Irving Anker

As had been widely expected, Anker was named as School Chancellor in June 1973, with Samuel Polatnick as executive director of the Office of High Schools, Dr. Edythe J. Gaines atop the Office of Educational Planning and Support and Alfredo Mathew, Jr., as chief of the Office of School District Affairs.^[9]

As School Chancellor, Anker oversaw the decentralization program that began in 1969 in which staffing choices in elementary and middle schools were made by a network of 32 community school boards. Often viewed as a steppingstone to political office or as an opportunity for patronage, Anker was often at odds with the local boards, ultimately investigating charges of corruption or mismanagement in seven of the 32 local boards and using his powers to suspend board members or to override their actions. In one of his first confrontations, after dismissing the school board of District 9 in the Bronx and replacing it with a trustee he appointed, Anker faced a sit-in by parents who viewed Anker's actions as a racially motivated effort to undermine local control.^[2]

In December 1974, Anker submitted a proposed $2.78 billion budget for the 1975-76 school year that would add more than $500 million in spending over the previous budget, which would be used to expand services for handicapped and non-English-speaking students.^[10] Anker resisted efforts by Mayor of New York Abe Beame to cut services during the depths of New York City's fiscal crisis, saying that he was only requesting "enough money to make the schools as good as possible - not nearly enough to make them as good as they ought to be".^[10]

In a time of belt tightening citywide, Anker said that "we cannot write off the children of New York City without calling into question every value we live by".^[10]

City budget officials forced Anker to make $230 million in cuts, including the termination of 21,000 positions in the system, increasing class sizes and reducing much of the art, music and after-school programs that had previously been offered. The increased burdens on the remaining teachers led to a five-day strike in September 1975 by the United Federation of Teachers, which ended when Anker agreed with UFT head Albert Shanker to cut 90 minutes from the school day.^[2]

In an effort to more thoroughly integrate the city's high schools, Anker had the attendance zones of high schools in Brooklyn modified to achieve a greater balance between white students and the increasing numbers of African American and Hispanic students, which resulted in further white flight from the city and its schools. The Board of Education was charged in 1977 by the federal government, which claimed that the city's schools discriminated in the hiring of African American and Hispanic teachers and had improperly concentrated minority teachers in majority minority schools. Anker implemented changes to expand hiring of minority teachers and to achieve a more even distribution of staffing around the school system.^[2]

After taking office in January 1978 as Mayor of New York, Ed Koch forced out Anker as Chancellor in favor of Frank Macchiarola, a key Koch advisor who had been a vice president of the CUNY Graduate Center and deputy director of the New York State Emergency Financial Control Board for New York City; Anker would serve until his contract ended on June 30, 1978.^[11]

After departing the city schools, Anker became an educational consultant, in addition to teaching at a Florida community college and at the Graduate School of Education of Long Island University.^[2]

A resident of Jamaica, Queens, Anker died at his home there at age 88 on June 12, 2000, of natural causes. He was survived by his wife, three daughters, a son and seven grandchildren.^[2] A product of the city school system himself, all three of his children attended city public schools.^[12]