Oh, The Editorials They Wrote!

It's fun to go back and look at some of the editorials the mayor's shills have written the past few years regarding the Bloomberg/Klein Education Miracle (which of course turned out to be as phony as the Rod Paige Texas Education Miracle was.)

I already noted what the Post and the Daily News wrote in their endorsements of Bloomberg for an illegal third term in this post here.

But I want to put them up separately too because they're so much fun to read now, kinda like the We Must Invade Because Saddam Has WMD editorials from days gone by.

First, the Post from October 23, 2009:

Fact is, Bloomberg has put together a remarkable record.

* On education: Mike Bloomberg will be remembered as the mayor who brought accountability to the system. Supervisors, principals, teachers, students -- all are now expected to show results.

And they have, often spectacularly.

Now the Daily News on October 25, 2009:

New York is far better off for having had Michael Bloomberg as mayor and will be far better off for granting him a third term in City Hall.

By every significant measure - from plummeting crime and rising school achievement to more and better parks and cleaner streets - Bloomberg has led the city decisively in the right direction over the last eight years.

...

It is the time to call for more of the dynamism that took on the long, hard fight to banish a culture of failure from the nation's largest school system - and has made substantial gains in this most crucial of wars.

Bloomberg pledged to be the education mayor, and skirmishing over his policies has been intense. While dramatically boosting school spending, he overcame opposition to take control, raise standards, boost principals' authority and demand teacher accountability.

The benefits have begun to show - big time.

Fully 82% of the children in third through eighth grades passed this year's math exam, with the success rate for fourth graders rising from 52% in 2002 to 85% in 2009, and for eighth graders from 30% to 71%. Those same kids upped passing rates on reading tests by 20 percentage points. And the high school graduation rate has climbed by 21%.

Only sustained mayoral attention can produce and build on improvements such as those, whether in the schools or in any other area of city endeavor. That inescapable fact weakens rival Bill Thompson's claim to City Hall.

But the improvements were false.

The scores were crap.

It was all smoke and mirrors.

Just like the garbage these editorial writers spew.

And there are some that are quite recent too.

Here's a Daily News editorial from May 21, 2010 that ridicules critics of Bloomberg's vaunted test scores, using the NAEP scores to do it:

Hooey to the chorus that insists New York's public schools are lagging. And hearty congratulations to the kids who racked up stunning scores on the exam that's considered the gold standard in measuring achievement.

...

This round of scores should chasten the naysaying chorus that has risen into full cry with every jump in performance on state exams: The results aren't real. The tests are dumbed down. Teachers are gaming exams. The numbers are phony. And, just wait until NAEP comes out - that'll tell the real story.

It did.

Ah, yes - but the state test results WEREN'T real. The state tests WERE dumbed down. The state numbers WERE phony.

This year's results SHOW that.

Isn't this fun to go back and use the words of the teacher bashers/Bloomberg shills against them?

How about taking a look at how Bloomberg's campaign used the phony test scores to win an illegal third term for the Little Dictator:

Despite what aides say is a comfortable lead in the polls, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has unleashed a harsh television advertisement that seeks to undercut his rival’s record on public school education, an issue at the core of the mayor’s bid for a third term.

The commercial compares the performance of New York City schools under Mr. Bloomberg and under Comptroller William C. Thompson Jr., the Democratic nominee for mayor, who served as president of the now-defunct Board of Education from 1996 to 2001.

It highlights a familiar theme in Mr. Bloomberg’s re-election bid, portraying Mr. Thompson as a vestige of an old, broken system and suggesting that the mayor has capitalized on his political independence to institute positive reforms. (Mr. Bloomberg’s campaign slogan: “Progress, not politics.”)

“When you compare apples to apples,” the ad’s narrator says, “Thompson offers politics as usual. Mike Bloomberg offers progress.”

...

The ad claims that under the mayor, graduation rates and test scores have improved, while violence in schools is down. It says that under Mr. Thompson’s watch, at the Board of Education, dropout rates increased and schools promoted students to the next grade, “even if they didn’t learn.”

Mr. Bloomberg’s campaign strategists said the ad was a response to weeks of criticism from Mr. Thompson, who has assailed the mayor’s management of the city’s schools.

In 2002, a year after Mr. Thompson stepped down from the Board of Education, Mr. Bloomberg disbanded the body and took control of the schools, saying voters should hold him accountable for the results.

Mr. Bloomberg has pointed to rising test scores and graduation rates since then as proof that mayoral control works — and that he deserves a third term.

Mr. Thompson has called the mayor’s authority a “corporate model” that fails students and parents, cutting them out of the process.

And he has accused the mayor’s office of using inaccurate graduation and dropout rates, turning New York City into “the Enron of public education.”

Howard Wolfson, a spokesman for Mr. Bloomberg’s campaign, said Mr. Thompson “has been very vocal in attacking the mayor’s education record, and we felt the need to respond.”

The Bloomberg campaign responded all right - with lies, distortions, and phony statistics.

If Bloomberg's rationale for a third term was heavily based upon his record as the "Education Mayor" and that record is shown to be full of lies and distortions and phony stats, isn't the rationale for his third term called into question?

I'd have to say yes, dear reader, it certainly is.

Of course Bloomberg would have known that today when he spoke at a press conference at Tweed and said these scores show just how much progress city students have made.

Not kidding, that's what he said.

Even though many more students failed the test this year and even though raw scores from the year before for both the city and state were stagnant.

Still, Bloomberg says this is progress.

Ahh, yes, I am sure that will be the argument we will hear from the same editorial writers at the Post and Daily News who wrote all the jive I quoted above about how wonderful Bloomberg and his education policies are.

When all else fails and you are exposed as lying sack of education deform bullshit, just look directly in the camera and lie, lie, lie.

Hell, it worked for Bush and Cheney all those years.

It's worked for Bloomberg and Klein for three freaking terms.

It'll keep working, right?