THE PLANK JULY 29, 2009
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New York City Comptroller William C.
Thompson Jr. has a
fiery article in The Huffington
Post today in which he demands that the city get rid of Schools
Chancellor Joel Klein. "In eight years as chief executive of the city's school
system, he has consistently embraced measures designed more to sell the idea of
a system helping our students to attain critical achievement goals than to
target those goals directly," Thompson says of Klein. He also mentions two
audits his office released last week--one addressing high school graduation
rates, the other focusing on standardized testing methods--that he claims prove
Klein is doing a poor job. (The claim has been panned by some
local media.)
What isn't mentioned in the HuffPo article? That Thompson is
challenging Mayor Michael Bloomberg for the city's top job this fall. Bloomberg
appointed Klein and stands shoulder-to-shoulder with him on education
policy. They're so
close, in fact, that their names are practically interchangeable in discussions
of leadership in the city's schools. And guess what? One of Thompson's key campaign
strategies is attacking
Bloomberg's record on education.
Probably should've mentioned these things in the article.
--Seyward Darby
2 comments
This is an extremely foolish approach to attack Bloomy on.
I have no idea who Thompson is and would be happy to listen to his pitch, but attacking Klein and Bloomy's education record is like attacking General Patreaus on his Iraq performance. It is beyond dumb and in to delusional.
I'm one of those people who wish Bloomycould be mayor for life. I shiver at the idea of any one of the hovering hacks, bloviators and know-nothings who will one day replace him getting anywhere near that office.
Bloomy has been simply brilliant, by far the best mayor NYC has ever had. Yes, there is urban blight and the local economy was crushed when Wall Street died, but compared to ANY other major urban city in the world, this city frigging hums. We have the finest police force in US history as well. On this, we wisely ignore the feds entirely and have our own intelligence, armed forces, foreign relations, et cetera. Thank you Mayor Bloomy and Commish.
Let's just say that it is rare to find an administrative genius in a high profile political postion who is owned by no one.
Whoever this Thompson guy hired to run his campaign should be hurled in to the Hudson.
- Wandreycer1
July 29, 2009 at 2:11pm
Wandrey, Bloomberg and Klein have been a disaster for the public school system. Parents hate him. There are kids commuting two hours to get to school. 'They did not foresee the explosion of kindergardners coming into lower Manhattan. That's just two examples.
Also, how can you stand Bloomberg, period? This is the man who loves developers--wanted a stadium/new neighborhood in Brooklyn that would have caused major congestion and a giant shadow. Thank God the poor economy has sidelined that project, as anyone living in Brooklyn will tell you.
- MOLLYSIMON
July 29, 2009 at 10:19pm