Learn NY hears from some real life NYC parents about Mayoral control

Gotham Schools tells how Robin Warren, an employee at Learn NY, the organization set up by Bloomberg to maintain Mayoral control, has been introducing herself on various NYC parent list servs and saying that the organization is really, truly, sincerely interested in hearing their views.

Warren posted a message to Urban Baby and what an earful she received in return. I guess she’s learning quickly that it’s going to be tough to convince NYC parents who’ve had to deal with six years of an unaccountable, arrogant and dictatorial administration that the current system should remain.

Within eleven minutes, here were the first six replies:

12.10.08, 01:16 PM

· You're shilling for Bloomberg? How much is he paying you?

12.10.08, 01:18 PM

· What is your qualification?

12.10.08, 01:22 PM

· Ladies, this is a political organization (non-profit in name only) that was created to influence NYS to reauthorize mayoral control of the school system. The Board members are Bloomberg hacks who do his bidding. It's a transparent attempt to influence the public debate in his favor, that's all.

12.10.08, 01:25 PM

· Spamming for Bloomberg's czarship of schools!

12.10.08, 01:26 PM

· SPAM

12.10.08, 01:27 PM

· Here's some feedback: The testing idea has gone waaay out of control and has overtaken most of the creative and "fun" parts of the school day that used to exist, school bureaucracy is terrible because there's no one who's accessible and is willing to help, and within the schools the teachers and administrators seem hamstrung by the administrative duties they have now, field trips have almost disappeared, classes are way too big and school budgets way too small so that the only really successful schools are those in which the parents have to raise enormous amounts of money, and many parents - me included - feel entirely disenfranchised at this point in the 'Mayoral Control' experiment and would not mind at all if it went away.