De Blasio aims to reverse education policies in New York Bill de Blasio, elected mayor of New York City this week, intends to dial back or abandon many of the education changes outgoing Mayor Michael Bloomberg aggressively implemented in the nation's largest public school system. Bloomberg, the first New York mayor to control the system that educates 1.1 million students, promoted competition, data and accountability. Amid public outcry, he shut down more than 160 low-performing neighborhood schools, replacing them with hundreds of smaller schools and public charters, which are funded by tax dollars, privately managed and nearly all non-union. He graded schools with A to F report cards and brought in a contentious teacher evaluation system. "Bloomberg really epitomized an approach to reform that has been sweeping the country and urban areas, endorsed by the U.S. Department of Education," said Pedro Noguera, a professor of education at New York University. Market-based reforms - charters, choice, school closures. Heavy emphasis on high stakes testing as a means of holding schools accountable. Bloomberg probably carried out that strategy more effectively than any other mayor. De Blasio - the first Democrat elected mayor in 20 years and the first in recent memory with a child in public school - wants to pause or reverse many of Bloomberg's policies. He has said he will impose a moratorium on school closings, ditch Bloomberg's A-F report cards for schools and stop relying on test scores as a basis for decisions about the performance of schools and teachers. "We have to be willing to reverse so many mistakes of the Bloomberg years, especially the focus on test prep and teaching to the test that has really undermined our educational system," de Blasio told a forum of organized labor during the campaign. What the mayor has done is failed our children . . . the disparities in our school system have not been addressed. So many kids don't get to graduation or get to graduation and then don't have the actual skills to make it at CUNY [the City University of New York]. It's not the fault of the teachers. They haven't been given what they need to succeed and they've been under attack the whole time. Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, whose local affiliate represents teachers in the city, said de Blasio's easy victory Tuesday means that voters saw the schools issue the same way. "New York wanted a new direction, in terms of public schooling, from the 12 years of the Bloomberg mayoralty," said Weingarten, who has been mentioned as a possible choice for schools chancellor in de Blasio's administration, an idea she swatted away. "I love, love, love my job," she said. De Blasio wants to make preschool available to every 4-year-old in the city, aiming to narrow the achievement gap between low-income children and their more affluent peers. He also wants to create after-school programs for middle-schoolers. To fund both, he has proposed raising taxes on the city's wealthiest residents. "If he does what he promised, he will be the most important national leader against the movement to close down and privatize public education," said Diane Ravitch, the education historian and blogger who opposes the kinds of changes Bloomberg championed.