Mayor Stuns Many At MIT Speech

from
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2011/12/01/bloomberg-if-i-had-it-my-way-id-dump-h...
Half Of NYC's Teachers
Mayor Stuns Many At MIT Speech, Says He'd Greatly Enlarge Class Size, Too
December 1, 2011 10:01 PM
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — It's a jaw-dropping prescription for fixing city schools.
"Professor" Michael Bloomberg said Thursday he would accomplish more with less by slashing the teaching staff in half — and that's just the beginning, reports CBS 2's Marcia Kramer.
He looked like he was from another planet when he dressed as a hippie for a political show, but the mayor's blueprint for fixing city schools have some asking "what was he smoking?"
"If I had the ability to just design the system and say ex cathedra this is what we're going to do you would cut the number of teachers in half and weed out all the bad ones," Bloomberg said.
That's right. The mayor told people at a Massachusetts Institute of Technology conference it would be far better to run city schools with way fewer people. And, by the way, on the billionaire's perfect planet that would mean cramming more kids into each classroom.
"And double the class size with a better teacher is a good deal for the students," Bloomberg said.
Andrea Spencer is dean of the School of Education at Pace University.
"When I heard the statement I was really shocked," Spencer said. "There is absolutely no evidence to suggest that half of the teachers in any system are ineffective. What there is evidence to support is the fact that larger classes really place detriments in the way of learning."
But "Professor" Bloomberg is sticking to his views.
"The best thing you can do is put the best teacher you can possibly find and afford in front of the classroom and if you have to have fewer because there's only a certain number of dollars to go around, I'm in favor of that," Bloomberg said
United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew said he put the mayor's latest views on teaching in the same category of his decision to appoint a former magazine editor with no teaching experience to be schools chancellor.
"So the mayor thinks this is a good idea, in high schools to have class size in high schools of 70 kids. Clearly the mayor has never taught," said United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew.
"And probably the mayor's having another Cathie Black moment."

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Education

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[cubsfan4life33]

Maybe you should have the best mayor run two cities with less secretaries and 25% of the pay.