Have you seen this cockamamie new plan hatched by Mike "Not Running for President" Bloomberg and Joel "Joel" Klein? They want to create a whole new system of "credibility" among school "principals" by crunching a bunch of "data" -- about graduation "rates" and score "improvements" among "students" -- and assigning "grades" to these "schools" over which they "preside." This is supposed to "improve" the education "system" by granting "funds" to the schools that perform "well" and withholding funds and/or "removing" principals at schools that perform "poorly."
Is this really what New York City schools need? The city's public education system is already a tinderbox of anxious parents and sparring special interests, and this new grade system is Bloomberg's flaming, poo-tipped arrow. The repercussions are already taking hold: volatile property values, disgruntled educators, parents and realtors running around in tizzies. All caused by this arbitrary grade system that condenses myriad considerations into a media-friendly sound bite that effectively dumbs down the true, meaningful dialog--
What's that? Robert's school got an A? Oh. Never mind.
