Mayor Bloomberg Offends Some With Comment About New York Parents Updated 3 hrs ago

May 21, 2011 The mayor said parents from poor neighborhoods fighting his school-closure plan lack "formal education."

 

 

Mayor Bloomberg offended some New Yorkers with comments about parents fighting his plan to shutter schools. (Jill Colvin/DNAinfo)

By Dave Goldiner

 

 

DNAinfo News Editor

 

MANHATTAN - Mayor Michael Bloomberg put his foot in his mouth Friday when he said that parents who oppose his plan to shut down poorly-performing schools lack "formal education."

On his weekly radio show, Bloomberg appeared to insult parents who are fighting to keep their children's schools, including several in Harlem, from being shut down.

"They never had a formal education and they don't understand the value of education," he said.

The billionaire mayor showed his tone-deaf side when he continued to discuss the opposition to closing the schools, at which many students come from poor, homeless or immigrant families.

"The old Norman Rockwell family is gone," he said.

City Advocate Bill de Blasio told The New York Times that the mayor's comments were "profoundly disrespectful." Parent advocates also slammed the comments as insensitive.

The teachers union and parents are suing to block Bloomberg's controversial plan to shut down nearly two dozen schools citywide.

Among the targeted schools are Intermediate School 195 in Harlem; the Academy for Collaborative Education in Harlem; the Academy for Environmental Science Secondary High School in East Harlem; the Frederick Douglass Academy III in Harlem; Kappa II in East Harlem; and Norman Thomas High School on the Upper East Side.

Read more: http://www.dnainfo.com/20110521/manhattan/mayor-bloomberg-offends-some-with-comment-about-new-york-parents#ixzz1N1jzZ1e4