At one point in the debate Friday, which was co-sponsored by the Daily News, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer said that if Spitzer wasn't so rich and well-connected, he would be in prison.
"Anyone who did what Eliot did would be in jail right now," Stringer said. "You engaged in money laundering," he added, referring to the former governor's 2008 prostitution scandal that forced him to resign from office. "You broke your own eggs because you engaged in illegal, illicit activity," he said.
Spitzer pushed back by saying Stringer was in Bloomberg's pocket when he helped with an inside deal to overturn term limits and give Bloomberg a third term.
Unfortunately both Stringer and Spitzer found common ground in one area: education reform.
According to the Daily News, they both pledged to help reform the public education system.
Just what we need, two guys who want to be comptroller, an office that has no power to reform the education system, who want to reform the education system.
Here's a question I have - is there any public official or politician currently running or in office who says enough with the reform?
We've had thirteen years of reforms, school closures, increased emphasis on testing, teacher evaluation reform, etc. and the system is worse than ever.
Education reform is the problem, not the solution.
Vote for either of these guys, however, and you're going to get more problems in public education, not solutions.
Maybe I'll support Kristin Davis, the madam Spitzer hired hookers from who just got arrested for selling drugs.
That kind of behavior is less destructive than the kind of reform the education reformers are pursuing these days.
In Stringer's defense, he appointed Patrick Sullivan to PEP. I'd need to hear specifics about what he wished to change.
ReplyDeleteIt is true that Stringer appointed Sullivan.
DeleteAnd yet, Sullivan's vote is not the deciding vote on the panel.
Were it the deciding vote, I bet Stringer would be persuaded to find somebody else amenable to the corporate education reform agenda.
Stringer's record on real estate issue (Columbia, St. Vincent's), his helping Bloomberg with a third term both suggest when the chips are down, Stringer is a reliable vote for the corporate owners in this city.
Agreeing with NYC Educator here. I'm surprised that you took the word of the Daily News without, apparently, doing your usual fact checking. Since announcing for comptroller, Springer has not said much specifically about educational policy. But he has in the past as Manhattan Borough Pres. and even before that, and he is NOT on the education reform bandwagon. Though he does agree that educational system, especially after 12 years of Bloomberg, needs change for the better.
ReplyDeleteAnd yet the DFER's are big supporters:
Deletehttp://gothamschools.org/2011/07/19/donations-reflect-dfer-execs-early-support-for-stringer-2013/
Hey, maybe strange bedfellows for many , but the only solid political opposition to the Common Core comes from the Tea Party, some Repubs, and libertarians.
ReplyDeleteParents will have to revolt to get anything done here in NYC- the center of the Ed. Reform Complex.
I totally agree with you. There are quite a few edu-bloggers unhappy with joining libertarians and Tea Partiers to fight Common Core, but the truth is, the reason the Core is in trouble across the nation is because of these two groups.
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