Black has yet to emerge from hiding to face the public although she has had a series of "brief" and "vague" conversations with electeds. It is unclear when and if she will speak to parents.Even within the Bloomberg administration, some aides are continuing to express dismay over a highly secretive search and hurried vetting process that was conducted without advice from top aides to the mayor, many of whom met Ms. Black for the first time minutes before she was introduced as the next chancellor.
A former top aide to Mr. Bloomberg said the mayor’s decision to circumvent his own advisers on such a major decision left some of them wondering whether he valued their work and counsel.
It's nice to see the Times actually reporting on something, instead of licking the Mayor's boots the way it usually does.
ReplyDeleteOff topic, but I guess you have seen the coordinated movement to make class sizes larger this week. First Duncan urges districts to use the financial crisis to "leverage transformational change" and change salary structure (and class size rules, then Gates gives a speech urging the same moves.
ReplyDeleteWant a raise? Raise test scores!!! Teach 40 students a class!!!
Funny, but I don't remember Obama running on larger class sizes as part of his Change We Can Believe In platform.
And yet, that's what he is going to try and bring us.
And of course Bloomberg will leverage this for all its worth - as he already has this week with the announcement that he is cutting 10% of the teaching force through layoffs and attrition.
It's all coordinated.
Obama deserves harsh censure for acting stupidly with regard to education. Bloomberg deserves impeachment and long-term scorn by humanity. Many of his cronies deserve long sentences in well-appointed minimum security prisons.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if there's a great future when Obama stays longer..
ReplyDeleteThe Black appointment, like the Klein appointment before, is an effort by Bloomberg to gradually and systematically destroy the public schools.
ReplyDeleteOur education president was ready to sack Rhode Island teachers who had tenure. Between this and his negative policy regarding Israel, he is planting the seeds to be a one-term president.
ReplyDeleteC.Black was selected as the mayor knows she will do an outstanding job in destroying the UFT. That's the only reason she is being put in. The woman knows absolutely nothing about the rigors of classroom teaching. As long as she can continue the Klein ways of union and teacher bashing and creating outrageous working conditions, she's Bloomy's lady all the way. Ed Greenspan
ReplyDeleteMy colleagues and I had to get master's degrees within 5 years of our appointment or we would forfeit our licenses.
ReplyDeleteMs. Black got her position thanks to Rolodex and being a country club friend of the mayor. Does she still ride horses at that country club that Jews and blacks couldn't join for years? Some attribute from the Coco Cola, Slim cigarette girl who will administer a system made up of Leadership Academy principals. The latter never taught as well. What a system. E.Greenspan
Recommendation to Mr. Steiner: Save the city lots of money by appointing a committee of active and retired teachers and supervisors running the schools with strong parental input. Having served in the trenches, these people know what children and teachers need to succeed.
ReplyDelete