People like Mayor Michael Bloomberg give billionaires a bad name.
His sudden appointment of Cathie Black to head the New York City School system of 1.1 million young people, 71%  of them Black and Hispanic, shows a complete and total disdain for the opinions, passions and desires of New Yorkers in general and of African-American and Hispanic residents, in particular.
Ms. Black, an accomplished publisher and former chair of Hearst publications, coming from an industry repeatedly cited for its lack of diversity, is set to step into an institution that epitomizes the melting pot.
And with no educational background, she is to guide the development of young minds using management techniques for producing ad pages.  She is replacing Joel Klein who is now moving on News Corp. to work with Rupert Murdoch on the financial opportunities in the educational arena.  It was Klein who brought the Wall Street penchant to play with numbers into the schoolroom, resulting in improving test scores that have been shown to be illusory.
And Bloomberg brings in business executives to manage the education of children without giving the concerns of their parents a second thought.  And certainly no thought at all that they would have input into his hiring decisions.
This is the billionaire mayor we have, and he rules as he wishes having bought the office fair and square.  This mayor will not respond to the background noise of mild public outcry.  The volume will have to be turned way up.