Or, getting along is groovy?

Great quote from Eduwonk in today's NY Times story on the settlement reached between Mayor Bloomberg and the Working Families Party/UFT to voluntarily scale back proposed reforms for the city schools:

"There are political deals that you have to cut around some of these things. At the same time it’s important that policy makers keep their eyes on these things, because where policy reforms go to die is when policy makers keep cutting these deals."

Who knows what the sausage will look like once it has all been stuffed. But we do know who the biggest loser was in all of this: Tim Johnson, the chairman of the chancellor's parent advisory council. The poor guy really thought the WFP and the UFT were serious when they said they would fight to allow parents to have a "seat at the table." It was, as it usually is, a charade something Tim seemed to acknowledge in his comments in the papers.

If you want real parent power, ditch the "seat at the table" talk and demand the right to say "adios" when you kid's school stinks. It's the only way you can have power in a world where political theater like what we saw in New York City yesterday is reality.

Power to the people, Tim.

UPDATE: At EdWize, Leo Casey says I need a paper bag to help me get my breathing back. But the time for damage control was yesterday when Tim Johnson was spouting off to reporters about getting stranded at the WFP/UFT bus stop.