Flanagan blasts de Blasio on ‘transparency’ as mayoral control fight heats up

New York City’s now-annual fight over who should control the nation’s largest school system is officially underway.

On the same day the state Assembly passed a two-year extension of mayoral control, the Senate Majority Leader threw down the gauntlet. In a letter sent to Mayor Bill de Blasio on Monday, John Flanagan wrote that the way New York City released its school budget information “does not satisfy the law” and does not allow a “meaningful analysis” of an extension of mayoral control.

“A fundamental shortcoming of this administration has been a lack of transparency and response to requests for information,” the letter reads. “The lack of detail on how New York City spends the almost $9 billion provided to it by the state has been one of the key determining factors in a short-term extension of mayoral control.”

City officials said the information Flanagan requested would be available online by the end of the week. Freddi Goldstein, a spokeswoman for the mayor’s office, addressed Flanagan’s letter directly. “Senator Flanagan received the information required by law and more,” she wrote in a statement. “It’s time for the Senate Republicans to stop playing games and let the city get on with the work of educating our 1.1 million kids.”

Flanagan and his fellow Senate Republicans have been the main opponents of New York City’s mayor in his quest to secure a long-term extension of mayoral control. For the past two years, de Blasio has been granted only one-year extensions, even though he asked in 2015 for mayoral control to be made permanent, and in 2017 for a “multi-year” renewal.

This year, it briefly appeared that a one-year extension might be slipped quietly into the budget deal, but that did not come to pass. Now, the issue will likely be resolved this summer, leaving plenty of time for another back-and-forth between Senate Republicans and de Blasio.

State lawmakers have capitalized on that opportunity in the past. After de Blasio’s hearing last year, Flanagan said de Blasio displayed a “disturbing lack of personal knowledge about city schools.” De Blasio then skipped the next hearing, which allowed lawmakers another round of critiques.

You can read the full letter here.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated with a statement from the mayor’s office.