Filed under: News
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.