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This article reports on the New York city council discussion of education in the city. What ought to have been the gently thoughtful subject of education brought four days of drama and squabbling to New York's city council. At the council's discussion of the matter, which ended on November 17th, witnesses were said to have been intimidated into not turning up. Others preferred to testify on audiotape, with their voices disguised. While some said it was like the old days in the Soviet Union, Randi Weingarten, the head of the teachers' union, pounded the table, waved papers in the air and shouted that teachers were being "demonised". All this is the work of a little-known council member, Eva Moskowitz, a former university professor. Without any real backing from her peers, she has illustrated the need to tackle the bizarre work practices in the city's schools. Union leaders condemned Ms Moskowitz as the mayor's propagandist, even though she put equal blame on the unions and City Hall for the dysfunctional contracts and has also been a vocal critic of Mr Klein's recent reorganisation. On the plus side, a public hearing has been arranged for parents and teachers and the contracts are currently being renegotiated. But it is still uncertain whether the system will be changed.