NEW YORK, NY April 23, 2003 — Mayor Bloomberg's education reforms are running into trouble in Albany. Less than a year after giving Bloomberg control over the city schools, some state lawmakers believe the mayor and his chancellor have gone too far in their reorganization plans - and they're already threatening action. WNYC's Beth Fertig has more.

The controversy is about the future of the city's 32 community school districts. Mayor Bloomberg wants to streamline what he considers a cluttered bureaucracy. He's moving ahead by installing 10 superintendents who would each be responsible for three or four districts.

But Assemblyman Steve Sanders said this wasn't what he and his colleagues envisioned when they passed the law that abolished the old Board of Education.

SANDERS: I've re-read it 10 times, 15 times just in the last week I cannot find a single reference that would suggest to any fair minded person, that would suggest that a community district is not supposed to have their own singular community district superintendent.

Sanders chairs the Assembly's education committee, which held a hearing yesterday in Manhattan. Chancellor Joel Klein testified that there's nothing in the law preventing one superintendent from running more than 1 district. But Sanders said that was akin to letting a borough president run more than one borough. He also needled City Hall for renaming the school system the Department of Education, when there's no such term under state law.

SANDERS: You're doing it unilaterally and I've got to tell you nobody knows what you're doing.

If Chancellor Klein was annoyed during 2 and a half hours of questions, he did everything not to show it. Repeatedly, he said he was putting children ahead of politics.

KLEIN: I probably talked to thousands of parents, many of whom made the point to me that the system is broken. That the school district structure in terms of education of children is not working well and urged me to restructure it.

Klein cited statistics showing fewer than 40 percent of all students in grades 3 through 8 are meeting state standards in math and reading. He said his reorganization would enable more resources to flow to the schools.

Lawmakers say they support the same overall goal. But they don't like the idea of changing a structure that's been in place for more than 30 years. And they say they're getting an earful from constituents who worry about being merged into super-districts. Brooklyn Assemblyman Roger Green:

GREEN: Parents increasingly feel alienated that there's no entry points at the local level. By example, Parents in Brownsville and East New York have been told they may have to visit a superintendent in Far Rockaway.

Green has joined a lawsuit challenging the reorganization plan. Some Republican state senators have also introduced legislation. How far lawmakers are prepared to go remains to be seen. Noreen Connell, executive director of the Educational Priorities Panel, believes yesterday's hearing was a warning.

CONNELL: I think you have a mayor and you have a Chancellor that come from a corporate background where there's not a lot of public discussion and then you have public lawmakers in an area where there's always been a lot of public input. So I think you see a clash of cultures.

That culture clash was also apparent as lawmakers questioned members of the mayor's Panel on Educational Policy. Bloomberg now controls this body,which replaced the old Board of Education and has far less power. Yesterday's hearing featured two parent representatives on the panel. Jacqueline Kamin of Manhattan and Joan McKeever Thomas of Staten Island said they were initially receptive to the reorganization plan, until the details emerged.

MCKEEVER-THOMAS: We thought that this was a wonderful thing, that it would be just Staten Island alone. So we were extremely surprised when it came out and that Brooklyn and Staten Island were together. ASSEMBLYMAN: It received zero information from them whatsoever? KAMIN: We were invited to the mayor's press conference. ASSEMBLYMAN: OK thank you.

Assembly members say they hope to avoid any litigation by holding more discussions with the Bloomberg administration over the next week. But if they can't reach a compromise, some say they're prepared to challenge these reforms in court or in the statehouse For WNYC I'm Beth Fertig.