Mr. de Blasio: Tear up this blacklist

Was Bill de Blasio’s dad, Warren Wilhelm Sr., blacklisted in the 1950s? Well, it sure looks that way. 

Long story short, Mr. Wilhelm, government analyst, was dragged before a McCarthy-era “Loyalty Board” in 1950, interrogated about suspect activities, interests and affiliations, then stripped of his security clearance. 

“Over the next several years, the case resurfaced as Mr. Wilhelm was considered for promotions,” the New York Times reported in 2013. 

Apparently, the promotions didn’t materialize. Bill’s dad, who’d lost a leg in the battle of Okinawa, who’d been awarded a Purple Heart for his World War II heroism, didn’t talk about these difficulties to his kids. But after another go-round with the loyalty inquisitors in 1953, the Wilhelms left Washington for greener pastures, and Mr. Wilhelm seemed to struggle thereafter in almost every way imaginable. It seems fair to assume, then, that Mr. Bill de Blasio understands the malignant power of the blacklist.

It’s a question of some immediate relevance. An online petition is currently making the rounds asking that the mayor’s Schools’ Chancellor end a Bloomberg-era policy of blacklisting-for-life probationary teachers who are “discontinued” (“fired,” in plain English) from their initial Department of Education (DOE) assignment.

The petition makes the obvious point that school principals should base their decision to retain or discontinue a new teacher on strictly pedagogical grounds. But often this does not happen.

So, what else might figure into the decision? 

Well, politics, for one, both in the local (i.e., “workplace politics”) sense of the word and in the more general sense.

Religion, race and ethnicity — the “old reliables” rolled into one, for clarity’s sake — are also factors. So are sexual orientation and gender. (“But there are LAWS against that sort of thing.” Yeah, right. PROVE it.) 

Cronyism and nepotism rear their ugly heads. (“Got a relative who needs a job? We just might have an opening.”)