What a dunce!
Outraged parents and students flunked teachers-union boss Mike Mulgrew for venting that “we are at war with the reformers” during a closed-door meeting with union activists Wednesday night.
“He should be fired. There is no place in the education system for a statement like that,” said Jennie Collazo, 36, as she picked up her 6-year-old daughter Janisse from PS 84 in Williamsburg.
Sharona Stone, 32, who picked up her 6-year-old son Ryan at PS 83 in East Harlem, said, “He’s selfish because he’s doing it only for political reasons and not what matters: the kids.”
“He’s blowing a lot of hot air . . . He’s hurting education in New York by making it a petty turf war,” said Nancy Valcarcel, 41, whose 10-year-old son, Caz, also goes to PS 83.
Mulgrew spewed the hateful diatribe before 3,400 union activists voted to approve a new labor contract, which now goes to the full membership.
He slammed education “reformers” and charter schools for trying to “destroy education in our country,” and boasted that he “gummed up” the implementation of teacher evaluations last year.
“Mulgrew is at war with us. He personally sabotaged the teacher evaluations that cost our children $290 million in state aid. He’s at war to keep the status quo with generations of students failing,” said Mona David of the New York City Parents Union.
Even some teachers bashed Mulgrew’s divisive diatribe.
“We are not at war,” said a PS 84 teacher who declined to give her name.
“We need to build a bridge and come together.”
“Mulgrew is a blowhard,” said Chelsea HS teacher Thomas McDonough.
Meanwhile, Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, a staunch ally of the UFT, distanced herself from Mulgrew’s war-mongering.
“I don’t see it that way,” Mark-Viverito said when asked if the city is at war with advocates who support more teacher accountability and charter schools.
Mulgrew stood by his attacks Friday.
“These are not new comments. I have said this before,” he told The Post. “Have I not said the reformers are trying to destroy public education?”
And Mulgrew had supporters in the union’s rank and file who defended his bombastic rhetoric.
“The reformers have been making war on us for at least a dozen years and possibly longer than that,” said UFT delegate Jonathan Halabi.
Additional reporting by Lorena Mongelli and Josh Saul