This study, a political history, analyzes three educational crises in New York City during the last 25 years. Primary attention is given to the mayoralty in an attempt to ascertain the effectiveness of his power in education. This research analyzes his role by eliciting the actual operations of decision making (participants involved, exertion of power, wielding of influence, and the where and how of conducting negotiations); identifying and assessing common and unique characteristics in each crisis; and integrating the findings to increase our store of knowledge about urban educational governance. These studies of the administrations of Mayors LaGuardia, Wagner, and Lindsay demonstrate that politics and education have been closely intertwined in New York City's history. The mayor has usually played a prominent role in educational crises, for when problems arose, the citizenry, along with the crisis participants, looked to the mayor for direction and solutions. Mayors have usually been rendered powerless when trying to shatter the education-sans-politics myth openly. Education has become an integral part of urban life closely tied to the politics of the city. Educational leadership and responsibility have been lacking in the educational community. Educational governance in the future will be effective only when its officials are able to lead, account, negotiate, and compromise. (Author/JM)