While heads were spinning, policy watchers seemed genuinely perplexed by New York City's Mayor de Blasio's education opinions. De Blasio opposed many of Bloomberg's reform efforts despite the achievement gains realized by the nation's largest school district during the last 12 years. Yet on close reading, de Blasio's nine-page education plan offers mostly bromides and impossible dreams: "ensure that all students are reading at grade level by third grade," "reduce class size," "involve and engage parents and families," and "place great leaders to lead great teachers in every school." The proposal that has gotten him the most attention--universal pre-K--has done so not because of the education part but because of the payment plan: a tax on those making more than $500,000. Competing depictions of Mayor de Blasio--that he's an enemy of Bloomberg-style education reform and that he's more of a pragmatist than his anti-Bloomberg rhetoric suggests--have split education reformers into two camps: the fearful and the hopeful. This article examines the following questions; (1) Is de Blasio an enemy of school reform; (2) Does he speak with forked tongue; and (3) If not, does he have the governance mettle to do the right thing when he sees it?