Friday, July 17, 2009

The Lashings Of Mayor Queeg


from Liz Benjamin's nydaily news blog
Using some of his strongest language to date, Mayor Bloomberg gave the Senate Democrats a tongue-lashing this morning - even calling some of them out by name - for failing yet again to pass a bill reauthorizing his control over the public school system.
During his weekly WOR radio show, Bloomberg told host John Gambling Gov. David Paterson should force the Senate to return to Albany "every single day" for the rest of the summer until they pass a mayoral control bill, even employing the State Police to "drag them back" if necessary.
"This is what he should do," Bloomberg said of Paterson, noting that he has been "defending" the governor throughout the Senate stalemate. "Giving them the summer off is as we say in Gallic, ‘Meshugenah'".
"I cannot for life of me understand what the agenda is of the people, there were 15 people last night who voted for a bill which would end all of the progress that we’ve made in the schools, in terms of bringing down crime and improving test scores and graduation rates and bringing down the drop-out rate."
"You wonder what goes through their heads, and they all come from neighborhoods where improvements in the schools have been dramatic. And you wonder what on earth they are thinking about in term of voting for a bill that would literally end all of that.”
Bloomberg accused the opponents of the Assembly bill, which would largely preserve his power, of wanting to "ruin the schools: and accused them of trying to establish a "slush fund to train parents so parents can disrupt the schools."
He also called the allegation that the administration refused to negotiate "total bull".

Those 15 Senators are heroes. They know the mayor's statistics are based on easier tests, bogus schemes like credit recovery, deliberate attempts to push out low scorers from the test pool and a tantalizing temptation to cheat by the offering of bonuses for higher scores. Add to that media sycophants like Gambling.
btw, A tongue lashing from the Mayor? He's probably an expert at that.

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