By Heather Grossmann
DNAinfo News Editor
MANHATTAN — Mayor Michael Bloomberg, whose education reform agenda has clashed with the city's teachers union, defended the work teachers unions do during a TV appearance Thursday morning.
The mayor appeared on a special edition of MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program that focused on education reform that also featured the Rev. Al Sharpton and musician John Legend.
“I think the unions get bashed a little bit too much in this. They’re not always cooperative, but they’re not always obstreperous either — they are part of the solution,” Bloomberg said from the MSNBC Tampa, Fla. studio. “Same thing is true with government.”
Bloomberg has backed charter schools and performance-based compensation for teachers, which are key parts of his education reform agenda that have irked some local educators and their unions.
Sharpton was asked why he was now so involved in education reform, having even met with adversary Newt Gingrich, the conservative Republican former U.S. House Speaker, on the issue. He replied that his motivation came from looking at the achievement gap in his own community, which he said is as wide as it was when Brown vs. the Board of Education passed in 1954.
“It’s a civil rights issue,” Sharpton said. “To me the new bigotry is low expectations.”
Sharpton drew loud applause from the studio audience when he said that “bad parents need to be held accountable” for the performance of their children.
Legend, who works with a coalition of charter schools called Harlem Village Academies, said education is the way to empower disadvantaged youth.
“These kids are going to go to college, they’re going to graduate, they’re going to be successful,” Legend said of the children at Harlem Village Academies’ schools. “They come from poverty and this is how we break the cycle.”
