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Just two weeks after she took the job of schools chancellor, Cathie Black has already put her foot in her mouth -- reportedly telling parents that her solution to overcrowded schools is "birth control."
"Could we just have some birth control?" Black said during a meeting of Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver's school overcrowding task force on Thursday in lower Manhattan.
"It would really help us out a lot," she added.
In another bone-headed comment, Black told a parent after the 35-minute forum that the impending budget cuts she had to make are like trying to decide which child should be killed.
"I don't mean this in any flip way. It is many Sophie's choices," she said, in a reference to the book in which a mother in the Auschwitz death camp has to decide which of her two children will live, The Tribeca Trib reported.
Parent Tricia Joyce said she was appreciative that Black came to the meeting, but that her answers -- and her comparisons to the Holocaust in the case of the 'Sophie's Choice' reference -- were worrisome.
"Everybody's face fell. You don't want to hear that reference when you're talking about children," said Joyce, whose kids attend the perennially overcrowded PS 234 in Tribeca. "She could have been nervous, it could have been the first thing that came to her mind. ... I just hope she chooses to do something much better than what she says."
Some who attended the meeting said Black's comments were especially inappropriate given the serious context of a community that for years has fought to overcome a lack of access to public school seats.
"The parents I spoke with after the meeting were very concerned about the comments she made because we're grappling with real issues," she added.
Mayor Bloomberg's controversial pick drew criticism last month from critics who said the former Hearst Magazines chairwoman had no experience in the field of education to successfully do the job.
Black took over for former Schools Chancellor Joel Klein last week.
"For me, this is a dream. It's a dream job, a dream opportunity, a chance to make a difference," Black said at Public School 262 in Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, the first stop on her five-borough tour on Jan. 3.
Despite Bloomberg's backing, many New Yorkers opposed the appointment of a publishing executive with no background as an educator to head the school system.
Source: NY Post
Kevin Eason is a freelance editorial cartoonist and Illustrator from New Jersey. His brand of satire covers news events in politics, entertainment, sports and much more. Follow him on Facebook.
Comments: (31)
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By: SAY WHAT! on 1/15/2011 9:07AM
Well if all you applicable parents don't want to monitor your kids, birth control sounds like a good start.
Let's not get off base with the real issue of teeny bopper, out of wedlock pregnancy.
That's the real subject here so chill with the he said/she said smoke screen BS.
Even with birth control the spread of sexually transmitted disease will still apply so "birth control" is merely a band-aid.
Parents need to step up and get involved, then people wouldn't have to get together and continually put their foot in mouth while trying to fix others problems.
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By: Wyllyemozelle on 1/16/2011 1:07PM
Think about it: would birth control helped the problem today? No! So what is she talking about. There are problems now that need to be dealt with. She who published magazines. New York schools are in trouble with Ms. Black at the helm. Mayor Bloomberg OUGHT to be ashamed of himself!
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By: madmax on 1/16/2011 9:48PM
All the birth control methods in the world won't start having an impact until FOUR YEARS FROM NOW. The qustion is, what can be done now? For one thing, we obviously need better leadership. The next thing we need is to decentralize authority and recources to the lowest levels possible. The final step, is to initiate a strict "no pass, no play, no exceptions" policy. Would we lose a lot of students the first one or two years? Yes, we sure would, but the ones who choose to stay, will be the ones who want to be there. By enforcing vagrancy laws, restricting licences and work permits to students, banning school-age children from malls and stores during school hours, and restricting benefits to families with truant children wouyld be a tough love approach that we should look at.
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By: Dj on 1/15/2011 11:04AM
China had or still have a one child per couple, but look at them. It wouldn't be a problem in the Unites States if these parent could take care of all the needs of their children, but this isn't the case.
Making a statement like this is hard to taking in, but it may help some women see that having more children will keep them poor.Just because you like children doesn't mean you need to have more.
I visited New York city in 2010, I never saw so many public housing high rises, all on the public welfare system, I couldn't wait to get out of there. Now I have seem more of them move to the Metro Atlanta area and this causing problems, a lack of education, no skills and living better than they ever did in New York some still on welfare because of Section (8).
If you can't take of their children why should other people pocket's take care of them for you. One child maybe, two or more absolutely not.
Most of these children are being born in poverty, not to say poor, poor people shouldn't have children, but they aren't living on a farm where they need more and more children they are in a big city, and our city's can't continue to take the bad decision's of poor planning of children.
My statments aren't political so don't try to make them political.
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By: okay... on 1/15/2011 1:45PM
You have a valid point, it doesn't have to be political, its a matter of common sense. Having lots of kids when you are poor just continues the vicious cycle.
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By: rasil on 1/16/2011 7:15AM
"China has one child per couple"...in China they promote marriage and responsibility.
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By: madmax on 1/17/2011 10:56AM
There's a lot of problems with your post. First of all, many, if not most of the housing projects you see, replaced the rodent infested fire traps where the poor used to live. Just who do you think owned that land? The landlords...and the city had to buy that land at premium prices. Second, we have no idea how many people raised in these areas eventually become useful citizens. The governor of Massachusetts was raised in the Robert Taylor Homes, one of the worst housing projects in Chicago. Third, poor people don't choose to be poor, and after imprisonment or jail time for minor offenses, many poor people have nowhere else to go. Think about this for a second. Sex offenders are restricted by the conditions of their release where they can live. This means that hundreds, perhaps thousands of them are concentrated in black communities all over the country, making living in thiese communities even more hazardous. And finally, contrary to popular belief, poor people also pay taxes. They don't have a say in whether the government decides to buy a $1 billion dollar ship, or a $150 million dollar plane. I'm sure if they had a choice, they would rather the sales taxes and gasoline taxes, and all the other taxes they pay, would go towards something that benefits them.
I'm starting to see a growing false narrative against the poor. The Republicans want to make spending cuts just for political reasons. No amount of cuts to the poor will help, but cutting benefits to people who don't vote, or are poor, is always a good start, because it will "prove" that the Republicans mean business.
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By: rhonda on 1/15/2011 1:44PM
You don't have to agree with everything somebody says. Some things are just stupid. Use your own brain...think. Now you know that doesn't make sense what that lady is suggesting. Don't always agree with stupid stuff. Say "No" and keep going.
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By: Wiley on 1/15/2011 1:45PM
I see from Faux News that 86 girls in one school in Atlanta are pregnant. They helpfully show a white pregnant girl to emphasize the point. What they do not say is that the school is 98% black with not one white student there. Once again holding blacks to lower standards, which of course only perpetuates these low standards.
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By: madmax on 1/18/2011 8:12AM
Fake News reported this story at a predominently white school a few months ago, and the story was debunked, and the Principal was fired.
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