Leadership, autobiography by Rudolph Giuliani: on Education

Rudy Giuliani: Schools should focus on educating kids, not protecting jobs

The school system was never going to improve until core mission was made clear. What the system should have been about was educating its million children as well as possible. Instead, it existed to provide jobs for the people who worked in it, and to preserve those jobs regardless of performance. That is not to say that there weren't committed professionals at every level in the system.

Until I could get everyone to agree that the system existed to educate children, fixing little bits of it was symbolic at best. The system needed to say we are not a job protection system but a system at its core about children's enrichment. All rewards & risks must flow from the performance of the children. If you took a broken system & repaired just enough so that it could limp along, you lessened the chance that a real solution could be reached. That is why I resist partial control over a project. The schools should be made into a mayoral agency--like the Fire Department--so the city can enact real solutions

Source: Leadership, autobiography by Rudolph Giuliani, p.175 Oct 1, 2002

Rudy Giuliani: Supports vouchers and supports using the word vouchers

If you want to change people's minds, you have to stop pandering to them--even if it means using words they don't like. A good example is the word "voucher." If I used other language to describe a voucher, people would have a more positive reaction. The reason was that the word had been demonized--the teachers' unions characterized it as a threat to de-fund public schools. It had become a demonized word.

Nevertheless, I refused to abandon it, and still do. We're only going to win the battle for choice for parents when the word "voucher" loses its stigma. In using all the euphemisms, voucher advocates cede the battle, because behind people's fear of the word lies the contorted thinking that prevents voucher programs from being adopted. Those who oppose vouchers tend not to understand them. For those of us who believe in the concept, it's our job to defang the word, to counter the irrational reaction to it. The more supporters say the word, the less opponents can milk it for propaganda reasons.

Source: Leadership, autobiography by Rudolph Giuliani, p.195-6 Oct 1, 2002

Rudy Giuliani: Cut city funding for offensive art at Brooklyn Museum

My decision to reduce funding for the Brooklyn Museum of Art after it displayed sexually explicit cutouts and a portrait of the Madonna defiled with elephant dung was hysterically opposed by the New York elite. The politically correct never envisioned that people could in good faith have a difference of opinion about whether public money ought to be used to desecrate a religious image.

There was an important First Amendment issue at stake. I believed that the mayor should never have the right to stop anyone from making a statement of any kind. People have a right to free expression. If they were to create offensive art on their own property, using their own funds, and someone were to attack them for doing it, the mayor would be obliged to protect them, and so would the police. But I believe there is a difference between protecting someone's right to desecrate a religious image and being required to fund that desecration using tax dollars from the very people it offends.

Source: Leadership, autobiography by Rudolph Giuliani, p.225-226 Oct 1, 2002

*The above quotations are from Leadership, autobiography by Rudolph Giuliani with Ken Kurson.* Click here for definitions & background information on Education. Click here for more quotes by Rudy Giuliani on Education.
*2008 Presidential contenders on Education:*
*Republicans:* Chmn.John Cox Mayor Rudy Giuliani Gov.Mike Huckabee Rep.Duncan Hunter Sen.John McCain Rep.Ron Paul Gov.Mitt Romney Sen.Fred Thompson	*Democrats:* Sen.Hillary Clinton Sen.John Edwards Sen.Mike Gravel Rep.Dennis Kucinich Sen.Barack Obama	*Third Parties:* Green: Rep.Cynthia McKinney Socialist: Brian Moore Independent: Mayor Mike Bloomberg
Please consider a donation to OnTheIssues.org! Click for details -- or send donations to: 1770 Mass Ave. #630, Cambridge MA 02140 E-mail: submit@OnTheIssues.org (We rely on your support!)