Meet Mayor Mike

Meet NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who was given control of the NYC Department of Education. This was like burning the village in Vietnam to save it. He put Joel Klein in charge of the schools and together, they have been squeezing the soul and passion out of the profession. Teachers and administrators have been beaten into a pulp like a washed-up boxer. Teaching is both an art and a science; they have extracted the art and left only the science. This has turned teachers and students into robots who go to school each day defeated and spiritless. They are now "accountable". What does that mean? Well, if you are the Principal of a school that has a population of children who live in poverty and can't speak English and whose parents work all day and night just to rise up to the poverty level, your students are expected to perform as well as students who come from affluent homes where both parents are college graduates. That is a noble idea, and of course all students should show progress as they move through each grade, but it is folly to suggest they are all the same. They are not. They come to school with lots of baggage. The people at the top during the past eight years of radical right rule have set the tone - teachers need to work harder; it is their fault students are not succeeding. Leaders like Joel Klein of New York and Michelle Rhee of Washington D. C. contend that pointing out that many students come from disadvantaged backgrounds (poverty, drug abuse, violence, non-English speaking, etc) is merely an excuse uttered by by those who are lazy and do not want to work hard. But they are wrong. All of the research shows that poverty, violence and unstable home lives all do indeed conspire to impede student achievement in school. But what did you expect? None of these people know anything about educating children. Most of them never taught at all, or they taught for 2 or 3 years. Then they went to law school or business school, and then they were put in charge of a school system. Those of us who have devoted our lives to educating children will be here doing the hard work long after these charlatans move on to the next rung in their career ladder.
Back to Mayor Mike. This guy is a riot. The City Council circumvented the will of the people, who had already twice voted for term limits, and voted to give Mayor Mike the right to run for a third term. Many stated that due to the harsh economic climate, we need a business genius like Mayor Mike to guide us through these rough times. So, what will the genius do? He will raise taxes and cut spending. Wow. Hell, I could've done that! Mainly though, he will use a third term to raise his public profile and run for higher office. Then he will go back to being a billionaire. Oh, he will also raise all the tolls and charge congestion pricing to get into the city and tax consumers for things like plastic bags. Now, I am actually in favor of some of those things, but did we need this guy to do these things? I mean, all he's doing is charging citizens more for everything. There isn't one other person in this city who could do this? Enough already with this guy.....