Some parents in Lower Manhattan showed Mayor Bloomberg they weren't as stupid as he thought they were this week, booing him at an event because of his flip-flop on the construction of two schools in their neighborhood. Bloomberg, blaming the state's inability to settle the Campaign for Fiscal Equity lawsuit, announced that 21 of the citywide school construction projects that he promised before his re-election would be scrapped due to a lack of cash. Also scrapped will be dozens of new science labs, libraries, athletic and arts facilities, and even heating systems.

It is worth noting that back when the city's current 5-year capital plan for schools was crafted (and groups all over the city were put under the misleading impression that they would get new school buildings, Viva Bloomberg, Children First, etc.) just about the only people who acted like the CFE cash was really on the way were the folks who kept adding projects to the lists and making what many people regarded as empty-promises.

School officials repeatedly were asked point-blank what they would do (i.e. which projects would be cut first) if the dough didn't roll in from the CFE case. The response was along the lines of "don't worry, we'll get the cash, we won't have to cut anything." The city essentially crafted a fairy tale plan funded largely by money that most people knew full well wouldn't be there. Now that the election is over, it is much easier to identify which neighborhood groups were the dupes in the process. (Bloomberg has the list.) But at least they now recognize they were being used by the administration to apply pressure on the state on the CFE issue. You've got to love the politics of school construction.

You can read about the dupes in Queens here; more lower Manhattan dupes here.

UPDATE: The NY Times story on Saturday morning notes that many of the schools on the chopping block are in the districts of powerful lawmakers in Albany - showing Bloomberg is prepared to penalize specific lawmakers (and kids) if the state doesn't pay up. The Chalkboard loves hardball politics and the rapidly ramping rhetoric could very well lead to a deal this year, but again, many of the community activists and parents Bloomberg is now hoping will be whipped up to support the CFE case (1) were already supporting the CFE case, and (2) have sharp enough memories to remember that the state didn't promise them their new buildings, the city did. The Daily News story is here. Anticipate lots of quotes going forward that says that playing politics with kids is really a way to ultimately put all Children First - which is the same argument the old borough hacks used to make when they fought over school construction allocations before mayoral control.

See this part of the Times story:

The impact of the political fights are not lost on Maria Dilworth, a mother
of three who is helping to organize a protest next week with the Cypress Hills
Advocates for Education.

"Our children are being bused to an annex that is in a very old
building, and we still have overcrowding," Ms. Dilworth said. "If the governor
had done what he's supposed to do, then we wouldn't have this beef with the
mayor. But he came out here and made us a promise. We intend to hold him to
that."