary school superintendent.
I wish I knew of an example where a state takeover led to better education for the district. Right now, public school advocates in Ohio are trying to repeal HB 70, which allowed a state takeover of Lorain and Youngstown, Ohio. The Michigan Educational Achievement Authority was a disaster and is now closed. The Michigan emergency manager program has been a bust. The Tennessee Achievement School District is floundering.
Usually state takeover is a step towards handing schools over to privately managed charters.
Thus far, there is no evidence that the state has a secret formula or a cadre of hotshot turnaround specialists.
Last week, when I visited Columbus, Ohio, and had a dialogue with Bill Phillis, the veteran of many school battles, Bill asked why so many “reformers” think that a governance change will create better education.
I concluded that those who want state takeovers are deeply suspicious of elected school boards, and have concluded that the path to better schools is through autocracy.
I hope the Regents will move carefully before suspending and replacing an elected school board. They better have something more promising for Rochester’s students than a fresh set of unelected faces.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The appointment of a Special Educator to work with board of education, administrators and teacher leaders such as has been done in Hempstead NY by the Commissioner of Education has produced better results than a state takeover of other similarly challenged districts.
State takeovers aren’t really about education. They’re mostly about politics. And race. Read Domingo Morel’s book “Takeover.” Every takeover situation I’ve reported about — St. Louis, Little Rock, Louisville, Camden, Jackson, MS — the agenda is about politics and race, not about education.
Appointing a Distinguished Educator to work with the school board, administrators and teacher leaders has produced some positive improvements in Hempstead Schools on Long Island. A long term appointment with appropriate authority of a highly experienced and effective Distinguished Educator seems to produce better results than state takeovers of similarly challenged districts.
Robert, appointing a knowledgeable educator as an advisor is very different from a state takeover. Very different from ousting the elected board. Very different from the appointment of an emergency manager with unlimited power. But you know that.
Yes I know that. Sorry my statement was not clear enough to indicate that appointing a Distinguished Educator to work with the current board, administrators and teachers works to improve schools while state takeovers that replace the elected board have failed.
Exactly.
Jeff:
And gentrification.
Yes that too. it seems that the business community and the real estate industry are always involved. Why?
and takeovers are also hidden language for “open massive public money to easier profiteering”
Taaaake em over, let the schools go spinning down the drain
Income inequality here in Monroe County, NY, is the worst anywhere in the Western Hemisphere.
We have very wealthy suburbs surrounding city neighborhoods suffering from crushing poverty.
If the Regents and Mayor Lovely Warren have a plan to address the lack of stable, middle class jobs in the city, I’m interested in their ideas.
A state takeover in isolation—without a plan to rebuild our economy after the collapse of Kodak, Xerox, and Bausch & Lomb—is unlikely to produce significantly better results for Rochester City School District students.
Exactly what I was thinking, gadfly, re: E Kodak, Xerox, Bausch& Lomb. Another once-thriving US city fallen victim to global trade– double-whammy for those of us raised in upstate-NY, whose major cities were already in long decline since demise of Erie Canal. Rochester had hung in there & thrived… now just another industrial ember, prey for vultures, heralded by Elia’s knock at the door/ signal to privatizing hedge-funders circling.
I spent much of my growing-up yrs [’50’s-’60’s] in Rochester where my grandparents & cousins lived [grandfather & uncle employees of Kodak], even attended Monroe County’s then-excellent pubschs for a couple wks at a time when my parents travelled. Sad to see Rochester in such shape tho it’s been a long decline [sold deceased gprnts’ home for a pittance nearly 30 yrs ago– in Brighton Sch Distr!].
If SED wants to take over a school district they should look at East Ramapo and Kyrius Joel
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Exactly right.
Kiryas Joel is a disgrace.
The board is controlled by Orthodox Jews who send their own children to Yeshivas, not public schools.
The board uses the public budget as a piggy bank for Yeshivas and neglects the black and brown children who attend the public schools.
Mary Ellen Elia is a dictatator.
Sister Mary Ellen Elia Elefant???
People only do things in secret when they know that they would not otherwise get away with them.
State takeover helps Rochester schools exactly how?
It doesn’t, but that’s the point. It paves the way for privatization.
Andrew Cuomo has hitched his caboose to Elia.
Not a smart man.
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“I wish I knew of an example where a state takeover led to better education for the district.” –Diane R.
Here’s an example: In case you’re interested, the Massachusetts state takeover of the Chelsea Public Schools in the early 1990s actually improved things. We were in receivership and then Boston University partnered with us. It was good for awhile. Now Chelsea calls its own shots again. I started working there in the fall of 1995 while BU was still in charge, then left in 2017 a number of years after we returned to self-governance.
Thanks, Zoe. The Chelsea takeover was very different from todays’s takeovers. The union was not disbanded. The teachers and principals were not all summarily fired. The goal was to improve and support the public schools, not to privatize them.