New York, NY —

A new report from a commission appointed by Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum is recommending that the legislature curtail some of the control Mayor Michael Bloomberg has over New York's public schools.

The report calls for changing the way the independent Panel for Educational Policy is created and run. Currently 7 of the panel's 12 members are appointed by the mayor and can be removed at any time. The commission wants to create fixed four-year terms for panel members.

Gotbaum says it's not about criticizing Mayor Bloomberg and Joel Klein.

GOTBAUM: This is about looking at how you can make a system that's going to sunset, the law is setting in June, and what we tried very very hard to do, what the commissioners tried very, very hard to do was to point out what can be made better.

REPORTER: It also recommends re-establishing local school districts to give parents more access and influence and giving the city's comptroller auditing power over the Department of Education.

Mayoral control over city schools is set to expire in June 2009.