Dive Brief:
- New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is asking state lawmakers to give the city's schools more funding, and he also wants permanent mayoral control of the city's schools — a detail that typically needs to be reauthorized every few years.
- The request came in the mayor's budget testimony, which centered around fighting income equality.
- The request for more power pushes against Gov. Andrew Cuomo's proposal that any school labeled as "failing" be placed under state control. In response to the request, Cuomo said he would rather keep mayoral power restricted to a temporary basis.
Dive Insight:
De Blasio's funding request included a $70 million increase for the universal pre-K budget.
Cuomo and de Blasio have had a strained relationship from the get-go. Around this time last year, when de Blasio was pushing his pre-K plan, he had asked for a tax increase on the wealthy to pay for it. Cuomo rejected the idea but ultimately used the state budget to help fund the plan.
Recently, Cuomo has been upping the ante when it comes to reform rhetoric. In January, he revealed an aggressive 11-point plan that he had tied to $800 million in funding. Interestingly, one of his 11 points did deal with the expansion of mayoral control.