Lest anyone doubt the real motive of the rally slated for last night by Randi Weingarten and her teachers union, consider the remarks of their shills at a state Assembly hearing Tuesday.
Education Committee Chairwoman Cathy Nolan and Assemblyman Ruben Diaz questioned Mayor Bloomberg’s progress in improving the schools in the five years since he wrested control of them from folks like, well . . . Weingarten & Co.
In so doing, they made their ultimate goal obvious: to kill off Chancellor Joel Klein’s reorganization plan and then reclaim school governance for folks like (you guessed it) Weingarten & Co.
How will they accomplish this?
By blocking renewal of the law (set to expire in 2009) that gives City Hall control of the schools.
“There is a lot of frustration in the Legislature that we express these concerns and they don’t get addressed,” Nolan brayed. Diaz said Klein was “playing with numbers” that masked “the real story” of overcrowded classrooms and a 14.4 percent dropout rate.
Earlier, Diaz actually went so far as to demand the resignations of Klein and Deputy Mayor Dennis Walcott.
Both Nolan and Diaz, of course, do quite well for themselves from campaign contributions from the Voice of Teachers for Education, the political action committee of the New York State United Teachers (parent of Weingarten’s United Federation of Teachers).
No, Bloomberg and Klein haven’t completely fixed the schools. Far from it.
But Klein painted a hopeful picture: “Our fourth-graders have gained almost 19 percentage points in math over the past four years,” he said. “In English, our fourth-graders have gained almost 12.5 points, compared to only 3.5 points by students in the rest of the state.”
“Graduation rates,” he added, “are higher than they’ve been in more than 20 years.” And, he said, “the city’s schools are safer, class sizes are smaller, teachers are paid 43 percent more and the department has cut more than $270 million from bureaucracy and redirected it to schools and classrooms where it can help students learn.”
In doing the UFT’s bidding, Diaz and Nolan seem to be actively opposing what’s working. How utterly shameful.