Mike Bloomberg: Let's Fire Bad Teachers!

The city's teachers don't like Mike, but his sudden change of heart on a much-hated teacher-evaluation law could smooth things over: He wants it to be easier to fire bad teachers but let poorly rated ones appeal their bad evals.

After pushing repeatedly for unpopular evals -- even making a point to cheer on Governor Andrew Cuomo's support of eval-based school funding -- Bloomberg has suddenly asked the state's chief to junk the law altogether and bring an end to the labor dispute with the city's teachers, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Bloomberg and the teachers' union had been fighting over the effects of evals on teachers: Educator advocates had said that they were unfair because there wasn't a clear way for them to fight against low marks.

The mayor's administration now wants to swap the 2010 law with a measure that makes it easier to can bad teachers -- but also let profs protest poor evaluations.

Mike's admin doesn't think the 2010 law will "work as constructed," according to the newspaper. They say it also doesn't give the city enough say over ineffective teachers. Top honchos in the mayor's office want the chancellor to have firing power.

Looks like the educators' union might be on board.

The United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew said that he wants a "fair appeals process" and teacher training but would consider a compromise with Bloomberg on the firing issue.

Although the UFT was against a heavy-handed chancellor in the past, the group might be OK giving the chancellor final say -- as long as the whole process is open to the public, the Journal notes.