AND IN THE BLUE CORNER: Five New York City mayoral candidate heavyweights duked it out over the future of NYC schools in the 2013 Mayoral Candidate Forum on Education held at Fordham University Law School. The forum included City Council Speaker of the House Christine Quinn, former city comptroller William Thompson, current city comptroller John Liu, NYC public advocate Bill DiBlasio, and Manhattan Media owner Tom Allon. Quinn (who is widely considered to be supported by Mayor Bloomberg) distanced herself from the other candidates with her strong support for the Bloomberg-enacted mayoral control of schools. She was also the only candidate there who would consider hiring a non-educator as chancellor. Co-located charter and public schools were another hot topic of the night reported The Epoch Times. Thompson lamented that the charter side of these schools looked clean and new while "You go to other side, the public side, and it’s dingy, the children feel as if they’re second class citizens.” With only a third of NYC residents supporting Bloomberg's education policy, reform could be the key to gaining voter support.
