Would-be mayoral candidates face off on education
NEW YORK---They all wore dark blue suits, and their eyes were on the same prize: to be mayor of what one man called "the lifeboat that is New York City." Only city Comptroller Alan Hevesi has officially declared his candidacy, but there was no doubt Saturday that the five men were all contenders as they debated education at a Manhattan grammar school. "Where does the rubber meet the road? It's in good teaching and learning," said Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer, who supports a 30 percent increase in salaries for city teachers to keep them from defecting to more lucrative suburban schools. Ferrer sat in a stage lineup with fellow Democrats Hevesi; Herman Badillo, chairman of the City University of New York; Public Advocate Mark Green, and City Council Speaker Peter Vallone. Missing was media mogul Michael Bloomberg, who has hinted he might enter this fall's race as a Republican. With a two-term limit, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani is serving out his tenure. The five men agreed that the city's shaky education system - including crowded, crumbling school buildings and failing grades - is a top priority for any mayor. "A city that can shrink crime can find the money to shrink class size," Green told an audience that included New York educators and residents attending a daylong conference on curriculum assessment and leadership. The seminars at P.S. 6 on the Upper East Side were sponsored by Teachers Network, a nationwide nonprofit educational organization. ABC correspondent Robert Krulwich, who moderated the debate, pitched a prickly topic at the five men: school vouchers that allow public school students to attend private schools, at taxpayer expense. "Vouchers are a dead issue," Green said. "The way to improve the public school system is not to pay for people to leave it." For students who stay, he said, he would limit class size to no more than 20 from kindergarten to third grade. That would require more space throughout a New York school system that educates 1.1 million children. Hevesi suggested some of the money to fund the changes could be taken from President Bush's tax cuts "that come mostly from millionaires." In addition, Ferrer said, pointing to the large number of incompetent teachers, "we should show the door to unfit and unqualified professionals." Added Hevesi: "Teachers teach because they are idealists - but they have to earn a living wage." Qualified teachers would improve students' ability to pass the tough Regents tests required to graduate from high school. Badillo said "only 12 percent of students in this school system get a real high school degree." Vallone said he, as mayor, would opt for an alternative to a Regents diploma to accommodate the less academically inclined. The would-be mayors also considered how to teach English in a city with a heavily immigrant population - in English-as-a-second-language programs, or without using the native language. Green said that in P.S. 177 in Brooklyn, a school with a 25 percent newcomer population, "parents don't want bilingual education. They want immersion." Green said parents should be able to decide, and Ferrer added that if he were mayor, "anything and everything should be reviewed," especially since many of the bilingual teachers are even less qualified than the others. The outspoken Green, an early leader in the polls, said he's well-qualified to be mayor of "this lifeboat called New York" because the job requires "showing guts and getting results." |