Bloomberg on Klein: 'Nobody Likes a Change Agent'

During his weekly appearance on John Gambling’s radio show this morning, Michael Bloomberg defended the amount of money going to education in the budget the City Council just passed, saying, “It isn’t like we’re cutting the schools' [funding].”

He added, “I’m in a business where if they ask for 10 percent, and you give them a 6 percent raise, they say, 'You cut us 4 percent.' In government speak, you talk about cutting, but cutting from the budgets.”

Referring to the overall budget, Bloomberg went on, “The truth is, in absolute dollars, we are spending this coming year, assuming it holds together, virtually exactly the same.”

Bloomberg also defended School’s Chancellor Joel Klein, to whom teachers gave a failing grade in a recent review.

“Think how far we’ve come--the teachers union has embraced grading,” Bloomberg said. “If Joel is well liked, then he’s probably not doing his job. Nobody likes somebody who comes in and enforces a discipline and changes things,” he continued. “Nobody likes change. Nobody likes a change agent.”