Whatever Eva Wants, Eva Gets

Mayor Bloomberg, in what may be his last term in office, is determined to leave his imprint upon the city school system. It's certainly true that his endless decade of "reform" has not brought about improvements in test scores, the only thing he actually cares about. And with hundreds of closed schools and the decimated neighborhoods in their wake, we know the quality of life is not anything to jump up and down about either.

But it's important that his good buddy, Eva Moskowitz, gets as much of a foothold as possible into what was once a purely public school system, so Mayor4Life is giving her even more schools to privately manage. One is Washington Irving, scheduled for closure, and the other is the High School of Graphic Communication Arts. The latter was one of the 24 scheduled for Bloomberg-style "turnaround," which appears unlikely.

But nothing nips at morale quite like a two-tiered system within a single building, where private-school students of Eva Moskowitz are treated better than the lowly kids actually served by public schools. There's nothing like seeing your building crumble at the seams, entering through a back door, or having your library disassembled and boxed up to let you know just where you stand. And, with low morale and disillusionment, "failure" and closure can follow closely behind.

It's kind of amazing to have a mayor who cheerleads for failure and closure of his own public schools. But with Bloomberg, it's become sort of a tradition.

Let's hope it ends conclusively next year, and the NY has the sense to vote in a mayor who actually wants city kids to get a decent education, as opposed to the enrichment of hedge-funders and one-percenters enthused about charter schools.