Banks: School system will take ‘10 steps backward’ without mayoral control

BY: KELSEY TAMBORRINO | 02/22/2024 03:14 PM EST

NEW YORK — Schools Chancellor David Banks on Thursday warned city schools would take “ten steps backward” if Mayor Eric Adams loses control of the public school system.

“The reason I accepted this assignment as chancellor was because of this mayor and the ability to work in alignment with this mayor,” Banks told reporters Thursday at a Q&A at the Department of Education’s headquarters in Lower Manhattan “I have no interest in serving as a chancellor in a system where you don’t really have the authority to make real decisions.”

In his most forceful remarks yet, Banks insisted he’s made a strong case for why Adams deserves a four-year extension of the state legislature granting mayoral control of New York City schools. His comments came after legislators left the policy, set to lapse June 30, out of their one-house budgets this week.