All that was missing was an elephant. The clowns were present and accounted for.
President Obama’s education secretary, Arne Duncan, paid a visit yesterday to Brooklyn schools. Even before he arrived, the teachers union turned the event into a three-ring circus, in which the children were pawns. Or maybe hostages.
Duncan trekked deep into the Borough of Kings, ostensibly to meet and greet little people he refers to as “children.” But choreographing the big-kid horror show brought the wrath of Randi Weingarten, the head of the national teachers union, who was incensed that Duncan planned to visit a school whose principal had done battle with her union.
To reach détente, Duncan penciled in a visit to PS 214, which met with Randi’s approval. Only there did the city teachers union chief, Michael Mulgrew, show up. But it was difficult to find a room big enough to hold both Mulgrew and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, a union foe. The men grimaced, and listed toward opposite ends of the planet.
When asked about the catfight, Duncan got cute.
“My job is not talking to adults, but listening to children,” he said, before listening to Mayor Bloomberg, who talked up a subject that hits union types like a stake in the heart: charter schools.
The event was cannily staged to demonstrate that charters work best. So the union worked ferociously to undermine the rep of the very school Duncan stuck his foot in. The union put out a statement challenging the good work of Kings Collegiate.
Duncan was undaunted. “This is the highest-performing middle school in New York state,” Duncan gushed while visiting a fifth-grade classroom.
“What makes this the best middle school in the state?” he asked.
“We get more homework!” a child said.
“Is that a bad thing?” Duncan asked.
“No,” said the kid. “It’s awesome!”
Somewhere, Mulgrew and Weingarten were chewing off their fingernails.