NYSED Tries To Get Businesses On Board With Common Core Tests

John King looks for help for his Common Core test regime:

Amid complaints of disruption and angst in the classrooms, the state's major teachers union launched a petition drive asking parents to protest the use of a new set of standardized tests.

Now, state Education Commissioner John King has enlisted business leaders in what might be seen as a counteroffensive.

King urged a roomful of corporate decision-makers to support the tests and, more importantly, the new Common Core approach to learning embraced by New York and 46 other states.

"We need the entire community to support the standards," King said Thursday during a talk hosted by the Center for Economic Growth.

At the end of the hour-long discussion, CEG Executive Director Michael Tucker urged those in attendance to sign a pledge saying they would support the Common Core by writing letters to the media and generally talking up the concept.

Such efforts are the latest front in the battle for public opinion — and possibly legislative intervention — over the Common Core and its exams, which will also play a role in how teachers are evaluated.

They must really be feeling the pressure up their in Albany if King needs to sucker business guys into this p.r. campaign.

What makes him think anybody cares what these businessmen and businesswomen think about the tests?

Bloomberg Sued Over Extortion Claims

More criminal activity from our criminal mayor:

The taxi magnate who said he was subjected to a profanity-laced rant by Mayor Bloomberg has filed a federal lawsuit charging the mayor with threatening him and siccing TLC inspectors on his fleet in retaliation for his opposition to the “Taxi of Tomorrow” plan.

The suit, filed in Manhattan federal court late yesterday, accuses Bloomberg and TLC chief David Yassky of ordering inspectors to dump a blizzard of bogus tickets - totaling about $3.5 million - on cabs operated by Taxi Club Management CEO Gene Freidman.

“It’s deeply disappointing and terribly disturbing that the mayor will use his powers to try to beat people who disagree with him into oblivion,” said Steve Mintz, the lawyer representing Freidman.

The suit is an amended version of an earlier suit Freidman had filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, but contains the new allegations against Bloomberg and Yassky.

The TLC has imposed $85,000 in fines on one of Freidman’s medallions and similar penalties are in the works against dozens of other medallions, adding up to roughly $3.5 million in penalties, Mintz said.

Yassky, according to the suit, offered to revoke the fines in exchange for Freidman dropping his challenge to the mayor’s plan.

“In other words, Yassky was offering to exercise his discretion in a manner favorable to Freidman in exchange for a benefit in the form of political support for Taxi of Tomorrow,” the suit charges.

Freidman had originally sued the city to stop Bloomberg’s pet “Taxi of Tomorrow” plan, which would replace the existing fleet of hacks with new, gas-burning Nissan minivans.

A Manhattan Supreme Court judge ruled against the mayor’s plan last week.

A day later, as The Post first reported Wednesday, Bloomberg heaped abuse on Freidman in a private club at Madison Square Garden during a Knicks game, threatening to “destroy your f--king industry” once he leaves office in January.

“These are the acts of a big, bad bully. It’s Putin-esque,” a source close to Freidman told The Post this morning, comparing Bloomberg to Russian president Vladimir Putin.

The amended federal suit seeks a jury trial and unspecified monetary damages.

Bloomberg spokeswoman Julie Wood scoffed at the suit.

“It’s not uncommon for disturbed and angry people to file lawsuits against the Mayor and the City of New York.

 Actually the disturbed and angry person in this suit would be Mayor Bloomberg, who threatened to "f---ing destroy you guys" once he gets out of office in January.

If this suit is found to have merit and Bloomberg and Yassky really did offer to revoke millions in fines if Friedman would drop his lawsuit against the Taxi of Tomorrow project, then Bloomberg and Yassky both belong in jail for extortion.

NYC Skyline In Weiner Ads Is Actually Pittsburgh Skyline

From the Daily News

Is Anthony Weiner already suffering electoral dysfunction?

The newly minted mayoral candidate had his first snafu Thursday after members of the blogosphere, studying his recently launched campaign site, realized the urban backdrop on it wasn’t New York City.

It was Pittsburgh.

For the first several days of Weiner’s campaign, the top of the his official site, www.anthonyweiner.com, showed a faded image of an urban setting over a blue backdrop.

Most viewers simply assumed it was New York City, given that Weiner, a Brooklyn native, is, in fact, running to be the city’s next mayor.

But on Thursday, several Pittsburgh bloggers and tweeters, including an employee at the University of Pittsburgh, noticed that the photo appeared to contain images of the Roberto Clemente Bridge and other “Steel City” landmarks.

The image, however, was changed around 4 p.m. Thursday, to an urban landscape resembling New York City as news of the embarrassing mistake spread.

Maybe Weiner can run for mayor of Pittsburgh and leave New York alone?

Weiner Lectures Public Employees

Sexting Anthony, fresh from hiding from the press on Day One of his campaign to be mayor of NYC, took to WNYC to explain why New Yorkers should vote for him - he'll take on the public employees unions and make them pay for their fair share!

Weiner’s early campaign strategy appears to try to, as the Times put it this morning, seize a “common-sense centrism” that the other Democrats have so far ignored. In dealing with growing mandated costs tied to the city’s municipal labor force, Weiner said he would want to see workers begin paying health insurance premiums, with higher rates for to smokers.

The Bloomberg administration cited both proposals last month as crucial concessions needed to keep reduce healthcare costs, projected to increase by 30 percent in three years.
“So does this position indicate that you will not be competing for public sector union endorsements?” Lehrer asked Weiner.

Weiner said that the message he wants to send to public employees, with whom the next mayor will have to negotiate new contracts, is that money saved through higher health insurance premiums could end up back in their pockets another way.

“That is money we can’t use for raises,” said Weiner, referring to the $2.6 billion that the city’s annual bill for healthcare is projected to increase by over the next four years.

This lecturing of public employees came after Weiner explained away his sexting mess by saying it was "private behavior" and "things that I was doing in my private life.”

NOTE TO ANTHONY: Sexting is no longer "private behavior" when you send the sext to all your Twitter followers.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that Weiner's decided a campaign against public employees, including teachers, will be his niche in the race.

He is an opportunist with no core beliefs or principles.

Remember when he used to be a progressive?

Oh, yeah - I remember.

But now he's the anti-public employees union guy.

The way Weiner wants to dismiss the scandal says all you need to know about who this man is at his core.

Weiner's first instinct during the sexting mess was to lie and lie and deny and deny.

That he still has not gotten any help for his behavior (what is called a "process addiction" in 12 step vernacular), that he doesn't seem to be all that sorry about much of anything other than that he was caught, and that he seems to desperately need attention the way an alcoholic needs a drink or a heroin addict needs junk just makes him a very, very pathetic man.

That he thinks he should be lecturing public employees about anything makes him a hypocrite.

Hey, Anthony - go away, get some help, get some therapy, and grow up.

Here are some meetings you might check out:

http://saa-recovery.org/

You're welcome.

Firefighters Union: Bloomberg Funks With Emergency Response Time Data

From the Daily News:

The city is playing with fire as 911 call centers go dangerously understaffed and the FDNY underreports its emergency response times, union officials claimed Wednesday.

The FDNY is fudging its emergency response times by as much as a minute by not including how long it takes a caller to get through the understaffed 911 system, said firefighter union head Steve Cassidy.

“They’re not counting the time a 911 caller spends with the 911 operator. The time is significant — over a minute,” said Cassidy, citing FDNY response time data from the last two weeks analyzed by his union.

“When the (FDNY) says response times are four minutes for structural fires, the reality is they’re five minutes, if not longer. When they talk about medical emergencies that are 5 1/2 minutes, the reality is they’re closer to seven,” Cassidy said. 

He blasted the department for not releasing info to the public that tracks emergency response calls from the moment a 911 call is answered by an operator. Historically, the stats are based on when a fire truck or ambulance is dispatched on a call.

Bloomberg claims the city has the fastest response times in history:

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Fewer people died in fires in New York City in 2012 than in any year since modern record keeping began nearly a century ago, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced on Wednesday.

 

There were 58 fire-related deaths last year, compared to 66 in 2011, according to the city's data, which extends back to 1916.

Bloomberg said the shrinking figures marked a continual decline in fire-related deaths in recent decades. There was an average of 140 fire-related deaths a year in the 1990s, and 278 in the 1970s, according to the city.

"With (a) record low number of murders and shootings and the fewest fire deaths in our city's history, 2012 was a historic year for public safety," Bloomberg said in a statement.

Last week, he announced that there were fewer homicides in the city -- 414 in 2012 -- than at any point since modern crime records began in 1963.

The fire department's ambulance service also broke a new record for response times, Bloomberg said. The average response time to life-threatening medical emergencies was 6:30 minutes in 2012, shaving off a second from the previous record set in 2011, he said.

Of course if you add the the time a 911 caller spends with the 911 operator, then the response times are not historic in the least.

Is Bloomberg unaware of the funkiness in the city' reporting of the data?

Is he aware of it but doesn't care?

It's one or the other and either way, it's a big problem.

Looks like we need a Truth Commission for the FDNY data, along with the NYPD crime data and the NYCDOE test scores and graduation rates.

Make Emanuel Pay For This Outrage (UPDATED)

That's the plan:

The board voted 6-0 to back Emanuel on closing 48 elementary schools and one high school program. The vote to close Von Humboldt Elementary was broken out, and passed 4-2. 

The board's solid support for the long, controversial slate of closings came as little surprise to his critics, chief among them the Chicago Teachers Union, which last week filed two federal lawsuits seeking to block the district from following through on its plan.

CTU President Karen Lewis said the union was still hoping courts would intervene to keep schools open but vowed to leverage voter anger over closings to block the re-election of Emanuel, who has said he was prepared to take a political hit for the closings.

"Well, he will," Lewis declared. "I'm glad he's prepared."

Emanuel held no public events Wednesday, but his office released a statement after the vote in which he acknowledged closings were "incredibly difficult" but added, "I firmly believe the most important thing we can do as a city is provide the next generation with a brighter future."

The way to make the future brighter is to beat Rahm Emanuel and send him back to his hedge fund.

That's after winning the civil suits filed to keep these schools opened.

That's the way to make the future brighter.

UPDATE: Emanuel is closing 49 schools to save money.

He's giving DePaul $100 million for a stadium.

The outrages don't stop.

Market-Based B.S.

Global stock markets plunged overnight and here is how Reuters explained the moves:

(Reuters) - Share markets fell sharply on Thursday as investors piled back into safer assets, unnerved by the twin setbacks of unexpected weakness in China's economy and signals that the U.S. central bank may soon scale back its stimulus program.

The yen bounced sharply off recent lows and German Bunds rose, gaining support from a shift in sentiment that followed Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke's comment that the bank may trim its bond purchases at one of its next policy meetings.

A surprise drop in Chinese factory activity in May, followed by data pointing to a second quarter economic contraction in the euro zone, added to investors' worries.

The revived concerns about global growth sent Oil and copper prices lower, and MSCI's world equity index .MIWD00000PUS fell 1.2 percent, putting it on course for its worst day of the month.

Japan's main Nikkei share index .N225 earlier plunged 7.3 percent, its biggest one-day percentage drop in two years and calling a halt to a rally driven by aggressive stimulus measures that the Bank of Japan unveiled in April.

"All the global developments we see in the markets right now are purely liquidity-driven, they are no longer underpinned by fundamentals," said Tobias Blattner European Economist at Daiwa Capital Markets.

"We must learn to live with that kind of volatility."

Let's repeat - "All the global developments we see in the markets right now are purely liquidity-driven, they are no longer underpinned by fundamentals."

This should end well.

The next time you see Ben Bernanke claim the Fed is not creating bubbles, remember that statement:

"All the global developments we see in the markets right now are purely liquidity-driven, they are no longer underpinned by fundamentals."

Not Such A Great First Day On The Campaign Trail

The NY Post and NY Daily News are hammering Anthony Weiner for hiding from reporters after he sent out his video announcing he was running for mayor.

Here's how the DN characterized Weiner's first day on the trail

Anthony Weiner promised an unconventional mayoral campaign — and on day one, he delivered.
After announcing his candidacy in a video posted online at midnight Wednesday, the disgraced former congressman stayed out of sight, shunning the news conference and five-borough tour that typically launch citywide campaigns.

Instead, Weiner holed up in his Park Avenue South digs, conducting 15-minute phone interviews with reporters and dialing up his Democratic rivals, many of whom greeted his entry into the race with less-than-open arms.

...

Weiner’s unusual campaign launch — too late for TV news programs and most newspaper deadlines — had never been done before by a mayoral candidate. Nor in recent times has a major mayoral hopeful launched a candidacy so late in the campaign — or with so few visible allies. Even Weiner’s onetime political mentor, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), declined to comment.

 Bad press on Day One:

This is not exactly the strategy that is going to make that 15% support Weiner garnered in the Quinnipiac poll increase.

They've Lost Everybody

It used to be that a handful of teachers at department meetings would be on board with the latest reform jive.

They could be counted on to talk the talk, use the jargon, and just generally get excited about whatever the latest greatest education fad was that the DOE was trying to sell us.

This year I have noticed that not one teacher in my department is excited about the latest greatest fad - Danielson and Common Core.

Even the teachers who did some of the Common Core PD a few years ago and were first excited about the reforms have turned on them.

I warned teachers in my school a few years ago that these reforms were not being done with us, they were being done to us.

I told people that they were meant to make it easier to scapegoat teachers for all the problems in the school system and ultimately fire a whole bunch of us.

A few years ago, many teachers in my department didn't see the reform movement that way

But now when I say these kinds of things, people just nod their heads and agree.

They know Danielson isn't meant to improve teaching - it's meant to give administrators an easy tool to fire teachers.

Similarly, Common Core is not seen as something meant to improve academic achievement but is seen as yet one more underfunded mandate that is being used to scapegoat teachers for all the ills in the system.

Maybe this is the way the DOE and the NYSED and the Regents want it - everybody so beaten down and demoralized that our PD department meetings sometimes resemble a prisoner of war camp.

But I wonder how it is they think that can push these reforms through with almost no teachers on board with them other than a handful of teachers either too naive or too green to see the agenda behind the movement.

The education reformers are an arrogant lot, so maybe they think they can mandate this stuff from above and put the accountability systems in place and use the media to bludgeon any slackers in the system and it will all work out fine.

But what I hear when I go to meetings with colleagues - even ones who used to be on board with the reforms - is "Boy, I can't wait for this shit to fall apart under its own unworkability."

Doesn't seem like a reform movement with legs when the practitioners who are supposed to put this stuff into practice have turned against it.

I am coming to see this the more we have these Danielson meetings.

There is nobody sitting in these meetings who believes the reform jive at face value anymore.

Nobody.

Where The Race For City Hall Stands Now

Azi Paybarah at Capital NY:

With Weiner in the race, Quinn's formidable early lead is diminished, keeping her well below the 40 percent she'd need to avoid a run-off with whomever comes in second.

The graph shows a steady chipping away of Quinn's lead, perhaps accelerated by the emergence of Weiner, who appears to have a steady base of support. The other non-Quinn candidates haven't seen their standing changed much in the head-to-head matchup.

So, a run-off seems likely, but there's reason to doubt whether Weiner will be among the top two.

He has 15 percent of the primary vote so far, but he's the best known candidate in the race, giving him the least amount of potential to grow his support. Weiner only leads the lesser-known challengers to Quinn by five points among Democratic voters, and that's with nearly 100 percent name recognition.

As I noted last month, when Quinnpiac released similar poll results: "Everyone knows Anthony Weiner, and that's his problem."

Paybarah goes on to look at the trajectory of favorability/unfavorability ratings in the past few polls and notes that de Blasio and Thompson have the most growth potential and the lowest negatives while Weiner's negatives are very high, Quinn's have gotten larger over time and Liu suffers from high negatives as well.

Sure, if the election were held today, the runoff would be between Quinn and Weiner.

But there is a lot of time between now and September and both Thompson and de Blasio have growth potential while Weiner is definitely coming close to his ceiling of support already.

If Quinn continues to lose support and Weiner stays around 15% or under, it will be interesting to see who makes the runoff.

It's not out of the realm of possibility that Quinn, Weiner or both could miss the runoff entirely.

Really, we have a wide open race.

Given that some pundits and Quinn supporters were making like she had this all sewn up back in February when she was at 37%, I think those of us in the ABQ camp can be happy with where the race stands right now.

Bloomberg Threatens Us All

In case you missed the Bloomberg story in the Post this morning:

Mayor Bloomberg went on a spitting-mad rant against a city cab-fleet boss who won a court victory over Hizzoner’s planned “Taxi of Tomorrow” — vowing to “destroy your f--king industry” when he leaves office, The Post has learned.

A fuming Bloomberg made the threat against Taxi Club Management CEO Gene Freidman at Madison Square Garden’s private 1879 Club during last Thursday’s Knick playoff game, a witness said yesterday.

“It was like Gene had kidnapped his child. He used the f-word twice,” the witness said.

Freidman confirmed the blow-up to The Post, and said Bloomberg’s tirade included the warning that, “After January, I am going to destroy all you f--king guys.”

That’s bad news for Bloomberg’s political enemies, who could all become targets once the revenge-minded billionaire has nothing but time on his hands.

Read the whole article and tell me that Bloomberg isn't a threat to us all once he leaves office.

He's got an "Enemies List" in his head of people and groups he's going to get even with and he's got the billions to do it.

This is scary stuff.

Don't know how you stop a billionaire intent on using his money to destroy people or groups he doesn't like.

But we're going to find out in January once Bloomberg leaves office.

Because it seems so long as he remains on this mortal coil, he is going to be looking to get even with people he feels have screwed him or beaten him.

That group includes not only the taxi industry but also the NRA, gun owners, the soda industry, teachers, teachers unions, government workers, and anybody who was opposed to his bike lanes, congestion pricing or Manhattan stadium.

Weiner Screws Up Mayoral Announcement

Not a favorable beginning:

Anthony Weiner announced his campaign for mayor early this morning with — what else? — a leak.

Shortly after midnight, the disgraced ex-congressman’s campaign accidentally posted online a 2-minute, 16-second video in which he throws his hat into the ring, lays out his platform — and even acknowledges the scandal that ended his days in DC.

“Look, I made some big mistakes and I know I let a lot of people down. But I’ve also learned some tough lessons,” he says in the video. “I hope I get a second chance to work for you.”

The clip ends with Weiner on a stoop sitting next to his wife, former Hilary Rodham Clinton aide Huma Abedin, saying, “I will fight for you every single day.”

The stoop scene was shot May 16, according to pictures of the set taken by The Post.

The video — which came out just a few days short of the second anniversary of the day Weiner tweeted a sext of his bulging undies — ends with a logo: “Anthony Weiner for Mayor.”

Sources told The Post that the oddly timed video was legitimate, but that campaign staffers intended for the announcement to come out later today.

The video was posted on a campaign Web site and was then taken down, and then put back up. It also could be seen on YouTube.

Okay, lots of stuff here.

First, Weiner had to announce by video because he was afraid a Howard Stern staffer or some other heckler might interrupt his announcement if it was live with a question about his penis.

Next, he screws up the release by sending it out to early, then pulling it back - thus reminding people of the Twitter photo of his penis he accidentally sent to all of his followers.

Then he announces just a few days short of the anniversary of the infamous Twitter photo.

Not an auspicious start to the campaign.

A Quinnipiac poll out today shows him in second place with 15%, but very high negatives. 

49% of NYer's do not want him to run for mayor, up from 44% in April.

Well, he's running, and he's in second place for now, but so far things are not going so well for him and since he hasn't been able to hire any first string campaign talent and more and more people are saying he shouldn't run, you'd have to say the odds are against him.

De Blasio Gets Another Union Endorsement

Good news for Bill de Blasio:

Mayoral hopeful Bill de Blasio will pick up another significant labor endorsement just days after he won the backing of the city's largest union, the Daily News has learned.

 The 25,000-member Commuications Workers of America District 1 will announce Wednesday that it will back the public advocate and campaign on his behalf.

The endorsement comes as all of the Dempcratic mayoral candidates scramble to woo unions. De Blasio has captured the biggest prize so far, winning the backing last week of Local 1199 SEIU, which is comprised of 200,000 healthcare workers.

"It's a big step forward and really builds off the momentum of SEIU endorsement," de Blasio said in an interview.

De Blasio called CWA District 1 one of the "bellwethers of the progressive movement in the city" and said he hoped the endorsement would serve as a signal to other undecided unions to hop aboard.
"This campaign is the clear progressive choice in this race," he said.

...

 Said the union would mobilize its workers to campaign for de Blasio and would not rule out funding an independent expenditure.

The pace of union endorsements has quickened as Memorial Day approaches.

CWA Local 1180 backed Comptroller John Liu on Tuesday and a coalition of law enforcement unions is poised to support Thompson, the News has reported.

Several prominent unions, including 32BJ and the Uniformed Firefighters Association have yet to make their choice and have not provided a timetable for their decision.

The United Federation of Teachers has said it will reveal its endorsement in mid-June.

Bad news for Joe Lhota - a coalition of law enforcement unions are going to support Thompson.

Guess that crack about Port Authority police being mall cops isn't helping him much.

And he needs all the help he can get.

In the latest Quinnipiac poll, only 13% of New Yorkers said they would support him in the general election over a Democrat.

Oh, and notice who else isn't getting any union endorsements?

Anthony Weiner.

So much for Weiner running under the progressive mantle.

Bloomberg: "After January, I am Going To Destroy All You F---ing Guys!"

Oh yeah, he said it:

Mayor Bloomberg went on a spitting-mad rant against a city cab-fleet boss who won a court victory over Hizzoner’s planned “Taxi of Tomorrow” — vowing to “destroy your f--king industry” when he leaves office, The Post has learned.

A fuming Bloomberg made the threat against Taxi Club Management CEO Gene Freidman at Madison Square Garden’s private 1879 Club during last Thursday’s Knick playoff game, a witness said yesterday.

“It was like Gene had kidnapped his child. He used the f-word twice,” the witness said.

Freidman confirmed the blow-up to The Post, and said Bloomberg’s tirade included the warning that, “After January, I am going to destroy all you f--king guys.”

That’s bad news for Bloomberg’s political enemies, who could all become targets once the revenge-minded billionaire has nothing but time on his hands

I am not surprised that Bloomberg acted like this toward the taxi CEO.

When Bloomberg does not get his way, he turns into a petulant child.

The only problem is, he is a petulant child with billions of dollars to carry out his threats.

You can be sure that if the next mayor overturns some of his signature education policies, Bloomberg will use his billions to bludgeon him or her.

He will look to destroy all these "f---ing guys!"

Here's the rest of Bloomberg's threat to the taxi CEO as reported by the Post:

Freidman approached Bloomberg at the exclusive club a day after a judge ruled that the mayor’s plan to replace the city’s taxi fleet with the Taxi of Tomorrow violated a city code requiring a hybrid-cab option for garage owners.

“I saw Bloomberg and his security there in the club, so I went over and said, ‘Tell me what is going on with the Taxi of Tomorrow?’ ” Freidman, 42, said yesterday.

“He turns to me, and said, ‘Come January 1st, when I am out of office, I am going to destroy your f--king industry.’

“I said, ‘Whoa, Mr. Mayor, calm down! Why can’t I sit down with you and figure out something that works?’ He got back in my face and said, ‘After January, I am going to destroy all you f--king guys,’ ” said Freidman, whose company operates a fleet of 925 yellow cabs.

Freidman said a red-faced Bloomberg’s jaw was clenched.

“He was very angry, very scary, very violent in a non-physical way. He was grinding his teeth, he was spitting, he was red and he was in my face,” the self-styled “King of the Road” claimed.

“The mayor was extremely disrespectful, and not ‘mayorly’ at all. He cursed at me, and when we walked away, I asked a friend who was with me, ‘Did the mayor just threaten me?’

“My friend responded, ‘No, he threatened you twice.’ ”

The mayor’s office declined to comment.

The witness said Bloomberg was just being a sore loser over state Supreme Court Justice Peter H. Moulton’s ruling.

The Taxi of Tomorrow is a Bloomberg pet project that would have replaced nearly the entire of fleet of yellow cabs with a more spacious model that Nissan won the right to design in an open competition.

The taxi industry, led by Freidman, challenged the overhaul — and Bloomberg seeing his foe at MSG set him off, the witness said.

“Bloomberg thinks that everyone should just follow his decisions,” he said.

Freidman said he tried to placate the mayor by reminding him of a meeting in 2006 when Bloomberg praised him for introducing hybrid fuel and wheelchair-accessible taxis.

But nothing would calm Bloomberg — who at one point looked about for security to toss Freidman from the club.

“This was my club that Bloomberg was a guest in, that I had paid to get in, and he wasn’t getting me kicked out of my own place,” said Freidman.

His lawyers have asked MSG to preserve any surveillance video that may have captured the exchange.

Freidman wondered how the mayor planned to “destroy” his industry.

“I don’t know how he’ll destroy me, whether he’ll start a black-car service that will take people for free,” he said. “Perhaps he’ll put $10 million of his own money to lobby against the taxi industry — that is pretty powerful.”

Classic - Bloomberg tries to have security toss Friedman out of his own club until Friedman tells him the mayor is not getting him kicked out of his own place.

While there's a lot of fun reading this story and seeing what a petulant, arrogant jerk Bloomberg is, this story is also quite troubling.

Because it suggests that like Nixon before him, Bloomberg has an "Enemies List" and like Nixon before him, he is going to look to get even with people on that list.

Unlike Nixon, however, Bloomberg has the press in his back pocket since he owns so many news outlets and has the billions to get away with his vengeance.

No wonder the United States of America feels like a Third World country these days.

We're ruled by banana republic dictators like Bloomberg.

More on this later.

Quinn Continues To Lose Support In The Latest Quinnipiac Poll

From Daily Politics:

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn pulls 25% support in a hypothetical Democratic primary for mayor and just-declared rival Anthony Weiner in second with 15% backing in a new Quinnipiac Poll. 

The poll -- obviously conducted before Weiner's midnight leap into the race -- shows Public Advocate Bill de Blasio and former Comptroller Bill Thompson tied for third at 10%, with current Comptroller John Liu trailing at 6%, ex-Councilman Sal Albanese at two percent support and 27% of registered Democrats undecided.

In February, the poll showed Quinn, the perennial frontrunner, up at a comfy 37% support level.
“But where she once was brushing up against the magic 40% number that could get her past a run-off, the wear and tear of the campaign, and possibly the addition of Weiner, are taking a toll on the front-runner," Quinnipiac's Maurice Carroll said.

"This poll says there’s a run-off. It just doesn’t say who’s in the runoff.”

Weiner may be set to shake up the race, but in the new Q poll, 49% of city voters said Weiner, who politically imploded after his 2011 sexting scandal and coverup, shouldn't run for mayor. That's up from the 44% who in April said he should stay out of it.

The trajectory for Quinn is very bad:

February - 37%
Early April - 32%
Late April - 27% (w/ Weiner added to poll)
May - 25%

Yes, Weiner sucks up air out of the race, but his negatives are really high, and as the poll shows, almost half of NYer's don't want hm running.

He can run all he wants - he cannot win.

De Blasio is down 4 points from April as well, so it looks like Weiner could be taking support from him.

The Thompson trajectory is this:

February - 10%
Early April - 13%
Late April - 10%
May - 10%

Thompson isn't exactly catching fire either despite all the money coming in from wealthy donors.

This is anybody's race right now - it's wide open.

Yes, Weiner roils the race and does look to be taking some support from De Blasio.

But from the numbers,  you can see that Quinn has dropped the most since he starting making noises about entering the race.

And Thompson doesn't seem to be gaining much traction either way.

De Blasio's strategy with Weiner in the race has to be to get that second slot.

He's been going pretty hard and heavy at Quinn as Bloomberg-Lite.

Now he needs to add Weiner to that strategy.

Note To Frank Bruni: Maybe Work Protections For Teachers Would Have Helped?

Last August Frank Bruni was won over by the anti-teachers union/pro-parent trigger propaganda film "Won't Back Down."

Frank loved the film and it's anti-teachers union message so much that he managed to miss how bad the film itself was - something the rest of the country did notice.  The movie was one of the lowest grossing films ever.

No matter - Frank ate the whole thing up and crowed about both the film and it's anti-teachers union message in his Times column:

“Won’t Back Down” tells the David-versus-Goliath story of a single mother, played by Maggie Gyllenhaal, who leads a rebellion to wrest control of her daughter’s persistently abysmal public elementary school from local officials. It’s scheduled for release next month, although it was shown to Weingarten a few weeks ago. I saw it on Wednesday. 

And it actually takes pains to portray many teachers as impassioned do-gooders who are as exasperated as parents are by the education system’s failures — and by uncaring colleagues in their midst. But I understand Weingarten’s upset. The union that represents one of those do-gooders (Viola Davis) has lost its way, resisting change, resorting to smear tactics and alienating the idealists in its ranks. What’s more, some of the people who are assertively promoting “Won’t Back Down” are those who cast teachers’ unions as a titanic impediment to the improvement of public education. So “Won’t Back Down” is emerging as the latest front in the continuing war between those unions and their legions of critics, and it has become yet another example of how negatively those unions are viewed.

“When did Norma Rae get to be the bad guy?” asks a union leader (Holly Hunter) in the movie. I don’t know, but that’s indeed the state of play when it comes to teachers’ unions, and it’s a dangerous one. 

...

Over the years, the teachers’ unions have indeed guarded tenure protections and last-in-first-out layoff practices to a zealous degree that could at times seem indifferent to the welfare of schoolchildren. “We bear a lot of responsibility for this,” Weingarten told me in a phone interview on Friday. “We were focused — as unions are — on fairness and not as much on quality.” And they’ve sometimes shown a spectacular blindness to public sensitivities in their apparent protection of certain embattled teachers in given instances.

Frank goes on to write that teachers need to be more flexible and give up their work protections like seniority and tenure in order to make the public education system better.

Because it's work protections like seniority and tenure that cause all the problems in schools, don'tcha know!

That was August.

Here is Bruni this week in the Times:

COLUMBUS, Ohio — No one at the Catholic high school that fired Carla Hale in March claimed that she was anything less than a terrific physical education teacher and coach, devoted to the kids and adored by many of them. 

No one accused her of bringing her personal life into the gym or onto the fields. By nature she’s private. And she loved her job too much to risk it that way. 

But she lost it nonetheless, and the how is as flabbergasting as the why is infuriating. 

Rather suddenly, her mother died, and an hour afterward, she and her brother numbly went through the paces of a standard obituary, listing survivors. Her brother included his wife. So Carla included her partner, Julie, whom her mother had known well and loved. Leaving Julie out would have been unthinkable, though Carla didn’t really think it through at the time. Her grief was still raw. 

A parent of one of the school’s students spotted the obituary, and wrote an anonymous letter to the school and to the Diocese of Columbus, saying that they couldn’t allow a woman like Carla to educate Catholic children. 

So they don’t, not anymore. In a termination notice, the principal explained that Carla’s “spousal relationship violates the moral laws of the Catholic Church.” That was the sum of the stated grievance against her, and after more than 18 years at Bishop Watterson High School, Carla, 57, was done. 

Frank's upset, and rightfully so, that a "terrific physical education teacher and coach," one who was "devoted to the kids and adored many of them" was fired for being a lesbian and living with her partner.

Frank notes the hypocrisy of the church over this and reports that "Neither the federal government nor Ohio outlaws employment discrimination based on sexual orientation," though the city of Columbus does. 

Still, Frank writes, Hale's lawyer is not sure whether the Columbus statute can be applied to religious groups.

I wonder, did Frank consider how a union with its work protections - including outlawing employment discrimination based upon sexual orientation - could have saved Hale her job?

Because they could have.

Frank doesn't like teachers unions in general and doesn't like work protections like seniority or tenure for teachers in particular, so it probably didn't occur to him that what happened to Hale is Exhibit A for why teachers need work protections like seniority and tenure.

But the truth is, the fewer work protections teachers have across the country, the more these kinds of firings will take place.

Frank is rightly outraged Hale was fired from a Catholic school for being a lesbian.

But if Frank Bruni gets his way on work protections for teachers in public schools, you can bet some teachers will be fired from the public schools for the same reason in the near future.

But What Is Their Value-Added Measurement?

From the Washington Post:

Seven children’s bodies were taken from the obliterated Plaza Towers Elementary School on Monday, said Oklahoma City police Sgt. Jennifer Wardlow. Officials believe more young victims are trapped, and dead, in the rubble. “Unfortunately I think that number’s going to grow,” Wardlow said.

Some youngsters were pulled from the debris, wet and dirty but alive. In television interviews, a few said teachers used their bodies to shield students from airborne debris. Dozens of rescuers in hard hats continued to pick through the wreckage. In all, Oklahoma Highway Patrol spokeswoman Betsy Randolph told CNN, 101 people had been pulled alive from collapsed buildings by early Tuesday.

Again and again, we see teachers doing everything they can to save their students from harm during these horrific events - from the Newtown shooting to the Oklahoma tornado.

Joel Klein and Michael Bloomberg and Michelle Rhee and so many other education reformers like to say that teachers are only out for themselves, that they don't care about their students, that they only care about their pensions and their tenure.

Again and again, as we see teachers use their bodies to shield their students from harm in events from Newtown to Okahoma City, we see that what Klein and Bloomberg and Rhee and so many other education reformers say about teachers are lies.

Dicker And Cuomo

More fireworks between the once married couple now on the outs:

Cuomo’s deputy secretary for public safety, Liz Glazer, has become the latest high-level departure from an administration concerned about the governor’s increasingly halting performance, insiders said.

The Post disclosed last week that several high-level departures were expected in the coming months and that two had already occurred.

After Cuomo denied the exclusive report, The Post planned a followup today about Glazer’s departure — but made the mistake of giving Cuomo’s increasingly notorious spokesman, Josh Vlasto, an opportunity to respond. Within an hour, Cuomo’s office leaked the exclusive to the Albany Times-Union.

Vlasto, considered untrustworthy by many reporters, recently claimed that another Post exclusive — that Cuomo told business leaders that he feared the Legislature’s reaction if he moved ahead with fracking — was “totally false.” But Vlasto was then directly contradicted by the Business Council of New York State’s president, Heather Briccetti, and others, who said they were there when the governor said it.

Hey, Fred, I could have told you Vlasto is full of crap.

Most p.r. people are.

So are most journalists.

But it takes special person to be able to sling Cuomo's lies.

Is Randi Feeling The Pressure From Karen Lewis And CTU?

Gates Foundation Education Week wonders:

One of the reasons this situation bears watching is because of how the rise of Lewis and CORE have had reverberations throughout the American Federation of Teachers, CTU's parent union.

AFT has played the card of being the more accommodating of the two national teachers' unions with respect to national policy movements, such as teacher evaluations based partly on student achievement. But Lewis has shown that outright resistance and opposition can work in some contexts, too, and that has proved to be an attractive option for some.

Opposition groups modeled on CORE have sprung up in the AFT's affiliates in New York City and Newark, among other places. And they seem to be having an effect on AFT, which has taken a much more strident tone on standardized testing and school closures lately.

Norm Scott says no:

Don't leave out the connection to the Chicago 80% victory by Karen who is leading the battle against ed deform while Randi once again defends Common core in the NY Times. The AFT I believe gave the CTU money to support the CC or something like that. But from what I hear they are ready to take on that battle. At the AFT convention in LA in July 2014 many of these issues will be fought out with the local 800 Unity slugs just elected will still be pulling back from the battle.

Ed deform will not fall until we drag the UFT/AFT into the battle. The Chicago election was a referendum on the Randi collaboration strategy and that took a beating.

I take a hardline on Randi.

Having watched her here in NYC, I can tell you that all Weingarten cares about is advancing her own career.

This is a labor "leader" with no core beliefs, no principles, no standards of conduct other than "How do I get on television more?"

She maneuvered herself into the "reform-friendly labor leader" slot because that was the place that would personally enrich and benefit her the most.

Until she has her power stripped from her or is carted out on RICO charges, Weingarten will not abandon her chosen role in the education reform war - the collaborator who works from within to destroy teachers and teachers unions.

I am glad that Karen Lewis and CTU are putting some pressure on the AFT leadership.

Winning with 80% of the vote after winning a fight with Rahm Emanuel is, I believe, making the AFTers a little worried that other locals will clamor for the same kind of pushback from their union against the deformers.

So their making some noises like they're pushing back.

But make no mistake, just because the AFT leadership is feeling a little pressure from a local doesn't mean their core collaborator policies will change.

They'll make it look like they're changing their policies without actually, you know, changing their policies.

Kinda like calling for a moratorium on high stakes attached to the Common Core tests, but not pushing for the end of high stakes attached to the Common Core tests.

Sure, Weingarten made headlines, but in the end, she did nothing to halt the education reform steamroller about to crush teachers with value-added measurements based on the Common Core tests that were added before the Common Core curriculum was taught.

That's the stuff Weingarten is made of - getting headlines for herself while doing nothing to help teachers (or worse, actively harming them.)

Yes, But How Would He Score On Standardized Tests?

From the NY Times:

When David Karp was 14, he was clearly a bright teenager. Quiet, somewhat reclusive, bored with his classes at the Bronx High School of Science. He spent most of his free time in his bedroom, glued to his computer. 

But instead of trying to pry him away from his machine or coaxing him outside to get some fresh air, his mother, Barbara Ackerman, had another solution: she suggested that he drop out of high school to be home-schooled. 

“I saw him at school all day and absorbed all night into his computer,” said Ms. Ackerman, reached by phone Monday afternoon. “It became very clear that David needed the space to live his passion. Which was computers. All things computers.” 

Clearly. 

Now 26 years old, Mr. Karp never finished high school or enrolled in college. Instead, he played a significant role in several technology start-ups before founding Tumblr, the popular blogging service that agreed to be sold to Yahoo for $1.1 billion this week. With an expected $250 million from the deal, Mr. Karp joins a tiny circle of 20-something entrepreneurs, hoodie-wearing characters like Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Foursquare’s Dennis Crowley, who have struck it rich before turning 30. 

It's interesting how the culture mythologizes the school dropouts who make it big in tech - from Gates to Jobs to Karp.

Yet the same culture promotes a one size school system for all that clearly Gates and Jobs and Karp and other so-called "geniuses" can't work with.

I think it's even more interesting that so many of these tech entrepreneurs promote the one size fits all school system through their philanthropic efforts.

No one has done this more than Gates.

Zuckerberg is joining that movement.

And Karp tells the Times "He intends to 'figure out something' with philanthropy."

Don't be surprised if this Bronx High School of Science dropout doesn't join his fellow techies in promoting a one size fits all school system for everybody else.