One reason I lean towards Gifford Miller (though I am still undecided) is that every time I hear him he strongly emphasizes education. Fortunately I have heard all the Dem candidates talke education in a forum in Park Slope that Bloomberg ignored, but the Dems all showed up (or, in the case of Fields, sent a representative). All of the Dem candidates (with Miller adding more detail than the rest, but otherwise saying the same thing) emphasized that Bloomberg's testing more and relying on the courts EVENTUALLY making Pataki and the state pay us the education funds they owe us is not good enough since it condemns our children who are now in schools to a poor education.
My personal experience is that the good schools are good not because of anything Bloomberg or Pataki is doing, but because the parents give time and money to help the school. I am hearing all the horror stories of 11 year olds having to go on Prozac because they are so depressed about the application process to get into Middle School. I am also experiencing the difficulty it is to get certified to teach science even when there is a school that wants you. I am looking for a job and I was considering teaching HS science at a new, small school in an underserved neighborhood, but I will probably not go into teaching because there is no way I can get certified in time for Sept and the process is so irritating that if I can find any other job I will.
So, the lesson is Bloomberg's claims of helping education in NYC is pretty much dead wrong. He has done some good, but his overall records is just as abyssmal as Pataki's...or Bush's.
THe group OurKidsCan'tWait.org [1] is trying to get Bloomberg to put our tax money where his mouth is and to support EDUCATION rather than DEVELOPERS. To quote:
When he was elected, Mayor Bloomberg challenged you to judge him on his education record. Now, with a multimillion-dollar ad campaign, he's trying to sway your opinion.
But look at the simple facts: He has a clear opportunity to eliminate overcrowded classrooms and restore essential school programs, but he's poised to sacrifice a quality education for our kids so that he and other wealthy New Yorkers can have a tax cut.
If he can afford to shell out millions of dollars to tout his policies on TV, he can afford this existing income tax.
Fourth and fifth-graders may have improved their test scores - an achievement Bloomberg is broadcasting far and wide - but what about the other kids, the overcrowded classrooms, and the vanishing after-school programs?
We have a no-brainer solution. By extending the existing income tax on individuals making more than half a million dollars, we can generate $380 million a year to reduce class size, buy up-to-date textbooks, and build much-needed science labs.
But Bloomberg is more concerned about protecting the wealthy. Millionaires can vote, but our kids can't.
We have a logical way to maintain the gains we've made in the early grades and start addressing the funding crisis, before it's too late.
Together, we can get Mayor Bloomberg to listen.
Email Bloomberg to pressure him to support education [2].
[3] | 
[4] | 
[5] | 
[6] | 
[7] | 
[8] | 
[9] | 
[10] | 
[11]