My old boss, Michael Goodwin, takes Mayor Bloomberg to task in this Daily News column for turning students in crowded schools into political pawns as part of the CFE dispute with the state. (He gives Bloomberg credit, however, for admitting that he is using the kids by chopping their much-needed construction projects to make other grown-up politicians suffer.)

Remember when the old NYC Board of Ed used to play these kinds of stupid anti-child games? Everytime another one of their episodes hit the papers (they were pretty much daily) frustrated New Yorkers used to stand up and demand that control of the schools be given to the mayor.

I can't imagine Chancellor Joel Klein and his team are thrilled that their boss has turned out to be a card-carrying member of the "status quo crowd" they used to criticize. This whole thing is just so depressing because it is the latest reminder that the politics will NEVER change as long as the system continues to exist as it does today.

Previous Chalkboard posts on this crap here, and here.

Here's a particularly good chunk of Goodwin's column:

Children are not political pawns. Whether it's surging immigrant
populations in Woodhaven, Queens, or the residential gentrification of lower
Manhattan, these schools were planned because existing facilities are
overcrowded or don't exist. That is how basic services should be delivered -
equally, on the basis of need and resources.

Of course, pols have long sweetened the pots of supporters. A new
ballfield here, a senior center there, are modern variations on what Plunkitt of
Tammany Hall famously called "honest graft." But there is a huge difference
between rewarding and punishing, between adding icing on the cake and
eliminating meat and potatoes. By withholding a basic service, the mayor crosses
the line.

If the mayor wants to get rid of state Sen. Serphin Maltese(R-C,
Queens) or Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan), he should fund a
political opponent. Taking away a pol's job through the democratic process is
the answer - not punishing innocent citizens who depend on public schools. (If
the mayor wants to really hurt pols, he should close private schools - that's
where most of their kids go.)