Converting childhood into a 10-hour-a-day job starting in kindergarten and making play a thing of the past for any child over age 3. Some of the ways he did this? Throwing kindergarten toys in the garbage, throwing library books in the garbage, eliminating the weekly library visit and book check-out to make room for test-prep computers in "media centers," ignoring the laws of New York State on how much gym time students should receive and ignoring the laws of nature on how a child's cognitive abilities develop best through a discovery-based kindergarten, a play-heavy first grade and buckling down on heavier academic work when children are ready, at age 7 in second grade.

Mayor Bloomberg's legacy has been a dismal failure. His lack of respect for parents, students and educators has brought the New York City School System to a new low. Students shouldn't be treated as a data number on the Nasdaq. He has no idea of the specific needs of our students. His unrealistic approach could be witnessed by his appointments of Joel Klein and Cathy Black; two chancellors who had no or very little experience with children.Also, he had a
love for private consultants whose pockets were lined with money and provided very little benefit for our schools. A prime example would be some of the textbooks that provided no benefits for our math program and a social studies textbook that was written by a geographer not a historian. Can you imagine leaving out the House of Burgesses in our American History Books at the Middle School level? The city schools would have benefited if he saw fit to appoint administrators at Tweed that had educational backgrounds instead of trying to run the schools as a business enterprise. Shame on the Mayor!

As a current public high school student, I can tell you with my own naked eye how dictator Bloomberg has dismantled, destroyed, and exploited New York City public schools. I am a student at John Dewey High School, an experimental and magnet high school, once a highly regarded school with an unconventional method of teaching aligned with the pedagogy of John Dewey. However, Dewey was a diamond in the rough. It was surrounded by failing schools, Dewey was sending (still is, actually) top students to Ivy League schools, while the nearby failing neighbor, Lafayette High School (which finished "phasing out" in June 2010) suffered from racial violence, plagued with high crime rates, and graduation rates in the low 40's. The DOE announced Lafayette and two other large comprehensive high schools to close in 2006.

Unfortunately, Dewey was only four short city blocks away from Lafayette, a walking distance; and Dewey took a major hit. In the 2007-2008 school year, Dewey's number of incoming freshman rose by one third, all of them coming from Lafayette, all having reading and math scores of 1's and 2's. Funny though, how even though the DOE sent an influx of academically deficient students to Dewey, that same year it won a silver medal for being a top high school in the United States by U.S. News and World Report. Then, the DOE saw that the school continued to flourish, so the DOE underfunded the school sharply by reducing after school programs, extended days, academies for at-risk students, and "resource center" staffing, where students went on their free periods to receive FREE tutoring with a teacher, something other schools yearned for.

The DOE progressively set up John Dewey High School for failure by under funding it and overcrowding it, thanks to Bloomberg and his destructive "small school reform" that was ironically, going to be happening at Lafayette. Lafayette soon became a "campus" housing several smaller schools, most which cherry picked their students and screened them so they would make themselves and Bloomberg look better and successful. It is sickening. His mayoral control of NYC schools has not helped them out one bit, and out of 400+ public high schools in NYC, the few that really will never face the threat of closure anytime soon are the specialized high schools, but even they too, have their own issues; like the bad blood between the administration and teachers at the Bronx High School of Science, which in a way is destroying the school and making teachers turn away from working there (the funny part is that a few walking steps north of where Bronx Science is located, there's a "failing" school with a 50% graduation rate that the DOE has tried to close for consecutive years, DeWitt Clinton High School.)

Of course, Bronx Science is saved because it is a specialized school that requires an exam for entry, and I'm pretty sure the DOE won't do the same thing to Bronx Science that it did to Dewey, thanks to its "failing" neighbor.

I plan to be a teacher someday, but I hope when I'm a college graduate and ready to work in the real world, that our NATION'S educational system is fixed and has taken a turn for the better, maybe we can follow the successful example of Finland, where all schools follow John Dewey's method of teaching, and barely use any form of standardized testing. Our educational system is currently failing so many students and it is a shame. The future of this country rests in the hands of those who are in this unfortunate bureaucratic system, but if it is failing, then we're all doomed.

If our system remains this way up until my generation reaches adulthood, then it will be very, very scary. The outcome of Bloomberg's pseudo-reform policies have dismantled NYC schools all over the city. It has not only been Lafayette and Dewey, but it has also included schools like Far Rockaway and Beach Channel, Walton, DeWitt Clinton, South Shore, Lehman, et al.

P.S. I can only thank my high school, John Dewey High School, the alumni, the experienced and devoted teachers, some of my fellow classmates, and the Dewey community for opening up my mind in such a way. My teachers have inspired me to become an educator. The DOE and Bloomberg have knocked down many a great schools in the past, but the DOE and Bloomberg have failed to topple down the great and award-winning John Dewey High School. It showed Bloomberg in his face when Dewey (and 23 other schools) won a battle in court in opposition to close the schools; dictator Bloomberg and his cronies suffered a humiliating loss. It also showed Bloomberg and the DOE once again when despite all the disgusting things they did to Dewey, it received a high B on the progress report, has a 72% graduation rate, and a college readiness rate way above the city average. Some graduates in the class of 2012 also made it to Ivy League schools. So much for a school you deemed "failing", huh Bloomberg? Not this time!

The comments here reflect the near consensus among parents that Bloomberg has alienated parents and adopted policies harmful to children and education. Whether it's a public meeting or this type of story, parental feedback overwhelmingly tells us that the Bloomberg educational tenure has been a failure. I am amazed that this pretty significant fact goes largely unreported, as this and other forums maintain a pretense that the Bloomberg educational policies have any significant backing among parents. Note the positive characterizing of Bloomberg's agenda in the introduction to the questions posed ("...an incubator for educational innovation..."), followed by (as always) venting by the parents whose kids have been subjected to the Bloomberg agenda.

Not much positive things to share or say that the above have not already said. He has demoralized teachers, devasted communities by dividing them and bought racial inequality back to NYC. He has failed parents and children of every race. His legacy as I will pass to my children is politics should stay out of education and Bloomberg was the most arrogant, schmuck to enter mayoral control of NYC, he made Guliani and Koch look good.

Bloomberg has continued to ignore parents, teachers, and communities as he bulldozes to close schools he deems as "failing". He ignores the masses of people who come to PEP "meetings" begging for their schools to remain open. Begging for a Mayor who would help schools succeed rather than closing them. Bloomberg continues to ignore the court decisions that the Campaign for Fiscal Equity won to improve education, reduce class size, and bring more money to the classroom. School closings and co-locations have demoralized students, parents and teachers. Bloomberg's education legacy is one of failure.

There is only one word that can be used to describe Mayor Bloomberg's legacy...FAILURE! He has put data above teaching, data which he uses to demean and demoralize teachers. His attempt to make education into a business has done nothing but line the pockets of testing companies all the while using these tests so that children, who inherently learn via play are forced to learn to take tests and teachers and administrators are forced to teach to these test; none of which do anything but create measures for the DOE to continue to shut down schools and remove teachers. These tests are also used to keep parents in the dark about what is really being done, since statistics can be manipulated to show whatever they want, the DOE has consistently used the "exam data" to show what it wants, and in turn manipulating the media and making educational policy that will continue to hurt our children in NYC, but children elsewhere as well. Sadly, when Mr. Bloomberg leaves, these educational failures which many laud will stay and unfortunately be replicated elsewhere.

In two words UNION BUSTER.

Overcrowded schools, relentlessly inefficient use of money and space through proliferation of small schools and co-locations, rampant favoritism to charter schools, and the largest class sizes in 14 years. The over-emphasis of high-stakes testing to the exclusion of all else, and a failure to understand any of the factors that make for a quality education. Wasted millions on contracts to private vendors and consultants, many of which went to corrupt companies that had already been charged with inflated billing. Manipulating data to make his regime look successful when the facts showed otherwise. Putting in charge chancellors with no experience in educators and no ability to manage their way out of a paper bag. Not to mention the most arrogant and dismissive attitude of any mayor in history. Bloomberg will NOT be missed by anyone who has worked in a public school or sent their kids to one.

His legacy is one of FAILURE. He has FAILED to educate a generation of students. He has FAILED to close the achievement gap. He has FAILED to graduate students that are college and career ready.

He has neglected, abandoned and miseducated students with his lack of leadership and FAILED education policies.

Mr. Bloomberg's Educational legacy is one tat fails to meet the needs of students, and the communities. He has worked hard to starve the schools of the resources they need for the sole purpose of providing a way for his friends to line their pockets with cash. It will be a legacy of fraudulent no bid contracts , Chancellors with no educational background or awareness (like Ms. Cathie Black), and of course following laws only when it was convenient. when things started to come to light instead of fixing problems simply sweeping them under the carpet eventually ending up with our current configuration of no accountability for the DOE's top officials.
It will be a legacy of a failed Panel on Educational Policy that continually ignores the needs of the community, the demands of parents, and instead puts the interests of high power fear mongers like Eva Moskowitz, Cheater's like Michelle Rhree, and the incompetent like Cathie Black in the front.
In one short word the self described "Education Mayor's" legacy can and will be summed up as failure.

There are highly effective schools in NYC and around the country. They all have common threads of paths to success. They are therefore replicable. The legacy of the national educational reform movement that has neglected to take notice of what exemplary models of achievement currently exist is a legacy we shall all live with. The ability to problem solve, assess, prioritize, plan, implement, review, reassess, adjust, plan, implement etc., requires the ability to review and address issues with the flexibility of problem solving and performance improvement. It is unfortunate that the reform movenment has led to chaotic and inflexible methodologies when exactly the opposite is requisite. There is no legacy. The studies that have been done have shown no net gain. Other than the realization that the classrooms have to be brought up to date and how the learning experience needs to go hand in hand with current technologies, I am not quite too sure where else we have gotten. NYC is but a part of a larger edudational driver, one that cannot succeed overall, as the structure and flexible methodolgies to incorporate those high achieving methods into an overall plan in any one or of several school districts does not exist. The business model and the political model are the drivers rather than providing additional knowledge to the educational models that have succeeded and are continually modified to meet new needs in the ongoing process of improvement. Are there tweaks and ideas we may borrow from other areas to deal with outliers, yes i'm quite sure there are. But the wealth that we have in our hands, committee, has gone as silos being built independently of any overall objective. So therein lies the legacy. Be it whatever you wish it to be.

Gary - your argument is essentially saying "Well the neighborhood is plagued with drugs and poverty so of course the kids are going to fail". Sorry, Gary, but I am not buying the "blame everything but us" argument. If a school fails, it is because of the adults in the building. Not the scholars, not the neighborhood, and certainly not the Mayor. Parental involvement and community support are key to making school the best it can be - no doubt about it. But if you don't have those things then you have to get by without them. I am tired of hearing that education in NYC isn't perfect - we all know that already. Teachers and school leaders can only worry about what is within their locus of control. It is my belief that great teachers, tremendous school leaders, and a school culture built on high expectations are the most essential components of academic achievement. It's fine to disagree, but leave absurd analogies to professional baseball teams out of it.

Bloomberg treats a struggling schools closing as accomplishment.

Selling off our public schools to private interests, including Eva Moskowitz, Rupert Murdoch, Bill Gates... and himself.

Here are some comments from our Twitter and Facebook followers:

Twitter:

@MsSackstein - "Botched educational policy and initatives that haven't lasted long enough to work. Teacher burn out and marginalized students." "It was a tough administration to endure as a teacher. I hope we can bounce back."

@MikeWReilly - "Bloomberg education legacy will be 'parental estrangement' under 'dictoral control' sorry mayoral control. NYS leg 2 blame."

@AutisticSeas - "My focus is on special education because my son has autism. Bloomberg has failed our students." "My son should not have to travel over 20 miles to attend an appropriate school."

Facebook:

Vicki Zunitch wrote, "Converting childhood into a 10-hour-a-day job starting in K and making play a thing of the past for all over age 3. He did this by throwing kindergarten toys and library books in the garbage, eliminating the weekly library visit and book check-out in favor of test-prep computers, ignoring the laws of NY State on gym and ignoring the laws of nature on cognitive development."

Via email:

Micahel Albertson, sent us his list of things he will remember Mayor Bloomberg for:

- Re-segregating public schools
- Closing dozens of historically great community schools
- Increasing police presence in schools, arresting and scanning students (in generally low-income and non-caucasian areas) as a means of “safety”
- Politicizing the field of education
- Using his money to influence media, politicians, and millionaires to embrace his flawed policies
- Making the teaching profession so difficult that great teachers are leaving at alarming rates
- Promoting charter schools as “choice”, even though closing community schools leaves few choices for families
- Never listening to parents
- Never listening to students
- Never listening to teachers
- Making teacher-bashing nationally fashionable
- Choosing officials with little or no education experience to run the NYCDOE
- More testing and data, less focus on developing students as people and citizens
- Stacking PEP with his own members, leaving no room for opposition voices, even firing members who do not fall in line with his agenda

His method for closing the achievement gap is silly and insulting to those on both sides of the gap. He made early education more difficult academically for kids who are behind and more difficult emotionally and physically for kids who are on target or ahead by adding homework and worksheets...instead of dedicating that time to play and a review of the basics, such as the ABCs, proper handwriting of the ABCs, math basics reinforced through use of blocks, vocabulary building through dress-up and play centers, etc. And by imposing one standard across the board, everyone is reverting to the mean. The kids who were behind are able to catch up and the kids who were ahead are being slowed down and limited by a silly "inch wide and mile deep" curriculum that tries to "teach" abstract thinking to empty minds that haven't been fed with the facts they are hungry for...the names of the dinosaurs, the presidents, math facts. Young children can learn a lot of content in a playful manner, instead he is feeding "abstract thought" to minds that aren't yet developed to that cognitive stage.

I am going to play devil's advocate for a moment.

I acknowledge that Bloomberg's legacy in education is far from perfect, but to say that his legacy is a total failure is simplistic and false. Higher standards, more school choice, and additional accountability are all positives in my book. Also, closing failing schools needs to happen more often. Kids can't wait for a school to be "turned around" by many of the same adults that drove it into the ground. Could he have done better? Sure. Were there some terrible decisions? Yes - (Cathie Black FTW)? But in my opinion, trying to work with a union that, for the most part, refuses to compromise or embrace progress isn't easy.

You're introduction conveniently avoids identifying those who see NYC as an "incubator for educational innovation." New York City parents know better, because we see the disastrous results of his backward-looking "innovations" first hand. In fact, increased testing, union busting, and boondoggles for testing and tech robber barons are hardly innovative. Unfortunately, neither Bloomberg, nor his PEP appointees, nor the politicians, nor the wealthy businesspeople who are reaping the benefits of Bloomberg's policies--most of whom send their kids to private schools--believe we parents have the capacity to know what's best for our own kids. The result is a highly centralized, autocratic (and plutocratic) DOE that gives no platform wherein parents can influence policy.
Sadly, Bloomberg understands business and really doesn't know teaching (and, it seems he knows precious little about learning too, especially from his mistakes). Thus he leaves behind a system that he tried to remake in the image of business, despite that education doesn't, and shouldn't, work like a profit generator at all. His changes have been seismic, but without benefit to the primary stakeholders, children in classrooms.
* The DOE budget has ballooned, but in the years since my first child entered kindergarten, our school has LESS money per child to work with--under $5,000 for the whole year. Compare that to the $30K+ for private school. The bus companies get more than 50% of that amount--$2800/year--simply to drive my (general ed) child for 30 minutes a day round trip. Should the bus companies really be making a 40% profit, when my kid's classroom doesn't even have Post-it notes?
* To claim that Bloomberg has decentralized bureaucracy, as you do in your introduction, is not only inaccurate, it's bizarre. Perhaps you've swallowed the DOE marketing, but there's nothing more centralized than "mayoral control." It's centralized on a single person! Have you been to a PEP meeting lately? Only the mayor has any say.
* Testing is setting us awash in "data," but, in fact, we have LESS accountability, and certainly less reliable accountability, especially for those making the policy decisions. How is it the the performance of a child on a single (faulty) test is what we're using to decide almost everything?These are not sales numbers in a retails business. Learning doesn't reveal itself that way. Worse, that vaunted "accountability" is aimed only at teachers (because what Bloomberg really cares about is busting unions), via our children's performance on tests. There are no mechanisms in place for holding the increasingly opaque and arcane bureaucracy accountable. There is no governing body beyond the Mayor's puppets to provide checks and balances. He's turned the democratic system every other school district in the state has (admittedly a messy, imperfect) into a dictatorship. Innovative? Really? All that data, however, does give Bloomberg the opportunity to manipulate it, so that he and his fellow politicians can pretend to have "improved" schools.
* Closing schools has resulted in community upheaval, but the replacement schools generally fare no better than the old ones. It's a waste of money and time. And again, it seems merely to serve Bloomberg's obsession with firing teachers and busting unions, a goal that is not only nefarious, but fool-hardy for the long-term robustness of our schools ad our national well-being.
* Bloomberg's cocktail party friends are doubling, tripling, sextupling their investments in charter chains and testing/data companies in one of the economy's few boom industries, and all those profits are coming from OUR TAXES! It's one thing for corporateers to make money in the market; it's quite another for them to siphon off our education budget for their own six and seven figure salaries. Our kids need rich, nurturing, SMALL classrooms far more than THEY need those New Market Tax Credits and no bid contracts. Ah, have we reached the crux of it all? Short term profits!

If you let a businessman take over schools, you won't necessarily get well-educated kids, but HE'LL get his short term profits!

We've gone from a completely chaotic Board of Education to a rigid Panel on Educational Policy that rubber stamps some policies that work and some that don't. At least he tried. Koch was political. Dinkins was incompetent. Giuliani kicked the bureaucracy, but there wasn't much systemic reform even though NAEP scores went up. Phasing out 10% of schools that don't work is a reasonable idea. Bringing in 10% of schools as charters with fresh ideas is a good way to break the DOE/UFT monopoly. Class size sometimes matters and sometimes doesn't. That's what principals say based on the how they spend their discreationary Contract for Excellence money. And then again some schools are crowded, but most aren't. Small schools is a reasonable fundamental reform to make them less chaotic. Makes sense even though some studies say one thing and another says something else. Is the UFT a partner or an adversary? Special Education was reformed too little and too late. High School graduation improvement is largely a function of easier Regents tests. The City's butt will be kicked when the new regime of Commone Core is introduced. It's hard for micromanagers who have political and personal and professional agendas to accept that a world class business leader was in charge and made decisions that moved the system in the direction of reform, BUT DIDN"T GIVE A CRAP WHAT OTHER PEOPLE THOUGHT WAS RIGHT.

By his own standards, it' s a failure. See his interview in the Atlantic: "We still aren't meeting the needs of industry" with our schools. He wanted to meet industry's needs, and didn't do it. Failure.

While trying to create a capitalistic competition with charter schools funded by public-private partnerships pitted against district public schools, Bloomberg didn't level the playing field. District schools gave up grants and time for arts and phys ed and replaced them with a rigorous test prep curriculum. The charters funded by private sources employed lobbyists, pr specialists, and marketing directors. They have virtually decorated Harlem and other neighborhoods with beautiful postcards and flyers promoting their schools.

The game is rigged. District schools and schools of choice cannot compete, when every parent needs a short term way to educate their children.

But are the public private partnerships sustainable? Can they be scaled up? Can they keep and develop their young teachers and social workers with out a pension plan, and a road to the middle class? And what will happen to the children that don't get into a charter school, don't get into a school of choice? Why do they still get left behind?

Bloomberg, Klein and now Walcott and a few others have hijacked the charter movement and limited real choices for parents in NYC.