Giuliani "demonized" New York school system

It's his way or the highway.  Rudolph Giuliani's security credentials have already been thrown into question after ignoring calls from city officials before 9/11 to move the emergency response command center outside the World Trade Center.  As a result, on 9/11 Giuliani had to conduct emergency management from a trailer.

Giuliani's people skills are being thrown into question as well.  An article this morning in the Los Angeles Times cites his record on education as just one example of the former New York mayor's inability to compromise:

New York City schools went through eight years of political chaosduring Giuliani's terms, which ended in 2002. His bare-knuckle tacticscontributed to the departure of three chancellors, according tointerviews with former school administrators, Board of Educationmembers, teachers, parents, union officials and outside experts.

He left behind an expired union contract, an army of angryteachers and a school system that by his own admission was stilldelivering inferior educations to hundreds of thousands of students.

How Giuliani handled education provides a window into his potentialpolitical skills as a U.S. president, especially in terms of the way hemanaged people and his refusal to compromise on issues big and small.

"I don't think he achieved anywhere near what he wanted toachieve," said Joseph P. Viteritti, an early Giuliani administrationadvisor and now a professor of public policy at Hunter College, part ofthe City University of New York. "There were no significant changes inthe system while he was there. He tended to make enemies. He was verytough and abrupt. I think his instincts were right, but sometimes heoverplayed it and caused a reaction against himself."

Giuliani fought with administrators, board members and statelegislators over budgets, union contracts, vouchers, gay toleranceeducation, lunchroom supervision, curriculum, testing, social promotionand summer school, among much else.

As far as funding was concerned:

"While Giuliani was the mayor, things did not improve," said CarolGresser, a former city education board president who was the swing votebetween liberals and conservatives. "The system was denied the money itneeded. I was on the board for eight years and it was constantly,'Let's cut back on the school system.' "

She added: "He demonized the school system."

Yet, this is the same former mayor that the traditional media already painted as reformist, heroic and decisive.

Comments

[ted K]

In regards to:

"The system was denied the money it needed. I was on the board for eight years and it was constantly, 'Let's cut back on the school system.' "

Strange how the person who posted this story left out the fact that the budget for the school system INCREASED by 3% in real terms from 1992 to 2002.
Could it be, that again CUTS don't mean "cuts" at all, but again mean CUTS IN THE AMOUNT OF AN INCREASED BUDGET SIZE?

At least print all the information, not just that which suits your attack on Gulliani.

The NY public school system in 1990 was the symbol of the failure of public schools before Gulliani took office.

And low and behold how long have the Liberals been running public schools and especially the broken public school system in NY?
FOREVER.
Gulliani had to fight with the school Unions, administrators, et all who were unwilling to change a broken and non-working system.
Of course he had a hard time!
He inherited a bloated bureaucracy and wanted to cut waste and do away with failed education policies.
In an internal investigation in 1999 teachers and principals were found altering test scores- so of course they were butting heads.
Gulliani wanted to get rid of teaching about homosexuality to children UNDER 10 (recall "Heather has 2 Mommies?") and against distributing condoms to students.
As a parent I would have wanted this too.
Why is a public school system doing this? Where do they get off (no pun intended) teaching young kids about homosexuality and how to have protective sex?
That is a parents job, not the schools.
Teach the basics and leave parenting to parents.
Gulliani is for vouchers and of course the LIberal Unions are deathly afraid of "parents right to choose."
He also wanted direct Mayoral control of the NY school systems and fire the NYC board of education, and of course the board is going to balk at that too.
Interestingly enough, that exact thing happened 6 months after Bloomberg took office most likely because of how the school system in NY and the NYC Board of Education fought real changes.

I know this because I am holding the LA TIMES paper in my hand and read the whole damned thing.

And this same former mayor was "painted as reformist, heroic and decisive" because he proved he was all these qualities.
No paint was actually needed, just a reporting of the character of the man.

[Chief Editor: Todd]

Ted K, welcome back. We've missed you during this 10-month hiatus. How have things been?

I really hope Giuliani turns out to be the GOP nominee -- either him or Romney. Either of them would be in big trouble in a general election because of their flip-flops. Also, Ted K, just wondering (oh, and I read the whole article too, as I do with anything I post here), what did Giuliani do after 9/11 that makes him deserve this artificial fame?

[granny]

Jeez! Ted "knows" all this because he read it in a newspaper? Wow. The LA Times, at that. Now there's a trustworthy, non-corporate source with no axes to grind. Wowee.

And Guiliani with direct Mayoral control of the school systems: What a warm fuzzy thought!

[granny]

Some more reading material on the illustrious character of Mr. Guiliani!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-green/rudywatch-i-on-venom-a_b_64423.html

[Ted K.]

Hey, good to be remembered Todd. LOL.. but then again I didn't think you would forget the Conservative whipping boy.
Been really busy with work since March, home(s) selling and moving and all, just haven't had the time for idle banter back and forth...and it was really only 6-7 months.
Aren't you glad I am back? ;-)

Granny, my point in my post was that certain things were left out of the original post by the editor here and I was pointing out that I was reading the same LA TIMES (read RAG) story myself.
I don't pretend to know all about Gulliani.
I like the guy, but Fred Thompson is my horse.
And didn't I tell you all way back in January that McCain would not even be in mix for the frontrunners of the Republican nominee....thank God!
I agree Granny, that the LA times is a LEFTY paper with an axe to grind.
Strange how you don't care that Bloomberg has that exact Mayoral control of the school systems, but apparently you must be very progressively liberal in your thinking and follow the clap trap that we conservatives hate schools and teachers, and lunch programs and such and we are evil and can't be trusted.

And you are linking me to the HUFFINGTON POST to strengthen your point?
I don't think the ultra lefty progressive liberal Huffy Post would ever give any conservative a fair shake.
What a joke.
This is the same place that wished that Chenney would have gotten blown to bits in that bomb blast in Iraq when he was there.

But the Huffy Post has no axe to grind.
I look forward to future references to other open minded sources like moveon.org from you Granny.

Jeeze.

Todd, I am talking about Gulliani and his work as NYC mayor and all he did during 911. Hillary is lucky he had the whole prostate cancer flare up, otherwise she would be touring with AlGore and not in the Senate.
If we wanna talk artificial propping up.. lets talk Obama or Hilllary-for-brains.

I will take Rudy, Mit, Hucky, or Freddie and their creds. over Hill or Obama any day of the week and twice on Sundays.

Todd, btw..thanks for the welcome back, must have been a little boring without me huh?

[Chief Editor: Todd]

So how did the move go? And of course we missed you. Even with all that we disagree about, we are at least on the same page when it comes to Hillary Clinton. Maybe for different reasons. Most of the visitors to this site, including myself, don't like her because she has sold herself out over and over again to the Washington establishment. In 2006, she was the number two recipient, behind Rick Santorum, of donations from the drug companies. You know that people on my side of the political spectrum want universal health care. I know for a fact it will not happen under a Clinton Administration, because she is so indebted to insurance companies for all that they have given her. She is for NAFTA. She is for a continued presence in Iraq. grrr!!! lol

Overall, I think its funny how conservatives paint her as liberal, when deep down she is not really that.

Just wondering though, what are Fred Thompson's credentials? Being a lobbyist for 20 years? I'll give you that on Huckabee. With the exception of his stance on Iraq and his proposal to eliminate the income tax, Huckabee is much more tolerable than the others. I do like Ron Paul -- but not because he wants to get rid of the Department of Education. lol Obviously because of Iraq. Although, I am not as isolationist as he is. We still need to have interests in the Middle East -- but none of those interests should include oil or a military presence, unless it includes killing groups like al Qaeda that have the capacity to do us harm.

Lastly, a 3% increase in the money for NY school districts, when you factor in population and property value changes between 1992 and 2002, that is not a true increase. And strangely, that was during a time when cities and states had more budget money, because they weren't squeezed with unfunded mandates like today (ex: Homeland Security costs and No Child Left Behind).

Anyway, glad you are back! We have more visitors to this site than six or seven months ago, so I just ask people to recognize that Ted is a good guy. lol And although some of you may want to, try to keep your ad hominem attacks against him to a minimum. Haha, even though Ted can be factually inaccurate from time to time. lol But we are liberals here, so we preach tolerance.

[Ted K.]

I pride myself on factual accuracy and base my arguments and Ideals on FACT-with a lot of common sense sprinkled for flavour.
That is why I infuriate libs!
Ahh you know I loves ya guys.
I like Democrates.
Well, JFK Dems anyway.

[granny]

WHOA! BANG-ZOOM! *%#^$ Whew! I almost got toppled right off the gallows there, with that onslaught of generalizations!

I better go dust myself off, and get ready for all that "FACT" and common sense that's going to be coming our way!

[Chief Editor: Todd]

Ted K, I am a JFK Dem, always have been. The end of the Cuban Missile Crisis was one of America's finest hours as a country, because it underscored what it means to use tough diplomacy, and not cave in when pressured by right-wing cabinet members that favored all-out war with the Soviet Union.

[Ted K.]

But Todd, you have No JFK dems in office, anyone that gets close your party ostrisizes. I give you Liberman- who is kinda close and then the great Zel Miller whom your party detested.

JFK was strong militarily, believed in tax cuts- what DEM believes in those things today, especially the tax cuts?

JFK also was involved in the Bay of Pigs, and I don't think you would have approved of that.