ALBANY—Here's the final roll call on State Senator Kevin Parker's "better schools act," which failed last night by a margin of 40-15.
Acting on the bill was basically a shot at Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Here's what Bloomberg had to say this morning on his weekly radio show on WOR:
There were 15 people last night who voted for a bill which would end all of the progress that we've made in the schools in terms of bringing down crime and improving test scores and graduation rates and bringing down the drop out rate. You wonder what goes through their heads? And they all come from neighborhoods where the improvements in the schools have been dramatic. And you wonder what on earth they are thinking about, in terms of voting for a bill that would literally end all of that.
(Snip)
The property owners, people that work in the City are becoming- it's laughable. We are the role model for how to fix the school system and Albany is the role model for how you can destroy it and nobody can quite understand why. And it's a very small group of State Senators. That's the thing that's the most frustrating. It's time perhaps for the others to stand up and say, ‘I don't care. I am going to go up there and whichever party is in control, whatever it is, things are more important than party- or whether I get a bigger office or more perks or more member items. Maybe it's about that. I don't know. But I think it's time for everybody to call their State Senator, which I have done and I am going to call her again today, and say, ‘Enough. You just can't- go home? No. You cannot. You are- we've elected you to do something. If this isn't something you're supposed to be doing, I don't know what is.
