If parents view the public school system as a pipeline to prison, if “new statutes mandating referral to law enforcement for school code violations are disproportionately affecting minority children and may be unnecessarily pushing them into the criminal justice system” (according to Wald and Losen), parents will continue to seek admission to private or parochial schools.

Dysfunctional government may have good unintended consequences; let the mayoral control of the NYC school system expire. See a previous comment.

Rodney,

You and I are friends, even if we don't know each other.

I seriously believe that shooting several of these whitecollar criminals, on primetime TV, would serve to deter such crimes.

I also suggest we do a couple of politicians caught stealing as well. Perhaps the two clowns who pulled this stunt in Albany?

And Brian, please grow a set.

As a public school teacher, I have to take issue with what often seems like other UFT members' reluctance to be held accountable for performance. In no other sector would an employee be exempt from review based upon performance in the task for which he/she was hired. Mayoral control at least makes this process of review and administration more local. Do we really want to hand the reins to the legislators in Brawlbany?

Please... Let the parents have all the power back, I mean all. From local school districts all the way to a new board, with elected members, no appointees, to the Chancellor. Please, take all the politics from education and leave it to the experts!

The mayor allowed tons of new housing to be built, but no new additional public school buildingss. He thought that these expensive apartments would house families who could afford to send their kids to private school - with the downturn in the economy, these families are scrambling to move into neighborhoods with more desirable public elementary schools, which create waiting lists for kindergarten. Is this what happens with mayoral control?

"What was so bad?" about Bloomberg.

!. The police state introduced to schools, including police abuses.

2. The sacrifice of learning in the name of testing. (The British have studied this. There is a study out of Cambridge University showing that the gross emphasis on testing testing testing results in poorer students further down the line. Humanities and arts go out the window altogether. Critical, independent thinking goes.

3. Bloomberg's pet, Joel Klein, is despised by parents and teachers alike.

Re: Madoff - I think he should be imprisoned for 50 years for each investor he bilked AND whatever money he makes in prison labor should go to his victims as part of restitution.

Re: School System: Does Ms. Weingarten think that the schools were better run by the Mayor/School Chancellor or by the School Board? Wasn't there significant infighting in the School Board?

When discussing financial issues, why doesn't someone stop and think that we are all suffering? Every agency is short and wants to increase rates on people who are also experiencing financial difficulties. There is also significant mismanagement of funds by many agencies - including all those teachers who, for one reason or another, were removed from the classroom and are sitting on their keisters and getting paid for it (last week's scandal). When are we going to get some honest controllers who manage money and systems to the best advantage of the users (in this case, students) and who know how to increase the funds they control without lining their own pockets?

I favor sunsetting mayoral control as there have been as many horror stories over the last 7 years as there were from the previous system. The attacks on that system are part of the PR move to give the mayor power. How come we only hear about checks and balances on the mayor and not consider placing checks and balances on the old system? Let the sunset and then go to work fixing what was wrong with a system that had many aspects that worked.

Brian, Here is the story.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5heYRW9pbqE-Ezt-lidTx-rGzP7IAD98VVBDG0

This makes the clowns in Albany look like choirboys.

Shameful.
Criminal.

Randi's fault?

1. Randi Weingarten for Mayor!

2. "Laws have to mean something." Isn't New York State just an extreme of a broader phenomenon in this state? The president (Clinton, Bush and now Obama) issue signing statements which amount to little more than an assertion of a line item veto -- "I, the President, will ignore this part of the law."

Congress likewise passes laws with little eye to justice; thus, Wall Street billionaires rob us blind then get billions in bailouts. Meanwhile, people have grossly inadequate healthcare, an ever diminishing safety net in bad times, etc., and Congress and Obama do nothing.

New York City public school teachere here: I think it's disingenuous of Randy to mention the welfare of kids in schools when most kids spend most of their time in school preparing for dumbed-down high stakes tests

Brian, Please ask Ms. Whineygarden why the city spends $65 million each year -- per a recent expose in the Daily News -- paying incompetent, indicted, arrested, useless, etc. teachers to NOT teach our children.

In any other job, these clowns would be on unemployment. As members of her union, they suck us dry for nothing.

This is not only shameful, it is criminal.

Someone needs to be legally responsible. If there's a swine flu outbreak in summer school, if there's a safety and health construction accident at a school, any oversight of summer school necessary--there must be an authority in charge!

I'm a NYC public school teacher and I have decided that if the legis. doesn't get it together, I will take over the school system. I bet I can do a better job! Give me a call Randi!