The Ferrer Flop

Dem mayoral nominee Fernando Ferrer had a tough day yesterday, after revelations that an entry posted under his name in his campaign blog had him falsely claiming to have been"educated in public schools for most of my education." In fact, Ferrer went to Catholic schools, and then to NYU for college. The campaign attributed the problem to an"editing error."

During the Dem primary, Ferrer also made an odd statement about public schools, claiming that his daughter graduated from public school, even though she attended a Catholic high school.

The editorial pages of the Post and the Daily News are having a field day; the Times, on the other hand, gave the story little play.

The Ferrer candidacy is of more than passing interest for faculty at CUNY, since, as Bronx borough president, Ferrer bitterly resisted the ultimately successful effort to raise standards at CUNY (chiefly by ending remediation at the senior colleges), and so a Ferrer victory, as unlikely as that now seems, would almost certainly turn back the clock at the institution.