A November report from New York City Comptroller Brad Lander’s office found that the city’s Department of Education (DOE) inconsistently applied regulations governing the 2023 Community and Citywide Education Council elections.

The report’s findings center on unclear rules barring candidates from accepting “political endorsements,” which appear to have been unevenly enforced during last year’s Council campaign cycle.

In the 2023 election, one candidate was disqualified for promoting her endorsement by the progressive NYC Kids PAC. But then others weren’t, such as pro-“selective admissions” candidates endorsed by PLACE NYC — a group formed to protest Bill de Blasio-era moves to desegregate schools by scrapping selective admissions for middle and high schools. PLACE NYC, it seems, isn’t technically considered a PAC.

The underlying issue is the group’s role in DOE efforts to roll back “merit-based” admissions in the city’s most academically competitive schools.

In last year’s election, PLACE NYC-backed candidates swept nearly 40% of the Council seats. Many parents, at least in New York, still believe in the importance of merit and achievement. That stance might enrage DEI-obsessed bureaucrats, but it clearly resonates with everyday moms and dads who are committed to fairness. Unsurprisingly, the progressive groups that complained to Lander’s office and asked for an investigation are opposed to merit-based admissions.

Rather than wasting time and energy writing reports about the definition of a “political endorsement” in Community Education Councils, Brad Lander — along with Mayor Adams, Gov. Hochul and the New York State legislature — should instead be questioning whether New York City public schools even benefit from these drama-filled councils. And whether they are even still needed.

Born out of the ashes of the old Community School Boards — which collapsed decades ago under the weight of corruption and incompetence — CECs have virtually no power. They’re glorified suggestion boxes, allowed to rubber-stamp little more than changes to school zones and admissions policies, with the real decision-making left to local school superintendents.

While the Councils may have no financial costs, they’re a distraction from far more serious issues such as low attendance rates and dismal student achievement levels. Confused parents often think the Councils can effect real change. They cannot. Not surprisingly, most parents don’t bother with them. In 2024’s election turnout? A pathetic 2% of public-school families.

There’s a good reason the current version of Community Education Councils have very little authority.

New York City had a disastrous history with fully-functioning elected Community School Boards beginning in 1970.

These 32 boards had control over elementary and middle schools; high schools were run from the Board of Education’s central office. This system worked fine in about a third of the districts. But patronage, political corruption and low performance in another third — which I deemed the Educational Dead Zones in a 1997 report — led to the scaling back of local control by the state legislature and the eventual establishment of mayoral control in 2002.

The councils are also breeding grounds for chaos. Former Schools Chancellor David Banks had to step in this past June and remove two elected council members for violating meeting rules over hot button issues such as the Israel-Hamas war and transgender rights.

Others devolve into outright dysfunction, like District 2’s council in Manhattan, which was embroiled in a gender-identity row. That panel voted in March to ask the DOE to revisit its policy on disallowing trans athletes to play on the team of whichever gender they identify with, sparking months of shouting matches and gridlock.

And for what? The DOE rejected their request immediately.

Meanwhile, New York City’s public schools are bleeding students. Nine districts now serve fewer than 9,000 kids each, and in some, 40% of students have fled to charter schools. Many of these districts rank at the bottom in reading proficiency.

The writing’s on the wall: it’s time to consolidate these underperforming districts, streamline their bloated bureaucracies, and scrap the councils entirely.

Everyone — especially Lander — needs to stop pretending these councils are actually meaningful. They’re little more than playgrounds for political infighting, backed by a sliver of parents who bother to vote, yet wield outsized influence the classroom.

New York City schools face real crises: declining enrollment, academic struggles, divisive culture war battles. Which is why true reform — not reforming useless elections — is what’s needed to better educate our children.

Ending the Education Council charade would be a good start.

Ray Domanico is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute