Mayoral hopeful Bill Thompson vowed Thursday to get rid of the trailers used as makeshift classrooms at overcrowded city schools.
Democrat Thompson, the chosen candidate of the teacher’s union, seized on one of their pet issues in denouncing the 357 trailers -- some infested with mold -- still being used to house kids.
“Right now the city is operating 350 classroom trailers that are leaky, unreliable, broken, and dangerous. Many of them are nearly 20 years old, and many of them are mold-ridden,” Thompson said. “Our children are slowly being poisoned."
Thompson said he'd decommission the trailers “on day one.”
And just where does he plan to put the students and teachers currently using those trailers on day two after he decommissions the trailers on day one?
He doesn't know:
But he could not provide a cost for replacing the space or a plan to pay for it.
Thompson sent Randi Weingarten out earlier this week to attack Bill de Blasio for living in a fantasy land over his plan to provide pre-k by taxing rich people, a proposal that would require legislature approval in Albany.
And yet here is Thompson today, standing next to Randi's surrogate, Mike Mulgrew, claiming he's going to get rid of those moldy old school trailers on day one without any inkling how he's going to pay for the plan or find the space for the children and teachers currently housed in the trailers.
I await Randi Weingarten's wise, wise counsel as she gently explains to Thompson that it isn't much of a plan if you don't know how you're going to pay for something or figure out spacing issues.
