Sunday, May 24, 2009

Good News


As much as the Daily News acts as a mouthpiece for BloomKlein, you still have to hand it to them when they get one right. They published a great Op-ed piece (which they call a Special to the News) that exposes mayoral control for what it is: a rubber stamp in the hands of a megalomaniacal mayor.

What makes this piece different is that it was written by a teacher, one Arthur Goldstein, who rips into the mayor for overcrowding, crumbling school infrastructure, and abuse of power (especially the PEP, a joke of a panel that must vote the mayor's way or face termination.

I especially love the first line: "As a teacher in an A-rated school, I believe mayoral control has been an absolute disaster." Most schools get As or Bs, and far too many teachers are content to let it ride at that. The dirty little secret of the NYC public schools is that the schools have improved little, if any. Yes, the test scores have improved because the tests themselves are dumbed down and we are forced to spend months teaching students how to take them, but that doesn't mean that education has improved one iota.

This is a mayor who is buying his way into a third term because he controls the media with his powerful pursestrings. Kudos to the News for putting the opposing view out there, and to Mr. Goldstein for having the courage to say it.

3 comments:

Chaz said...

That Arthur is a great writer but I could swear I have seen his writings before. Hmmmm.

If I was given the opportunity, I would also include the DOE's lack of accountability, phony graduation rates, and their lack of a discipline code for students.

Miss Eyre said...

Maybe people will take what he has to say seriously if they see that he is a teacher in an "A" school. They assume that the teachers who complain about mayoral control are deadbeats in lousy schools. But he must be doing something right.

ed notes online said...

He's in "A" overcrowded school.