(Daniel Shapiro)
(
)
Black is definitely not his cup of tea.
The head of the city teachers union mockingly referred to Cathie Black — Mayor Bloomberg’s pick for schools chancellor — as nothing more than predecessor Joel Klein “in a dress with nice shoes” amid biting comments that made it clear she would not have been the union chief’s selection.
“If I could appoint a chancellor, would it be Ms. Black? No,” United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew told parent leaders Monday at a meet-and-greet turned jab-fest. “Of course, I’ve got a problem with someone not having any education [background].”
The comments — the most critical from Mulgrew on Black to date — come just as a state advisory panel recommended that she should not be granted a waiver from education-credential requirements.
Until this week, Mulgrew had mostly remained mum on the possibility that Black would be the city’s next schools chancellor — instead focusing most of his criticism on the hush-hush process by which Bloomberg selected the 66-year-old publishing executive as schools chief.
But a more blistering Mulgrew told parents Monday that he was refusing to meet with Black until her appointment as chancellor was confirmed.
“There’s no sense of me meeting with a woman who’s not the chancellor of New York City — it validates her, which she has not been validated yet and we don’t know if she’s going to be validated,” he said.
Mulgrew made it clear during the meeting that his biggest concern was changing the mayoral-control law so that the public could get a say in future chancellor appointments.
But he found occasion to riff on a joke a parent made that likened Black to outgoing Chancellor Joel Klein, in drag.
“Everyone’s equating her to Joel: He needed a waiver, she needs a waiver. She’s Joel,” Mulgrew said at one point.
“In a dress!” shouted a parent — drawing laughter — to which Mulgrew responded, “In a dress, with nice shoes.”
Mulgrew also told parents he warned that Bloomberg would have difficulties with Black at the helm of the school system because “the people you’re depending on to guide her educationally are the same morons who have been guiding education in the city for the past five to six years.”
The union head also showed he’s not sentimental about the departure of Klein, who had a largely antagonistic relationship with the union for eight years.
“I told my membership last week ‘You’re already outraged about Ms. Black and you forgot that at least you got rid of the other one,’ ” said Mulgrew.
The UFT did not respond to a request for comment.