The two candidates sparred over education, with the mayor attacking Thompson’s record as head of the Board of Education. For his part, Thompson compared the mayor’s Department of Education to Enron and claimed students are being prepared to do nothing more than take state tests.

“He didn’t get the job done. He failed the students. He failed the teachers. He failed the taxpayers — he failed our future,” Bloomberg said.

“We’re seeing our young kids going off to school, they may graduate, but they are going off and they can’t compete,” Thompson said.

The economy also served as a key point of contention. Thompson continued to hammer Bloomberg over his policies towards the middle class. But Bloomberg turned the tables, accusing Thompson of wanting to raise taxes that will push jobs out of the city.

“I think that this city is going in the wrong direction. I think that if we look at, and I talked about the affordability gap before, middle class and working New Yorkers are being pushed out of the City of New York by the policies of this administration,” Thompson said.

“He said he wants a broad base tax. At one time he said a millionaire’s tax, he’s said so many things, I can’t keep straight who he wants to tax, but he’s going to tax somebody, Bloomberg said.

Both candidates said they would not raise taxes, though during the campaign Thompson has expressed support for raising taxes on wealthy New Yorkers.

“I started a small business. I know what it’s like to be an entrepreneur, I know what it’s like to create jobs,” Bloomberg said. “To come here it’s not easy. You worry every night you go home, you worry whether you can make ends meet the next day.”

“Everybody realizes that the mayor is out of touch with the people that he represents,” Thompson said.

Speaking of money, Thompson questioned whether the mayor’s contributions to charities and politicians buy him support, while Bloomberg accused Thompson of pay to play politics.

But Bloomberg did have some nice things to say about Thompson.

“It has been a pleasure working with him, I don’t think that he’s the right guy to run the city, I think that I am,” Bloomberg said.

Thompson didn’t return the favor. When asked to grade the Mayor’s tenure, he gave him a D minus.

Tuesday night’s debate was incredibly important for Thompson. He is being vastly outspent and is behind in the polls by double digits.

Source: NY1