NEW YORK DAILY NEWS by Joshua Greenman 2/27/2013.
Tom Allon, a Republican and a former teacher, is fluid and confident on education and was informed as anyone on the stage. He was just about the only person to offer a genuinely new idea, in this case selling public school air rights to finance new school construction.
To the extent that policy differences choose the next mayor, the 2013 mayoral race will hinge on distinctions on jobs, public safety and, maybe most of all, education.
Eleven years of aggressive reform by Mayor Bloomberg — test-driven accountability, school closures, more than 100 new charter schools and many more small schools — have divided the city. Critics yearn for a softer approach that’s less jarring to the teachers union and friendlier to supposedly disenfranchised parents.
As seven mayoral candidates gathered at Central Synagogue in midtown Tuesday night, the distinctions were sharp. READ MORE
