Education

Bill Thompson on fixing CUNY’s problems

Jeff Coltin

CUNY has long been a pillar of New York educational opportunity, yet the university system is not without its problems: Latino and black enrollment is down and reports of corruption and mismanagement have plagued its administration. Former New York City Comptroller Bill Thompson is now the man tasked with cleaning up the system as chairman of the CUNY Board of Trustees. Thompson joined the New York Slant Podcast on Monday, June 5, where he said the notorious control-freak Gov. Andrew Cuomo wasn’t pushing anything on the board.

“He was there to be supportive. It wasn’t a question of here are my priorities, other than bringing about real accountability to CUNY,” he said. “It's a question of: you need to be focused on improving the level of education, of improving the level of accountability and bringing about change. How you do that, I will be supportive.”

Thompson, who ran for mayor twice before, also talked about why he stayed out of this year’s race, why mayoral control is so much better than the old system and what he’d do about marching in this year’s controversial Puerto Rican Day Parade.

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