Giuliani Should Be Chancellor

Giuliani Should Be Chancellor

Over the past eight years, Editorialno one has studied the Board of Education’s operations more closely than Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. Over this period of time he has become the severest critic of the huge bureaucracy at 110 Livingston St.

Also, during two terms as Mayor, Giuliani has made his mark himself as a good administrator unafraid to tackle thorny problems, and has earned the respect of both friends and enemies for his judicious handling of the city’s financial resources and for his ability to achieve the record lowering of the crime rate in New York City, a feat once considered impossible.

The mayor as a former United States Attorney had established a reputation as a prosecutor with a backbone, a quality he brought to his career at City Hall. He had his victories in the many unpopular campaigns he undertook, although he lost a few, but the mayor never stopped believing he was on the right course.

For these several reasons, the Gazette believes very strongly that Giuliani, whose time as mayor will end at the end of the year because of term limits, should be selected as the next Chancellor of the Board of Education.

His assumption of leadership of the beleaguered board couldn’t come at a better time.

Assailed in recent years by poorly performing students and teachers, the serious problem of crime in the schools, and ever increasing budgets, the tottering school system’s worst calamity, exposing the stark reality of the bumbling administration at the Board Of Education, emerged a few months ago with the revelation that the system’s sorely needed schools construction plan was close to $3 billion in the hole.

The situation begs for a strong and vigorous administrator to take the reins of an agency charged with one of the most vital functions in our society—the education of over a million children during a period in their lives when a love for learning and study habits that will guide them through their lives must be ingrained in them.

The situation calls for an accomplished administrator, one who is unafraid to confront the powerful political forces here and in Albany that are more concerned with other agendas than with putting the public schools on a sound footing.

The situation is perfect for a person like Rudy Giuliani. It would provide him the opportunity to attack a system which has been one of his most constant targets during his mayoral administration. Once in control, there would be no need for study of the problems and setting an agenda for change. All the former mayor would have to do is transfer his schools files from City Hall to the board’s Brooklyn headquarters.

Giuliani would bring to this awesome task firm convictions and unwavering personal energy to revitalize the personnel on the board and address the situation in the classroom.

Choosing a person like the mayor, a man with a world-class reputation, to attack one of the city’s most important yet unfailingly unsuccessful functions would serve notice that the new occupant of City Hall was calling on the city’s best possible candidate, a proven performer, to take on the city’s greatest problem.