Thank you for posting William Cala's piece exposing the lack of success of mayoral control of the New York City school system. Mayoral control has also failed to deliver results in other cities, where mayoral control has done nothing to stop the growth of racial and ethnic achievement gaps.

In the Bracey Report, Gerald Bracey of the University of Colorado analyzes the data on race and ethnicity: "In 2003, Chicago eighth-grade math scores [National Assessment of Educational Progress] for white students showed 25% of them at or above the proficient level, a percentage that rose only to 35% in 2007. The vaunted improvements in test scores do not appear for Chicago's black and Latino students. In 2003, only 4% of black eighth-graders were proficient or better in math; that figure rose to only 6% in 2007. Of the remaining nine cities in the NAEP trials, only Cleveland and the District of Columbia, both under mayoral control, showed less growth for black eighth-graders. For Latino eighth graders in Chicago, the 8% proficient or better in math in 2003 rose to 12% in 2007. Among the other nine cities studied, only Charlotte and New York showed less growth. Moreover, gaps in achievement between black and white students and between Latino and white students were large (25% of white eighth-graders scored at or above proficient, with 4% of black and 8% of Latino eighth-graders at those levels), and they grew between 2003 and 2007 for grades 4 and 8."

Bracey also points out: "Teacher stability has decreased, especially in low-income schools and predominantly black schools. Black, white and Latino teachers have all been moving out of those schools at increasing rates."

Many people are pointing to a book entitled "The Education Mayor: Improving America's Schools" as proof that mayoral control is a panacea. But Kenneth Wong and his co-authors clearly show that under mayoral control, the achievement gap between the races has grown.

More disturbing is Mayor Duffy's claim that the Rochester City School District is spending $23,000 per pupil. This would be a cause for concern, because that figure is way above the statewide average and way out of line with the Syracuse and Buffalo expenditures. But the figure is bogus. According to the reporting that every district in the state is required to make to the state, RCSD is spending about $16,500 per pupil. That's pretty much in the middle of the pack. And School Board members have tried to explain this to the folks in City Hall, showing how the City Hall staff are using the wrong denominator (funds are passed through the district, for example, to charter schools).

Is Bob Duffy in the dark about RCSD costs, or is he playing politics with the numbers? Neither answer bodes well for our children.

There are many best practices that are succeeding in urban school districts. There are many success stories right within the district. Why are we talking about something that doesn't work?

JON GREENBAUM, ROCHESTER