How Bloomberg Trashed Public Education in New York
This article is from Feb 24, 2020
Im an art teacher. Mikes policies gutted my school. During those years, I was lucky to have enough copy paper for my students to draw on.
by Jake Jacobs
February 24, 2020
Mike Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York City now running for President, often brags about being one of the most prolific charter school creators in the United States. Bloomberg says he absolutely intends to expand charters in his federal education plan. This is a serious threat to public education, especially given Bloombergs history of using his fortune to shape policy.
Since 2013, Bloomberg has been one of the nations biggest donors to candidates and ballot initiatives promoting charters and vouchers, giving more than $4 million to candidates in New Jersey, Colorado, Minnesota, and Louisiana, often through dark money PACs. In California, Bloomberg spent a whopping $39 million, backing both Democrats and Republicans who support charters. In Pennsylvania, he gave $6 million to pro-charter incumbent Republican Sen. Pat Toomey, who won re-election with a narrow 1.5 percent edge, and ended up casting a critical vote for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
New York City teachers are vocal critics of Bloomberg, who not only used public money for school privatization but usurped the power of elected community school boards as the state granted Bloomberg mayoral control of New York City schools in 2002.
Bloomberg proceeded to appoint corporate attorney Joel Klein as head of New York Citys education department. Klein began a "test-and-punish" regime, which led to the closure of 150 schools and earned him an 80 percent disapproval rating with teachers.
https://progressive.org/public-school-shakedown/bloombergtrashedpubliced/
And I love art...........................