July 17, 2026

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

COUNCIL MEMBER ERIC DINOWITZ INTRODUCES RESOLUTION FOR A CITY COUNCIL APPOINTEE ON THE PANEL FOR EDUCATION POLICY (PEP)

CITY HALL, NY — New York City Council Member Eric Dinowitz today introduced a resolution calling for the state to amend legislation to grant the City Council the ability to designate one seat on the Panel for Educational Policy (PEP). Resolution 548 also asks the state to give advisory Community Education Councils (CECs) greater oversight of Department of Education hiring decisions within their districts.

The PEP oversees school closures, co-locations, grade reconfigurations, and DOE contracts exceeding $1 million, affecting roughly 1 million students and 140,000 DOE staff members. Yet the City Council holds none of the panel’s 24 seats: 13 appointed by the Mayor, 5 by the borough presidents, 5 elected by Community Education Council presidents, and one independent chair, also picked by the Mayor. CECs face a similar imbalance at the district level. 

“Parents, students, and local communities deserve a real voice in the decisions that shape their schools,” said Council Member Eric Dinowitz. “Right now, the City Council funds the Department of Education and provides oversight, but we don’t have a seat at the table when major policy decisions are made. Giving the City Council a seat on the 24-person board would help democratize the panel. Our CECs also know their districts better than anyone, but they’re limited to an advisory role. I call on my colleagues in Albany to pass legislation to give New Yorkers a real voice in the decisions that affect their children’s education.”

“People closest to the issues have the best handle on how to solve them. I fully support Council Member Dinowitz’s resolution and call on our representatives in Albany to meaningfully empower parents and students serving on their local Community Education Councils and to add a voting City Council member on the Panel for Educational Policy. In a system as large as New York City’s, operating under top-down mayoral control has historically prevented individual school communities from having both the actual authority and the real responsibility to be good stewards of public resources. This resolution is a real step in the direction of devolving power back to the community level, where community members should be entrusted to address their needs and wants,” said Naveed Hasan, elected Manhattan parent member, Panel for Educational Policy, and chair of the PEP Government Affairs committee.

The resolution calls for granting the NYC Council a designated seat on the PEP and strengthening CECs’ role in district leadership decisions, introducing a greater measure of legislative and community accountability into the city’s public school system. While CECs help identify superintendent candidates and submit annual evaluations, they currently hold no binding authority over who leads their district’s schools.

This comes after Council Member Eric Dinowitz held a hearing in February 2026 regarding Mayoral Control of NYC Public Schools.

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