DOE Hires Former “Weatherman”

September 16, 2009 (GBN News): In what may prove to be his most controversial move yet, NY City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein has hired former Weather Underground leader Mark Rudd as the Department of Education’s new “Charter Facilities Acquisition Officer”. Mr. Rudd, who first made his name taking over buildings at Columbia University back in 1968, was, according to a DOE spokesperson, the “obvious choice” to assist charter schools in finding space in existing public schools.

City Comptroller William Thompson, the Democratic candidate for Mayor, immediately blasted the move, accusing Mr. Klein, and by association Mayor Bloomberg, of “palling around with terrorists”. The Mayor’s campaign quickly responded by insisting that Mr. Rudd had “reformed”, and “has not occupied a building in years.” But J. Fredrick Runson, head of the Political Science Department at Manhattan University, is skeptical of that statement. “They must think he’s as good as ever,” he told GBN News. “Otherwise, they’d just stick with Eva Moskowitz.”