New York City’s outgoing Democrat Mayor Bill de Blasio is dealing a final blow to the city before he leaves office.
A new policy being put in place by the city will crack down on parents who want to be able to monitor what is being taught to their children in city public schools.
Parents with elected positions on the city school board equivalents will be subject to removal from unelected bureaucrats who dislike their criticisms.
With school boards becoming central to the culture war battles being fought around Critical Race Theory and other leftist priorities, angry parents have sought to vote out school board members and replace them with their own candidates.
New York City will not have to worry about this if de Blasio’s plan goes into effect. Parents in the city will be able to get elected to Community Education Councils (local school board equivalents) but they will not be allowed to do anything with those positions.
The Department of Education will be allowed to unilaterally remove elected parents if they are found to be violating the vague guidelines which accompany the proposal.
An unelected equity-compliance officer will be allowed to decide that an elected member is using aggressive speech or causing a disruption.
The Department of Education will then decide if a member should be removed, acting on the recommendation of the equity-compliance officer.
This will effectively give the Department of Education direct control over the bodies which are meant to hold it accountable and give the public a say in public education.
Immediately after a nationwide push to elect more conservatives or at least reasonably normal people to school board positions, New York City has already created an insurance policy.
People who are elected by their communities to represent their interests are being subjected to potential removal by faceless bureaucrats.
This is happening on a small enough scale that it seems to be a minor assault on voters but on a larger scale this would be like the FBI deciding to remove representatives who questioned their behavior.
The vote to approve the policy will be held on December 21 when most people will be busy with preparations for Christmas and thus not paying much attention to city politics.
Race related issues have been at the center of the education disputes in New York City and the repeated use of the word “equity” to describe the policy is a clever method of painting the issue in partisan terms.
Create a mental image of the sort of person who might decide to become an “equity-compliance officer” and you can easily see why sane parents in New York City should be very concerned right now.
