In his political campaigns, Mayor Bloomberg has promised to improve public school education and has been backed by Latino leaders.

"These parents didn't receive a formal education and they don't understand the value of it," said Mayor Bloomberg. That was his reply to a group of organizations that brought a lawsuit against the city to stop the closing of 22 under-performing schools in low-income neighborhoods.

The mayor also criticized two of the plaintiffs, the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) during his weekly radio broadcast. His comments were aired this past Friday.

The mayor's attack on parents' low level or lack of education didn't go unnoticed. "It's an insult to our communities, and to the majority of parents with children in public schools," said Ken Cohen, the regional director of the NAACP.

Zakiyah Ansari, of the Alliance for Quality Education, said, "How dare he say that because we are black or Hispanic or homeless, or all of these at the same time, that we aren't educated and that we don't know what's best for our children." Ansari's words were printed in the New York Times.

Mayor Bloomberg thinks that these organizations "should be better informed" and not allow for under-performing schools "to stay open."

During his political campaign, Mayor Bloomberg said that in the future, organizations should judge his performance based on the reforms he would put in place to enhance public education. Various educational organizations have given the mayor an "F" because students haven't improved in reading, writing, or math.

Nevertheless, the mayor is replacing public schools with charter schools, which are privately run and haven't proved to be a better choice. The mayor has been denounced for "selling" the city's public school system.

The mayor's most recent assault on low-income parents comes in addition to his attacks on the immigrant community. Mayor Bloomberg proposed having a person's photo and fingerprints printed on social security cards so that "employers can verify the identity of the person in the photo and use the fingerprints to check that he or she can work legally."

The new chancellor of education, Dennis Walcott, came to the mayor's defense to try and alleviate the negative impact of his comments: "There is no connection between education and race or immigration status. Parents and families know what's going on in schools and they are involved."

Michael Mulgrew, the president of the UFT, said that when parents don't share the same goals as the mayor, they get criticized for not caring about their children's education. "Haven't you seen parents protesting in the streets?" asked Mulgrew.

Public schools continue to face the same problems and poor students continue to learn in overcrowded classrooms. They have violin classes in the cafeteria, they lack after-school programs, and they suffer a dropout rate of 60 percent in low-income neighborhoods.

Where is the funding for public schools going and which neighborhoods are benefiting the most?