In a small tribute to a New York giant, on Monday morning the Morrisania Post Office in The Bronx will be renamed in honor of Herman Badillo.
His widow, Gail, and other family will be there, along with two US senators, three congressmen and Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. He deserves no less.
Badillo, who died at age 85 in 2014, was a Latino trailblazer: the city’s first Hispanic borough president, the nation’s first Puerto Rican-born congressman and a deputy mayor under Ed Koch.
But his greatest service came as chairman of the City University of New York, leading its revival as a center of academic excellence.
Herman knew educational rigor. He graduated magna cum laude from City College in 1951, then at the top of his class at Brooklyn Law School. He wanted the kids of today’s New York to have the same (or better) opportunities to excel.
He opposed social promotion in the public schools and was death on “bilingual education” programs that never actually make students fluent in English. At CUNY, he stood up for real standards for the elite colleges while supporting opportunity for kids who had been failed by the city’s public schools.
We’re glad to see Badillo honored in his home borough, but we’d also like to see him memorialized on an edifice better befitting a man of his stature and influence.
When next the chance arises, CUNY should name a great building or an entire school for the man who saved the institution.