What took so long for NYC DOE to address its dysfunction?

We start with the good news. In an agency notorious for a lack of consequences, it’s heartening that the Department of Education has moved to terminate Khurshid Abdul-Mutakabbir, a principal who fixed grades at his former school, Maspeth HS in Queens.

Now, the bad news: What took so long? Why did it take a group of whistleblowers and a front-page story in The Post for the DOE to investigate what students and teachers sneeringly called “the Maspeth minimum”? Why did it take two years to conduct that inquiry and decide to fire him?