January 19, 2011 07:08 PM UTC

Hancock gets bold on Ed Reform

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• by: TheAngryHippie

All of the candidates for Mayor have been talking a lot about reforming the broken public education system at DPS. You’d think Romer would have taken the lead on the issue with his background as the former President of KIPP or Mejia as the former President of the preschool program but Hancock is the first to make clear he’ll bring real change and reform.

I had heard Hancock talk before in small groups about putting the schools under the mayor’s office and according to large daily paper here last night at a forum Hancock confirmed his commitment to a bold plan for reforming our education system. According to the report (and confirmed by a friend who was there with him) Hancock said “We have to let go of the concept that the mayor doesn’t run the schools.” Nobody in the race knows better what it’s like to live in and represent an area where the schools are failing the students. Hancock’s district would be the 6th largest school district in the country if it were its own district. Even though the city council doesn’t have direct oversight of DPS, last year Hancock stepped up to the plate to champion the reform of Montbello. Exciting to see that now he’s ready to bring that same commitment to overhauling our schools to all of DPS. The unions have stood in the way of teacher accountability for too long! Look at what Michelle Rhee did in DC and Bloomberg did in New York City and there is hope for DPS if we get serious.