Lisa Donlan on Governance

I am going to tape Lisa Donlan's excellent presentation on "the old system" and how BloomKlein destroyed all vestiges of a system that was working for parents, teachers and students in District 1 (lower east side.) That is if it ever stops raining and we can do the taping in Thompkins Square Park, a very appropriate setting.


Rather than throwing all the babies out with the bath water, the legislature needed to look at what was working under decentralization and fix what was broken.

Every time we see corruption, ineptitude, paralysis, scandal and patronage up in Albany (and we sure have seen plenty, especially of late!) we don't close the legislature down, level the system, put some autocrat in charge and start over!

Actually, given the last few weeks maybe we should!

But seriously, every time I raised the suggestion of fixing what was broken under the old laws rather than tweaking a way more broken mayoral control system, all I ever heard back was that the public would never stand for anything that sounded like the "bad old days" of local control.

It is the myth of the old system's rampant corruption, dysfunction and chaos that John and Jane Q Public have bought hook, line and sinker that has allowed the shock-doctrine style mayoral control lobbyists, in cahoots with the bought-and-paid-for editorial boards and most of our electeds to push for "control" or autocracy as the easy way out.

I hope you are all keeping track of how the folks we send to Albany to represent us are voting on this.

So far we have 18 courageous champions in the Assembly that deserve our thanks and loyalty.
Keep your eyes on the Senate.

We must take names and kick you-know-what over this issue. Ultimately we get the government we deserve.

Lisa Donlan CEC One