Sen. Huntley's tired of the mayor "strangling the life out of our community"

Leonie Haimson (Class Size Matters) sent a commentary around about the recent battles in the Senate. Neither the Republican Senators or Bloomberg come off as being particularly pro-people.

The YouTube video on the right is Senator Shirley Huntley (10th Sen. District) on schools, and here's Haimson's report:

"There is video of some of the Senators who led the debate on YouTube: Senator Huntley Speaks on the Better Schools Act , in which she recounts how she is locked out of the schools in her district, including one that she helped found: “We are tired of letting the Mayor strangle the life out of our community and that’s what’s going on and we will tolerate it any longer.” Also, Senator Adams Speaks on the Better Schools Act, in which he talks about the widespread practice of “credit recovery” and pointed out to the Long Island GOP Senators who support Bloomberg would not stand for schools so badly run in their own communities: “All I’m asking is let us have input into the system, and I would do the same for you.”

On the Mayor’s radio show yesterday, Bloomberg personally attacked the NYC Senators who voted for the bill – some by name -- saying that the only possible explanation for their votes is that they wanted to “ruin” the public schools; that the bill would establish a "slush fund to train parents so parents can disrupt the schools,” and that parents should have no say in their children’s schools since “I want teachers and principals to run the classroom, they’re professionals.”

He also said that “at some point, democracy has to stop” and that the Governor should call out the state troopers to “drag” the Senators back until they agree to preserve his complete control over the schools. The full audio from Bloomberg’s radio show is available here; also see Mayor Assails Senate Inaction on School Control‎ (NY Times), Bloomberg Unleashes On The Senate Dems‎ (Daily Politics) and Mayor Bloomberg's advice to Gov. Paterson: Drag bums back to Albany (Daily News.)

The mayor and his allies, who have already spent millions of dollars on their lobbying effort, are now running nasty robocalls in the districts of the Senators who refused to comply with his will.

The 14 senators who voted for the bill: Adams, Addabbo, Diaz, Duane, Espada, Hassell-Thompson, Huntley, Carl Kruger, Monserrate, Montgomery, Parker, Perkins, Sampson, Stavisky