In his first major interview since leaving office, Yahoo's Katie Couric interviewed the former mayor at the United Nations about a variety of topics including the teachers union, charter schools, and raising the minimum wage.
Asked about his successor's hardline stance against Charter Schools, Bloomberg told Couric that “Charter schools are public schools. That’s what everybody forgets. Charter schools have delivered superior educational results to a group of people who desperately need them and have been left out for far too long by the traditional methods.”
And while Bloomberg declined to name the man who took his office, Bloomberg did take a dig at his longtime rival, the UFT. "Our teachers union runs one or two charter schools that are ranked near the bottom and it's a disgrace. Really, somebody should do something about it. But that's up to the state," he sighed.
Couric then asked Bloomberg about inequality in New York City. The former mayor reminded Couric that raising the minimum wage wouldn’t help poor people, but actually quite the opposite! “You're gonna hurt the poor. Because when an employer has to pay more, not doing business or technology as a replacement for people is an attractive thing,” Bloomberg told Couric. Which explains the ubiquity of robot fast food workers across New York City.
Bloomberg then went on to extol the wonders of the Earned Income Tax Credit, which, as the New York Times points out, provides only temporary relief and doesn't actually give poor or working class families the ability to achieve financial stability. But whatever.
Our former mayor also discussed his new role at the U.N. working on climate change, as well as his dream that he will one day stop fat, poor kids from drinking big sodas. “We’ll win that battle,” Bloomberg told Couric. Sometimes, you almost miss the guy.
