GERM in Brazil
Such is the case with the “miracle” of New York City under Mayor Bloomberg. As New Yorkers know all too well, the mayor came into office claiming that he could fix the city school system without spending any more than the current budget. He persuaded the state legislature to give him total control of the public schools. He controls a rubber-stamp board, which compliantly does whatever he wants, regardless of the wishes of parents, teachers, students, and communities. Year after year, the city’s test scores went up and up, until 2010 when the State Education Department admitted that it had lowered the passing mark each year. The city’s gains collapsed overnight, the achievement gap went back to where it had been eight years earlier, but the Mayor never admitted that the boasting was in error. There is a bit less touting of the miracle, although now he and his employees