This week, President Barack Obama’s administration decided to grant waivers to ten states — including New Jersey — to the rigorous standards set in place by the No Child Left Behind law, and asked about it on John Gambling’s radio show this morning, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he disagreed.
“I haven’t talked to the President about it,” Mr. Bloomberg stated. “My gut reaction is that we should keep increasing the standards, raising the standards, not reducing them.”
Mr. Bloomberg then made the case for why education is not just an issue that’s important to the individual states.
“Education in this country has always been a local issue, and a lot of states unfortunately have standards and aspirations that are just much too low for a global economy,” he said. “Everybody votes for senators and congressman that influence all of us. Everybody in this country [is] part of our economy. So we really do have an interest in the education system, not just in our own locale, but around the country.”
However, Mr. Bloomberg reiterated at the end that he simply hasn’t explored the issue enough to be completely firm in his opinion.
“On a balance, I don’t know enough about what he announced yesterday,” he concluded. “I haven’t read anything but the articles in the paper, but my instincts are that we should be going in the other direction.”
