Bloomberg can't wait to fire teachers. His mantra is "accountability." In Bloombergworld, it's "Children First, Always." And yet, 70% of these children now live in poor households. As Bloomberg stacks the decks against the public schools that might, in some small way, improve the prospects of these kids, as he decimates their neighborhoods by closing their schools, these kids are, indeed, the first to suffer.
Perish forbid that Mayor Bloomberg's rich peers should pay a little more to support these kids. How could the likes of Cathie Black get by with only 199 million instead of 200 this year? Don't the Koch brothers need that extra billion to fight the pernicious scourge of unions?
Schools are crumbling, class sizes are exploding, and the mayor is focusing on soft drinks and depriving mothers of infant formula. He purports to care about the children, but his attitude, that everyone can go to hell when they grow up, is hardly beneficial long term.
Is poverty completely the fault of the mayor? Is it within his power to correct it? I don't know. I do know he's done precious little to correct it. I also know that he feels teachers should be judged by the test scores of his students whether or not outside factors, like poverty, special needs, or even their ability to speak English color the results.
So, by his own professed standards, Mayor Bloomberg has failed miserably. And, by his own standards, he ought not to keep his job.
I advise you to sit while you wait for this mayor to apply his very public standards to himself. After all, he's got billions, and accountability is for the little people.
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