Mayor Mike claims his critics favor a return to "failure, indifference and paralysis." Those are things of the past, claims hizzoner. Consider how things have changed. What about the unqualified success of charter schools? What about his record of achievement?
To buttress his position, Mayor Mike appeared with a completely impartial group of those who understand common sense:
...the group was composed of many people who also have business dealings with the school system, including two former Education Department officials, leaders of nonprofit organizations that are helping to run schools and high-profile donors who have given millions to support the mayor’s work.
That ought to make it perfectly clear his critics lack the vision to privatize public schools. None of them are willing to construct public schools on contaminated sites while concurrently giving Randall's Island to private schools in a sweetheart deal. Which of them would devote a former school building to new condos while sending public school kids to study in brownfields? How many of them have the vision to close schools in the face of unconscionable overcrowding?
Which of them would jail a thirteen-year-old girl for writing on a desk? And which of them has the courage to blatantly fudge statistics, so as to improve the dropout rate?
But the worst of it was when he went after UFT President Randi Weingarten. Ms. Weingarten supported and enabled mayoral control, gave up guaranteed placement for senior teachers, sent every working teacher back to the lunchroom forever, gave away the UFT transfer plan, allowed her members to be suspended for 90 days based on unsubstantiated allegations, and did all that and more for less than cost of living.
Mayor Mike needs to stop criticizing Ms. Weingarten. Instead, he should place her statue on the dashboard of his limo.
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