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To hear Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the Schools Chancellor Joel Klein tell it, the public schools are more successful than they've ever been. Test scores are up, school crime is down, and just this week the mayor announced that graduation rates are also on the rise.

"Any ways you look at it, the progress over the last seven years has been dramatic," said Bloomberg when he announced the graduation rates.

"Since the mayor took ac and resp for our schools, we fundamentally changed the system and transformed results," says Klein.

Even the mayor's most vocal critics don't want to rock the boat too much. Few want to go back to anything like the old Board of Education system.

"The mayor should have control and more responsibility but I think there should be more checks and balances," said Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum.

Yet school advocates, the mayor's critics and thousands of parents agree - if the mayor stays in control of the school system, a lot has to change.

"It's one-man rule, it's 'What I say goes,' it's unbelievable the kind of dictatorial leadership he has over the New York City school system," says Zakiya Ansari, who has four children in the public school system.

Ansari volunteers for the Campaign for Better Schools, a group that specifically wants checks and balances on the mayor's powers, more transparency and more parental and community input.

"I think parents have been crying out to have input in the process, and the mayor's been very clear that he and Klein call all the shots," says parent Kevin Doherty.

Right now, decisions are made by something called the Panel for Education Policy, or PEP, the mayor appoints eight out of the panel's 13 members and the five borough presidents appoint the rest.

Early on, PEP members who disagreed with the mayor's policies were removed.

"I think that if the PEP had some independence then they would be able to weigh in meaningfully on policy issues," said April Humphries of Campaign for Better Schools.

As state legislators try to figure out how to change that, while still leaving the mayor in control, dissatisfied parents can only hope their lawmakers have really done their homework.