Teachers Union President Randi Weingarten is condemning the city's decision to close three public schools. She says the closures will cause "devastating" disruptions, especially during this period of financial instability.

But speaking on his WOR radio show this morning, Mayor Bloomberg said schools that aren't serving kids well shouldn't be allowed to continue and he made it clear that for every school closure, another will be opened in its place.

BLOOMBERG: With a new theme, new management, new whatever, to make them work. And it'll probably cost us more than if we didn't close the first ones. This isn't a budgetary thing; this is a quality of education thing.

BLOOMBERG: Weingarten says the money it'll take to close the schools down might be better used to improve them.

The schools slated for closure are MS 44 on the Upper West Side PS 90 in the Morrisania section of the Bronx, and PS 225 in Rockaway Park, Queens, all of which received a D or an F on their annual progress reports.

In better news, nine city public schools are ranked among the best in the country, in U.S. News & World Report's annual list of the top 100 public schools in America. The highest ranked of the city schools is the prestigious Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan...though it's ranked 23rd - down from 15th last year.