By Tara Kyle
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — Teachers Union President Mike Mulgrew intensified a standoff with Mayor Michael Bloomberg Friday, saying that the Mayor handles city schools like Egyptian autocrat Hosni Mubarak handles protestors, according to the New York Post.
The verbal battles between Bloomberg and Mulgrew, who the Post reported once had a close relationship, began to escalate following Thursday’s Panel for Education Policy (PEP) meeting over the fate of failing schools.
On Friday, Bloomberg defended new Schools Chancellor Cathie Black by calling the behavior of throngs of parents who heckled her at the meeting "embarrassing for New York City, New York State and for America," the Post reported.
"This is not democracy — letting people yell and scream," the mayor said.
The Mayor added that booing and yelling would deter good people from public service and moreover served to insult teachers, principals, safety officers and custodians, according to the Post.
That caused Mulgrew to compare the Mayor’s governance to that of the dictator who has held onto power for three decades.
"It’s apparent the Mayor shares his definition of democracy with Hosni Mubarak," Mulgrew said, according to the Post. "For the Mayor to talk about the PEP and democracy is the height of hypocrisy. The last time they voted against him, he fired them."
The Mayor dismissed three PEP members in 2004 because they wouldn’t support stopping automatic promotions for third graders, according to the Post.
Relations between the Mayor and Mulgrew began to deteriorate in recents weeks after a series of statements by the Mayor related to teacher layoffs and labor concessions, according to the Post.
"Things are very tense," one insider source told the Post.
