Cathie Black is not having the most auspicious start as Schools Chancellor. Ignoring the whole waiver-fiasco and her fumbled first non-snow day last night she managed to let fly two tacky cracks that left some lower Manhattan parents unamused.
At a task force meeting last night to discuss the issue of overcrowding in lower Manhattan schools Black offered the following suggestion to deal with the issue: "Could we just have some birth control for a while? It would really help us."
Though it brought out a chuckle in the room at least one parent, who noted that previous chancellor Joel Klein made similar jokes in the past, wasn't laughing. "I understand the temptation to joke about it," they told the News. "But our situation isn't funny any more." Thanks to the proliferation of construction downtown without a similar expansion in school seats, lower Manhattan classrooms are at or above capacity. But at least Black didn't suggest downtown moms just get a few more abortions?
Black also irked some when she compared weighing the needs of different schools to Sophie's Choice. Maybe she hasn't had the ending of the book and movie spoiled for her? Either way, all we could think of when we read that was when Michael Scott had to make the "classic difficult decision" on The Office between renting the Devil Wears Prada again or "finally getting around to seeing Sophie's Choice."
