At least Someone's Paying Attention

In today's Crain's Insider, Nicole Gelinas is quoted chiding Mike Bloomberg's advertising attack on Bill Thompson's, "expensive," education reforms: "Mayor Bloomberg's disparaging of rival Bill Thompson's schools overhaul as too expensive is hypocritical, Manhattan Institute senior fellow Nicole Gelinas charges. The mayor himself has thrown money at the problem—raising city spending on education to almost $11 billion from $5.85 billion in 2002. “It's odd for the mayor to go after Thompson by saying his education plans will cost money, when the mayor has nearly doubled the city's contribution to education spending,” she says."

It never ceases to amaze us how arrogant the mayor can be-and so immune to the facts at the same time. It's as if he knows that few people will ever really challenge him for-at least in this case-totally misleading the public about his own record.