Diane Ravitch Praises Randi Weingarten on Her Blog and All Hell Breaks Loose

[HiPointDem]

24. noted. and here are my 'feelings:' when someone asks for a cite for a claim, that is a part of

normal impersonal political discussion.

when someone answers such a request with 'why?' & "lol" that 'feels' like personal animosity. fyi.

similarly, implying that asking for a cite is equivalent to calling someone a liar.

time will tell how well trusting randi et al pays off.

Both ravitch & weingarten explicitly supported bloomie's one-man rule in nyc, a major reason that nyc is now a wasteland. Later, they had second thoughts -- gee, who could have known that by giving bloomie the majority of votes on education policy it might turn into a personal dictatorship?

But too late. Woe is me, who could have known?

"Two years ago, the State Legislature gave Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg nearly unlimited control of New York City's public schools. It abolished the central Board of Education and created a Panel on Education Policy (with eight members appointed by the mayor, five by the borough presidents) that is largely advisory. The move was a sharp departure from the American tradition of placing education policy in the hands of an independent public board that is not directly controlled by elected officials.

Hoping that this change would reduce bureaucratic inertia, we were among those who supported the measure in Albany. And we certainly commend Mayor Bloomberg for his willingness to take responsibility for improving the public schools. In recent days, however, many of us have realized that the legislation went too far by consolidating all power in the hands of one elected official."

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/18/opinion/public-schools-minus-the-public.html

That's definitely the politically 'smart' way to go about it, though. Go with the power & when the inevitable cock-ups appear, become part of the 'opposition' & pretend you were too stupid to understand the consquences at the time.

How the 'smart' people do things & why things are so fucked.