In my race for New York City Council in the fall of 1999, I emphasized public education. In office, I hoped to dive right into the problems of curriculum, teacher training, and extracurricular activities -- critical ingredients in delivering a first-rate education. Instead, I found myself confronting the 10-foot rule.

I discovered this rule quite accidentally. No constituent complained, no principal demanded I investigate.

I was simply touring a school in my district, listening to the principal explain how happy he was that he had managed to get his school painted just before the students arrived. As I talked, I noticed that the ceiling of the classroom we were in was definitely not painted. Figuring the painters had just missed one, and not wanting to rain on his parade, I didn't say anything.

Then I had to speak up -- because as the tour went on, I found that every ceiling was unpainted, as were the upper parts of the walls.

The principal explained that the board of education separates contracts for painting walls and for painting ceilings. What about the top of the walls, I asked? Well, he replied, the top third or so of the wall is technically considered part of the ceiling.

Frankly, I found this all hard to believe, even granting a healthy dose of board of education bureaucracy. So I called the board, relating all I'd seen and expecting to meet puzzlement or disbelief. Instead, without missing a beat, my contact said, "Oh yes, that's the 10-foot rule."

What, I asked hesitantly, is the 10-foot rule?

I was informed that this rule divvies up the work of painting schools between the custodians (below) and the painters (above). The result of this moppers/painters distinction is a bizarre and wasteful approach to maintenance that we would never accept in any other context.

Would you want your apartment to be painted in two steps, perhaps years apart? Your inconvenience would be doubled, since you'd have to move your furniture and vacate your apartment twice, you'd have to live with a half-painted apartment for years, and your costs would rise since much of the work (e.g., showing up, covering furniture, and hauling supplies) would have to be done twice.

It's bad enough that money that should be spent on books and teacher training is instead going toward higher painting costs. But the implication is more troubling: If our schools can't get something simple like painting right, how can we be confident they will be able to tackle the real challenges, like teaching children to read and write?

At the Mercy of a Monopoly

The 10-foot rule is a symptom of a much deeper problem. We are at the mercy of an educational monopoly, a system that is the sole repository of public funds for education and therefore competes with no one for the privilege of educating our children.

As with any monopoly, good intentions haven't stopped the system from growing complacent. Sometimes, it lets the needs of its customers -- our children -- come behind those of special interests.

Fortunately, this is changing. Under a 1998 state law, charter schools are being created by community leaders and parents who believe the present system doesn't fully meet our children's needs. We now have more than a dozen charters in New York City. The founders of these schools believe that, freed from bureaucratic overhead and red tape, they can meet the needs of many of our children who are being failed by our current system.

We should welcome this competition. The point is not to weaken our existing public schools, or even just to create a few new good schools. The point is to improve all of our schools through the rigors of competition.

Competition challenges us to do our best. As an elected official, I am always aware that there are others who will be glad to take my job if I don't do it well.

Competition is also a creative process in which competitors can learn from each other about more effective and efficient practices, just as American car makers eventually learned from the Japanese. In this way, even the "losers" ultimately are winners.

That's why I welcome competition. Hopefully, one of the first lessons our schools will learn is that they cannot afford to let complaisance or red tape -- like the 10-foot rule -- interfere with educating our children.

Blueprint Keywords: Extra Moskowitz

Eva S. Moskowitz represents the Upper East Side on the New York City Council and was featured in our last issue as one of the New Democrat movement's 100 rising stars ("100 to Watch", TND, Summer 2000). This article is reprinted by permission of The New York Post.