The state’s education commissioner, David M. Steiner, and the Bloomberg administration have reached a deal that will allow Cathleen P. Black, a media executive, to become the next schools chief.
A top education official in the city’s schools system, Shael Polakow-Suransky, the chief accountability officer, will be named the chief academic officer to serve as the No. 2 to Ms. Black, according to a person with knowledge of the agreement between the state and the city.
In return, Dr. Steiner on Monday will grant Ms. Black a waiver from the state law requiring the chancellor to have certain education credentials that Ms. Black, the chairwoman of Hearst Magazine, lacks.
Mr. Steiner had expressed reservations about granting Ms. Black an exemption and had made the appointment of a chief academic officer a condition for considering her nomination.
The move is a major concession from Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg who typically resists any intrusion into his management of city agencies.
The Bloomberg administration did not dispute the details of the agreement, but refused to comment.
Great - the chief testing guy who was educated at the Broad Academy will be Cathie Black's #2.
His specialty is holding teachers accountable.
Here's the quote on his page at the Broad Superintendents Academy:
“Teachers and principals need to be accountable for student performance and empowered to make the critical decisions that impact their daily work to accelerate student learning.”
He's also logged some time helping to close large schools and open small schools and charter schools in their place.
Clearly it is not a mistake that of all the people Bloomberg could have picked at the DOE to back up Black, he chose the guy who is in charge of "accountability," testing and data and has some experience closing schools and opening charters.
Meet the new Klein, same as the old Klein.
Wow, they really brought Bloomberg to his knees, eh? Huge defeat for him, huh? So basically, Black stays and does whatever the hell Bloomberg tells her to, and she STILL has no ed. experience AND she has a mini-Klein to ride flank for her.
ReplyDeleteYa know, maybe Mulgrew was right not to oppose Black at all...what we have now is worse. A bad, and WORSE cop scenario, with Scumberg pulling the strings behind the curtain.
If Black was all alone, she could have blundered and looked bad in the process at least.
That Mulgrew is smarter than I thought...
Anonymous may have a point there...
ReplyDeleteI guess it's possible that Mulgrew is smart, but let's remember that if he were a little bit smarter (or ballsier), it could have been Mayor Bill Thompson who was choosing a replacement superintendent.
ReplyDeleteheckuva job, Steiner.
Well, I assume he has SOME smart people around him. However, to me he seems like the perfect puppet type. But I was only being facetious. It's sooooooo obvious that his initial reaction has far more to do with the overall "shitting in our pants" appeasement route the union has adopted since Scumberg took over control, which Randi also gave to him, as well as his third term by not endorsing anyone. Then again, even Obama wanted El Duce Bloomberg in again, by not doing anything for Thompson at all. In a fascist state, it's all a fix. Bread and circuses for distraction, then they do what they want anyway. Just look at this Steiner decision. There is a little rumbling from the masses, and they come back with a decision where nothing really changes, in fact it gets worse. Why did they do anything at all, becuase the vaunted NY Times wrote a negative ad, and Zuckerman complained a little in his rag? Now this all goes away in the press becuase maybe this Sael Pulakow dude is some fascist pig's cousin or something? Who is he, Meryl Tisch's nephew, or is she marrying her ugly daughter off to him? They sent this up to the Politburo up in Albany, and they add another head to the snake and send it back to us? This is justice? I have Russian friends over the years that have mumbled under their breath for years: "that's what they did in Russia..." many times over the last ten years. And they should know . . .
ReplyDeleteBack on November 14, 2010 I wrote this post. I think it's relevant today with this news:
ReplyDeletehttp://perdidostreetschool.blogspot.com/2010/11/why-i-have-decided-to-support-cathie.html
Here's what I said:
"Layoffs are coming. Firings are coming. More school closings are coming. More charter schools are coming. More turf battles between charters and traditional public schools are coming. More chaos and destabilization of the system is coming. Thanks to Obama and RttT, more standardized tests in every subject at every level are coming. More top-down management and standardized curricula are coming.
It doesn't matter who Bloomberg chooses to replace Klein. This will be the policy. Sure, it would be nice to have someone with education experience to replace Klein, but does anyone really think that whomever Bloomberg chooses to replace Klein, even a so-called educator, wouldn't be on the same privatization policy page as Bloomberg and wouldn't carry out those same policies that Klein has carried out?"