"It was a political hit that would make Tony Soprano blush." Just hours before the New York City Panel for Education Policy - successor to the Big Apple's school board - was to vote on Mayor Bloomberg's controversial plan to hold back third graders who failed the city's math and reading tests, the mayor axed two of his own hand-picked board members and orchestrated the firing of a third, all of whom were threatening to oppose the policy. "This is what mayoral control is all about," Bloomberg said. "A few of the [board] members didn't agree or were afraid they'd be pressured by outsiders or politicized, so I replaced them with people who agreed with my views." Not surprisingly, the move enraged the mayor's critics, including United Federation of Teachers' president Randi Weingarten, who called it a "Monday night bloodbath." "Mayor Bloomberg manages the Department of Education by instilling fear," assailed Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum. This week's hit on the city's school board members was the last straw for Weingarten and Diane Ravitch, both of whom initially supported Bloomberg's takeover of the city's schools. Today, the pair called on the state legislature to "re-establish an independent board of respected citizens to set policy for the schools" because the mayor's reorganization of city schools and the way he and his team set policy not only leaves "out any role for public involvement, it has also led to serious malfunctioning of school services." Even those who agree with the idea of ending social promotion in the city are questioning the mayor's eleventh-hour decision to re-stack the board in his favor. In an editorial, the New York Daily News credited the mayor for a "bracing display of authority" but criticized his methods, saying the process "wasn't pretty, and the fault resides with the mayor. He chose his representatives to the panel more than a year before he announced his third-grade retention policy with apparently little thought as to where they stood on social promotion." As we said last week: Hizzoner has a habit of acting before he has fully engaged with the likely consequences of action.
"Public schools, minus the public," by Diane Ravitch and Randi Weingarten, New York Times, March 18, 2004
"Bloomberg expels ed panel dunces," New York Daily News, March 16, 2004,
"Mike and pals 'fire' away to end free pass for school kids," by Carl Campanile and David Seifman, New York Post, March 16, 2004,
"Promote vote stacked," by Celeste Katz, Joe Williams, and David Saltonstaff, New York Daily News, March 16, 2004