Good riddance Bloomberg (and Carlos Danger)

Bill de Blasio wins NY primary.

There's a couple of reasons why I woke up on the right (left?) side of the bed this morning.

One: We are not lobbing missiles into Syria, much to joy of 90% of Americans, 100% of families and children living in Damascus, and the chagrin of war mongers in both countries and on both sides of the aisle.

Two: It looks like a progressive mayor has been (or will be -- still waiting on the final count) elected in NYC. Congrats to primary winner Bill de Blasio who had to overcome vicious, racist attacks on him and his family by stop-and-frisk mayor Bloomberg. De Blasio offers some hope to a NY's public school system which has been devastated by Bloomberg's charter school and privatization fanaticism.

WaPo reports:

Bloomberg’s dreamscape became the Democrats’ dystopia. In their telling, he was not a refreshing, fearless leader but an overbearing father who thought he always knew best. “The mayor,” de Blasio said Tuesday, “has been increasingly unwilling to address inequality in this city and that this is the central issue of our times.”

I, along with many other progressive educators, are still puzzled by the teachers union leadership's lack of support for de Blasio. I still have to analyze the vote count but it's already clear that many of UFT's own rank-and-file voted for him. Big disconnect there.

De Blasio is a pro-union guy with a good line on public education.

DeBlasio has made universal pre-K a centerpiece of his campaign, pushing for a tax increase on the wealthy in order to pay for it. He’s also the foe of charter schools — he’s said several times that the city has enough charter schools and that they should have to pay rent to use public property. -- Politico

GothamSchools has more on DeBlasio’s views on education issues: http://bit.ly/1dDGOjQ