By Jill Colvin
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
CITY HALL — Mayor Michael Bloomberg defended Schools Chancellor Cathie Black yet again Tuesday about her joke that "birth control" is the solution to overcrowded downtown schools.
A reporter tried to ask Black about the controversy surrounding the crack at a press conference at Tweed Courthouse Tuesday afternoon. But before the reporter could get her question in, the mayor intervened.
"Let me just take it for her," he interrupted. "Yes, she made a joke. Should she have made a joke? In retrospect probably not."
Bloomberg repeated the argument he first made Monday that Black is still getting used to the difference between the public sector and the private sector, where she spent most of her career.
"When you go from the business world to the public world, it’s a very different world. People tend to take things out of context and maybe, I think, a little bit too seriously," he said.
DNAinfo was first to report the controversial comments Black made during a meeting of Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s school overcrowding taskforce downtown last Thursday.
She also offended some parents by comparing the difficulty of prioritizing neighborhoods' needs to a "Sophie’s choice," an allusion to the story of a mother in Auschwitz who must decide which of her children will die.
She has since apologized for the remarks, Community Board 1 Chairwoman Julie Menin said.
Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers, cautioned Black against trying to get a laugh next time around.
"Comments done in jest sometimes just should not be made," he said. "They’re not funny one way or another."
Still, he said that it's time to move on.
"I think Ms. Black has dealt with it and said that she’s completely apologized for it and I think we can move forward," he said.
