Letters to the Editor

Sun blasted for mayoral control stance

Sep 12, 2008 11:50 AM

The following letter was sent to the New York Sun:

To the Editor:

In your recent editorial about mayoral control of the New York City public school system, you seem to be disappointed that Mayor Bloomberg must contend with the City Council, the state Legislature, the principals’ union and the teachers’ union, which you refer to as “politicized.”

Regarding the City Council and the state Legislature, your comments barely deserve reply. The same people who voted in Mayor Bloomberg also elected the members of the Council and the Legislature. Are all elected officials created equal, but some more equal than others? And who, besides the editors of the New York Sun, shall decide which elected officials deserve to exert their authority, and which must gather in herds and quietly chew their cud?

Regarding the unions, you seem to believe that mayors may organize their governments into effective forces, but teachers and principals must work as powerless individuals. You also seem to believe that only mayors may gather influence and power by engaging in politics; teachers, in your view, must remain as pure — and vulnerable — as newborn lambs.

I am a proud member of the teachers’ union, the UFT. That doesn’t mean that I agree with every position that its officers and Delegate Assembly arrive at after discussion, bickering, and — yes — power-broking. I am proud, though, to belong to a union that conducts its internal affairs along democratic principles, and that participates in the greater New York and American democracy around it.

Jonathan Joseph, PS 153, Brooklyn