New York City Mayor Bloomberg wants to end social promotion of 7th graders:

Now, in order to give more of our middle school students the same opportunity to succeed, I will ask our hardworking and thoughtful Panel for Educational Policy to enact at its August meeting a policy ending social promotion in the 7th grade.

We propose to accomplish this in two stages, over two school years. At the end of the new school year, promotion to 8th grade will be based on a score of Level 2 or higher on the 7th grade ELA test, or through a mandatory appeals process that evaluates student work based on standard citywide criteria.

The following school year, those standards will be applied to student math proficiency as well. We're doing this in order to gain a year of experience with the new statewide standards in math that are being introduced this fall.

We're taking this step because the reality is that 7th grade represents our last, best chance to prepare students for the demands of high school-level work-and it's our duty to grasp that opportunity.

One of Bloomberg's potential Democratic opponents for mayor, Gifford Miller, doesn't seem too happy with the idea of ending social promotion for seventh-graders, according to NY1:

“Test preparation and bureaucratic re-shuffling are not a positive plan,” said Miller, a Democrat. “A positive plan is lower class size and getting teachers a competitive contract that puts the best teachers in every classroom."

One can see that Miller is seeking the support of the city's teachers. But which ones: the ones who aren't the best teachers, who are in the classrooms now?

If you fight attempts to end true social promotion, which constituency are you really representing?