Mayor Trigger-Happy on UFT

Perhaps because he has made improving the school system his greatest priority from the time that he first ran for office six years ago, Mayor Bloomberg has sometimes been short-tempered when he runs into opposition from those who question some of his school policies.

A prime example occurred last week, when he likened the United Federation of Teachers to the National Rifle Association as the kind of extremist group that will go to any lengths to advance its agenda and defeat its opponents. The comparison was hyperbolic, to put it mildly. Unlike the NRA, which in the name of the Second Amendment vociferously opposes any laws aimed at restricting the sale of the kinds of guns that are most often used by criminals, the UFT is not acting as an enabler for lawlessness.

And unlike his laudable campaign against illegal guns, Mr. Bloomberg's ideas for the public schools are hardly beyond reproach. He is, after all, embarking on his third reorganization of the school system in the past five years. While admitting mistakes is preferable to continuing down a dead-end street, it is also an acknowledgment that you don't have all the right answers.

The UFT has problems with elements of the reorganization. It also has questioned the city's growing reliance on test scores to determine student progress as it evaluates both individual schools' performance and Teacher tenure applications, and a union-commissioned study released last week suggests it has good reason to do so.

Mr. Bloomberg has also objected to UFT efforts to have part of the additional state aid for public schools devoted exclusively to reducing class size, arguing that this primarily benefits the union, since it would require the hiring of more dues-paying Teachers.

Whatever financial benefits the union would derive, however, are a lesser reason for pushing the class-size issue. We believe Mr. Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein would be hard-pressed to find any capable Teacher in the system who would dispute that reducing class sizes would improve education. It would make it easier for Teachers to control classes and to focus more individual attention on the students most in need.

Mr. Bloomberg's experience, and success, as a private-sector entrepreneur may have convinced him that he can solve the school system's problems without close collaboration with the UFT, and he may believe that its contract has inhibited Mr. Klein's ability to make changes.

But that pact is a fact of life, and no matter how many nasty editorials his allies at the tabloids write, the UFT is neither going to blush about standing up for its members nor roll over. He should shelve the overheated rhetoric in favor of finding common ground with the union.