It's high noon for Bloomberg: Mayor Mike must confront the UFT

Stanley Crouch with a brilliant op ed in the NY Daily News, calling on Mayor Bloomberg to be strong:

So now is the time for Mayor Bloomberg to face what might be called a "high noon" moment. It demands he put up and take a heroic walk, or shut up and go down in history with knees too weak to make the necessary hike.

After feeding the United Federation of Teachers with a silver spoon for so many years, Bloomberg now has to show he is serious about leaving a legacy of improved public education.

Otherwise, he will prove himself a puppet of the UFT. As the UFT sees it, the children should never come before the union's intention of saving the job of every incompetent teacher. In the eyes of union head Michael Mulgrew, paying dues is the only form of competence his members should be required to show.

Bloomberg has been pushing against "last in, first out" terminations and for stricter teacher evaluations. But in the face of union resistance, he and Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott must push harder.

Bloomberg should take note of those actually already getting his purported goals done. Perfectly full proof is available. Examples work within the public schools, like Danielle Moss-Lee of the Harlem Educational Activities Fund; or they are in charter schools, like Eva Moskowitz of the Harlem Success Academy. Both have proven false the belief that it is impossible to educate so-called minority children.

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It's high noon for Bloomberg: Mayor Mike must confront the UFT

Stanley Crouch

Monday, June 20th 2011, 4:00 AM

www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2011/06/20/2011-06-20_its_high_noon_for_bloomberg.html#ixzz1Q28zE8O3