Mike Bloomberg was in charge of the country’s largest public school district. Here are 8 key questions for him. - The Washington Post

Mike Bloomberg was in charge of the country’s largest public school district. Here are 8 key questions for him. - The Washington Post

Mike Bloomberg was in charge of the country’s largest public school district. Here are 8 key questions for him.

Mike Bloomberg, the former New York mayor, recently showed up for the first time on a debate stage with other leading candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination, and there were exactly no questions asked of him about education. It seems like a subject ripe for exploration, given that:

• Bloomberg alone among the Democratic candidates has been in charge of a public school system, in this case the country’s largest.
• Education was a central focus of his three-term tenure as mayor.
• His education overhaul was, if nothing else, highly controversial.

In this article are some questions that could be asked of the billionaire Bloomberg, who was mayor from 2002 to 2013. But first, some background informing the questions.

Shortly after becoming mayor, Bloomberg persuaded the New York legislature to strip power from the district’s Board of Education and give it to him. Believing employing business practices in the operation of schools would improve student performance, he selected a non-educator, Joel Klein, as chancellor of the 1.1 million-student district.

Klein was a corporate executive and former head of the Justice Department’s antitrust division. He and Bloomberg insisted bad teachers were the biggest cause of low performance by students — not outside influences — and said they believed they could use students’ standardized test scores to identify “bad” teachers.

Bloomberg and Klein believed in operating schools as if they were businesses. They closed nearly 100 low-performing schools and opened small ones; fueled the expansion of charter schools, which are publicly funded but privately operated; gave principals more autonomy, and raised pay for teachers but attacked teacher tenure and union-backed due process.

They also elevated the primacy of student standardized tests, using the scores to evaluate teachers and CONTINUE READING: Mike Bloomberg was in charge of the country’s largest public school district. Here are 8 key questions for him. - The Washington Post