January 25th, 2008

(3 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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Education - Bloomberg Gets Results

The formation of the “Building America’s Future” coalition by Mike Bloomberg is to build our infrastructure to improve the way our people compete, innovate, and live. Greater prosperity can be had with long term investment in our economy. Of course such investment would not be worth a grain a salt if we didn’t also make a like commitment to our children. Our children are the future of America and we need to make a similar investment to build the “infrastructure of their minds”.

In Michael Bloomberg’s acceptance speech of the National Mayoral Leadership Award at the U.S. Conference of Mayors on January 23, 2008 he says:

“We need national leaders who have the courage to put every idea that will help children succeed on the table - whether those ideas come from the left or the right. Higher standards, higher salaries, merit pay, tenure reform, school report cards: These reforms have been essential to our success in New York - and if we’re serious about creating an education system capable of raising real income over the long-term, we can’t afford not to try them.”

One instance of such courage to meet challenges comes from his weekly radio address on January 20, 2008:

“Fixing our public schools is another big challenge - and another big priority. Over the past 6 years, we’ve brought innovation and increased accountability to a system that failed generations of children - but we still have a lot more to do. In the year ahead, we will empower principals with the tools they need to make more informed decisions about teacher tenure. We also will raise student standards by ending social promotion next year in the 8th grade -ensuring that every child who enters high school is ready to do high school work.”

One thing that can’t be denied are results. On September 18, 2007 Mayor Bloomberg accepted the Broad Prize for Urban Education recognizing New York City as the Nation’s Most Improved Urban School District.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg today accepted the Broad Prize for Urban Education recognizing New York City as the nation’s most improved urban school district. The annual prize, the largest and most prestigious education award in the country, is given to the district that has demonstrated the greatest progress in raising academic performance for all students while also reducing the achievement gap between ethnic groups and high and low-income students. The Mayor was joined in Washington, D.C. by Deputy Mayor for Education and Community Development Dennis Walcott and New York City Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein. This is the third consecutive year that New York City has been a finalist for the Broad Prize.

Michael Bloomberg leadership in education is both innovative and results oriented. We need this kind of leadership to build a brighter future for our children and America.