The appointment of Cathie Black, a magazine executive who sent her children to private schools and has no education background, as NYC schools chancellor is an important turning point in the history of the Bloomberg administration. Why?
It has provoked a firestorm of controversy, with the entire city waking up to the way in which the mayor's has used his money, power and influence to disregard the normal rules of civil conduct. An editorial in El Diario is good example of the widespread discontent.
This citywide moment of clarity has occurred only two times before during his administration: in 2004, when he fired three members of the Panel for Educational Policy who disagreed with him immediately before a critical vote, called the "Monday Night Massacre," and in 2008, when he overturned term limits.
Parents and education advocates have long known and their kids have long suffered from the way in which the mayor treats the New York City public schools are his personal fiefdom, to do with