New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg was on campus Thursday morning to deliver the opening address for the International Summit on Urban Education, an event sponsored by the New York City Department of Education and Global Partners Incorporated, which featured panels discussions on improving public education worldwide.

Bloomberg spoke to representatives from 24 international cities, as well as a group of Columbia students and faculty, about the current state of American public schools on the international stage.

“We just cannot continue to do things in education the way we did them one hundred years ago,” Bloomberg said. “Many of us can remember when the educational system of the US was the envy of the world, but we understand that America’s scholastic standing has now slipped badly.”

Bloomberg elaborated on the cause of these recent shortcomings.

“Today we find America’s students ranked 20th in the world in high school graduation rates, 21st in science, and 25th in math. While other nations have raced ahead, expected more from their students and, America has stood still,” Bloomberg said.

The mayor highlighted many of the ways his administration and those before his have worked to improve New York City’s public school system.

“We have ended the practice of social promotion, which for years moved children up a grade even if they hadn't mastered the necessary skills to do the grade that they were in.  What a tragedy,” Bloomberg said. “We gave greater authority to principals, including the authority to decide what works and what doesn’t work in their individual schools, with the student body that they have and the physical resources that they have.”

There has been a lot of progress as a result of these efforts, the mayor said.

“About six months ago, US News and World Report listed the 100 best public high schools in the country, and I’m happy to say that 12 were New York City public high schools,” Bloomberg said. “We have transformed our school system from one of the nation’s worst to one that President Obama’s administration has identified as a model for cities ion the rest of America.”

Bloomberg also looked to the future, speaking about New York’s goals for improved K-12 education going forward.

“We have to make sure that every teacher in every classroom is an excellent teacher,” Bloomberg said. “New York City is blessed with eighty thousand teachers. It’s an astonishing number, and most do a phenomenal job.”

Continuing to fix the problems in New York’s school and schools around the world, Bloomberg asserted, is the key to ensuring a stable future for the next generation.

“I know of no social problem that we have that could not be ameliorated or eliminated if we had better public schools. That has to be where our focus is,” Bloomberg said. “It is the future of our city; it is the future of our state; it is the future of our country; and, in fact, it is the future of our world.”