NEW YORK, NY June 18, 2009 —Assembly Democrats in Albany have approved a bill to preserve Mayor Bloomberg's control over city schools. But as WNYC's Beth Fertig reports, even if the Senate gets back to business, there's no consensus there on school governance.

REPORTER: Senate Democrats are split. Many support the Assembly's position that the mayor keep control over the Panel for Educational Policy. Bloomberg currently gets to appoint eight out of its 13 members. But Brooklyn Senator John Sampson -- who is now co-leading the Democratic conference -- has sponsored legislation that would weaken the mayor's hand. And he wants the panel members to have fixed terms, so they can't be fired if they disagree with the mayor. Sampson said he'd like to look at his bill and the Assembly's bill to see if there could be any compromises. When asked if there's still time before law expires on June 30 he said that's up to Republican Senator Dean Skelos, who insists he's still in charge of the Senate. Albany observers believed Republicans won't let the law sunset because they don't want to alienate Bloomberg, who's a generous donor. For WNYC I'm Beth Fertig.