Political hack Howard Wolfson has been given three pages in the Daily News to attack the UFT and Bill Thompson while shilling for Bloomberg's education policies and legacy.
I'm going to leave the lies and manipulated data Wolfson spews to sell Bloomberg's policies and agenda for others to knock down.
What I'm interested in is why Wolfson and Bloomberg are feeling the need to attack Thompson.
To be frank, while Thompson is talking some about changing Bloomberg's school policies, a lot of his education agenda is little different from Bloomberg's education agenda.
Thompson is not anti-charter.
Thompson will not charge charter schools rent for stealing space from public schools.
Thompson wants to add more days to the school year and more time to the school day.
Thompson praised Bloomberg for refusing to give teachers the 4%/4% pattern raise every other union in the city got.
Thompson wants to continue mayoral control.
Sure, there are some subtle changes Thompson says he wants to make to Bloomberg's policies, perhaps around the emphasis on testing, but I'll believe those changes will happen when I actually see them happen and not until then.
Plus, with APPR state law forcing both increased state testing and increased local testing, it's hard to see how Thompson can change the insane testing schedules we have these days anyway even if he wanted to (which I doubt he does, in any case.)
So why is Bloomberg having Thompson attacked for his alleged education policy crimes in the pages of the Daily News?
Sure, the UFT endorsed him, but Merryl Tisch is the co-chair of his campaign and Al D'amato is one of his bundlers.
Thompson is hardly some radical bomb thrower looking to wash away the Bloomberg polices and turn the NYC school system into some bastion of progressive education.
So why are they attacking him?
Is this some reverse psychological operation to fool people who want an end to Bloomberg's education policies to vote for Thompson because they think he'll end Bloomberg's education policies while Bloomberg has some secret deal to ensure that Thompson will keep them in place?
As Tom Robbins pointed out in the NY Post today, Bloomberg uses his billions like this all the time, paying people under the table and in the back room to do what he wants.
I can see them attacking Thompson in public for saying he wants to break with Bloomberg's education policies while paying Thompson off behind the scenes to keep those policies in place.
As Norm Scott always says about the UFT, don't listen to what they say, watch what they do.
The same goes for Bloomberg, Thompson, and Wolfson.
The words mean nothing - the actions are what count.
Sunday 23 June 2013
Why Are Wolfson And Bloomberg Attacking Thompson?
Posted on 09:10 by Ashish Chaturvedi
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