The motives and methods of Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his Schools Chancellor Joel Klein on education issues are mysterious to me. In Tuesday's NY Post, Katheryn Wylde, the head of the NYC Partnership wrote an intensely swiftboatish personal attack on Educational Historian and frequent Bloomberg critic Diane Ravitch. You should read it yourself, but the gist is that Ravitch is a flip-flopper. In my view the article comes out of the Rove playbook and is remarkably un-nuanced -- it's deceptive about the facts

As it transpires, the real attacker of Ms. Ravitch was Mayor Bloomberg's Department of Education; Ms. Wylde only their tool. The NY Sun's education reporter Elizabeth Green reveals that the "content" of Ms.Wylde's attack on Ms Ravitch was actually concocted at tax-payer expense at the Tweed Courthouse. What are these guys, thinking, drinking?

Now, I am not a great fan of Diane Ravitch's work (although people whose work I admire like her) and it is certainly true that she's attacked the education positions of many people. But this sort of puppeteering has to stop. Either the people at Tweed and City Hall are out of their minds to engage in these clumsy smears, or they have too little to do. Perhaps they could teach school instead of engaging in these nutty hijinks, or, more likely, retire and make room for real teachers. Want more? Try the UFT's Edwize Blog or Steve Koss' essay at the Public School Parent Blog .

The real questions to my mind is: why would Ms. Wylde, who, before this incident, had some public credibility, consent to be used like this?