Mike Bloomberg on Education

Mayor of New York City (Independent)

Creationism boggles the mind, two centuries after Darwin

On Faith-Based Science: "It boggles the mind that nearly two centuries after Darwin, and 80 years after John Scopes was put on trial, this country is still debating the validity of evolution."

Today, we are seeing hundreds of years of scientific discovery being challenged by people who simply disregard facts that don't happen to agree with their agendas. Some call it "pseudo-science," others call it "faith-based science," but when you notice where this negligence tends to take place, you might as well call it "political science."

"It's scary in this country, it's probably because of our bad educational system, but the percentage of people that believe in Creationalism is really scary for a country that's going to have to compete in the world where science and medicine require a better understanding."

Source: Quotation cited during 2014 campaign on WikiQuote.org , Apr 1, 2013

Included among celebrity philanthropists who fund schools

Gov. Christie made an appearance on Oprah with Newark Mayor Cory Booker to accept a $100 million gift from Mark Zuckerberg, who started up the wildly successful social network Facebook. Zuckerberg's appearance on Oprah Winfrey was just one of the latest examples of celebrities or wealthy philanthropists jumping on board the education bandwagon. Bill Gates and his wife Melissa, of Microsoft fame, have been contributing to education through their foundation for years. So has NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and even Sam Walton, the owner of Wal-Mart, has established a foundation to give away money.

What is disturbing, however, is the ease with which celebrities and national figures have disparaged public education. What do they know about the issue other than what the read or hear? The last time any of them probably stepped in a classroom was when they attended high school. I don't pretend that there aren't problems in urban schools. But let's leave the education business to the educators.

Source: Teachers Under Attack!, by Mike Spina, p.142-143 , Feb 17, 2011

Slash bureaucracy; reward principal & teacher excellence

From the beginning, we’ve pursued major education reforms that put ‘children first.’ That commitment has been the engine driving everything we’ve achieved in the past six years: Raising graduation rates by 20%; increasing reading and math scores by double digits; slashing the bureaucracy; funding schools more generously--and more equitably; rewarding principals and teachers for excellence; closing the shameful achievement gap between ethnicities. Source: 2008 State of the City Address , Jan 17, 2008

End the shameful practice of social promotion

Four years ago, I proposed ending the shameful practice of social promotion for 3rd graders in our city. Not everyone liked that idea, you may remember. But our 3rd graders rose to the challenge--and then, when we expanded the policy to 5th and 7th graders, they rose to the challenge, too. Now I will ask the City’s Panel on Educational Policy to end social promotion next school year in the 8th grade. Source: 2008 State of the City Address , Jan 17, 2008

No more tinkering at margins: cut bureaucracy; add charters

When I came into office, New York’s school system was failing--badly. And that means we were failing our children. Tinkering at the margins for decades had done nothing. In New York, we needed to get at the source of the problem--the inefficient, ineffective, and unaccountable Board of Education. With support from school leaders and parent leaders, we won control of the system--and that’s when the hard work began.

We ended social promotion; we lengthened the school day to provide extra help for struggling students; we worked to expand the number of charter schools; we cut the bureaucracy and re-directed that money into the classroom; we even raised our teachers’ salaries 43% [and instituted] a new program of merit pay for our principals.

Source: Speech at “Ceasefire! Bridging The Political Divide” meeting , Jun 18, 2007

Replaced school board with direct mayoral control

Bloomberg’s first mayoralty coincided with a major shift of authority over the city’s public school system from the state government to the city government. From 1968 until 2000, New York City’s schools were managed by the Board of Education, which was comprised of seven members. Only two of the seven were appointed by the mayor. In 2000, the local boards and Board of Education were abolished and replaced with a new mayoral agency, the Department of Education. Source: Wikipedia.org entry, “Michael_Bloomberg” , May 2, 2007

No social promotion; more after-school

Under Bloomberg, test scores have risen and the City has obtained a higher percentage of funding from the state budget. Bloomberg opposes social promotion, and favors after-school and summer-school programs to help schoolchildren catch up, rather than allowing them to advance to the next grade level when they may be unprepared. Despite often tense relations with teachers’ unions, he negotiated an average raise of 15% for teachers in exchange for givebacks and productivity increases. Source: Wikipedia.org entry, “Michael_Bloomberg” , May 2, 2007

Strengthened cell-phone ban in city schools

Bloomberg has enforced a strengthened cell-phone ban in city schools that had its roots dating to a 1988 school system ban on pagers. The ban is controversial among some parents, who are concerned with their ability to contact their children. Bloomberg’s aides noted that students are distracted in class by cell phones and often use them inappropriately, in some instances sending and receiving text messages, taking photographs, surfing the Internet. Source: Wikipedia.org entry, “Michael_Bloomberg” , May 2, 2007

Focus on increasing high school graduation rates

As a result of the school reforms New York City has made, more students are graduating from our public schools than at any time in decades. Graduation rates have risen steadily and substantially during the past two years, surpassing every comparison gain in the rest of the state, and setting our students up for success. But we can not be satisfied with this progress, and we will continue working to give every New York City public school student a real chance to graduate and be successful. Source: Press Release, “City Graduation Rates” , Apr 25, 2007

Debated against eliminating social promotion

Herman Badillo: We had some serious problems with [schools chancellor Rudy] Crew, because I was--and have always been--in favor of eliminating "social promotion" and of having policemen in the schools, because there are two things that are necessary to have an educational system: standards and discipline.

It took us years of pushing him to eliminate "social promotion." He just didn't want to do it. Crew agreed with me and he said, "Well, I'll get around to it." But he never got around to it.

Source: Giuliani: Flawed or Flawless, by D. & G. Strober, p.161 , Jan 16, 2007

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*Other big-city mayors on Education:*	*Mike Bloomberg on other issues:*
Mike Bloomberg (I,New York City) Cory Booker (D,Newark,NJ) Julian Castro (D,San Antonio,TX) Rahm Emanuel (D,Chicago) Phil Gordon (D,Phoenix) Tom Menino (D,Boston) Michael Nutter (D,Philadelphia) Annise Parker (D,Houston) Mike Rawlings (D,Dallas) Jerry Sanders (R,San Diego) Antonio Villaraigosa (D,Los Angeles) *Former Mayors:* Rocky Anderson (I,Salt Lake City) Tom Barrett (D,Milwaukee,WI) Jerry Brown (D,Oakland,CA) Rudy Giuliani (R,New York City) Dennis Kucinch (D,Cleveland,OH) Sarah Palin (R,Wasilla,AK)	Abortion Budget/Economy Civil Rights Corporations Crime Drugs Education Energy/Oil Environment Families/Children Foreign Policy Free Trade Govt. Reform Gun Control Health Care Homeland Security Immigration Infrastructure/Technology Jobs Principles/Values Social Security Tax Reform War/Iraq/Mideast Welfare/Poverty

Page last updated: Apr 28, 2013