Sampling Of Comments At The Times Website On The Hiring Of Cosmo Publisher To Run School System

Apparently the hiring of Cathie Black to replace Joel Klein as New York City schools chancellor has not been well received at the Times website.

Here is a large sampling of the opinions expressed.

They are almost all negative on the hiring of Ms. Black:

This personnel decision on Bloomberg's part comes under the general category of "tone deaf". This system needs educators with classroom experience in executive positions. I'm going to take a bet that Ms. Black has never set foot in many of the neighborhoods our children come from, and her lack of experience is going to show.

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Why am I disgusted about this? Hearst. NewsCorp. Gosh. The brainwashing of our kids continues. More slaves for the modern age.

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So no one knows more than the editor of Cosmopolitan and Esquire about what our children need to succeed? Well, I guess we'll have makeovers in the schools instead of statistical thermodynamics.

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I give up, what does runnign a magazine have to do with running a school system?

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Oh this poor woman has no idea of what she's walking into. I don't see how her professional or personal experience qualifies her in any manner, shape, or form for this job. And the schools are about as much "better now" than when Bloomberg took over, as the Streets are safer... it's all in the cooked books!

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I don't know the weirdest part of this . . . Klein becoming a News Corp Executive, or a publishing magnate become schools chancellor . . . maybe this is their idea of outside-the-box thinking?

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Mr Bloomberg, your arrogance is showing. You appear to be running NYC as though it is your toy to play with. What does Ms. Black know about educating children? That is more important than how many elite friends you have in common with her.

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Ms Black is a fine administrator and a superb human being.
That said, has she any experience in education?
If not, would it not have been judicious to also consider Ringling Bros. executives as among those who best know how to please children of all ages?

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the corporatization of American education is destined to fail

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I suppose no one on the school board watches Deadwood.

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A schools chancellor with virtually no education experience is now replaced, with zero public input, by a schools chancellor with absolutely no education experience other than being on the board of a Harlem charter school. Why is this acceptable in NYC when public school parents in any other city or town in the tri-state area would reject it? And what does it say for traditional public schools when the new chancellor's only connection to education is a charter school and her own children's private boarding school in Connecticut? Time will tell, but this is a less than auspicious start that does not bode well.

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What is this, tit for tat. This woman has not one iota of education experience and the mayor feels this is the best candidate to run our schools. Our kids deserve better than this. I'm sure glad this is his last term in office since this pick of his stinks of serious malfeasance.

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I will have to disagree with our Mayor's claims that some who worked in rather second tier magazines and newspapers, and later headed a major traditional print media conglomerate, knows anything at all about the skills that students need to succeed in the 21st century. Considering the increasing obsolescence of such media, and the fact that we are not educating our students to become CEOs (perhaps that is the job of elite post-secondary institutions), this statement shows just how harmful allowing business people to run public services as a business has become. This pervasive market logic has not served our students well and will likely continue to disappoint.

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According to Mayor Bloomberg, “There’s no one who knows more about the skills our children will need to succeed in the 21st century economy.”

That's great but that alone will not lead to success for our schools. Ms. Black, or whoever holds the position of head of the largest public school system in the country should also know more about teaching these same skills. For the sake of New York's 1.1 million students, their families and the school communities, let's hope she does.

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Is this serious?
As a former educator, I find this appointment to be insulting. I am sure Ms. Black is qualified in what she does, but she has no experience whatsoever in education. Do you mean to say that there is no one, in the whole USA who has actually taught in K-12 classroom and is also a qualified manager?
“There’s no one who knows more about the skills our children will need to succeed in the 21st century economy.” Huh?????
As a parent of a child in public school, I wonder what went on in Bloomberg's mind with this? I know that Hearst also owns "O" Magazine - I wonder if Oprah might be just as good a candidate?
Joking aside, I find this disturbing. I'm not so sure Joel Klein (who somehow suddenly disappeared) did such a good job, anyway. I am sure most NYC teachers and principals are in shock.

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he needs a waiver from SED Commissioner Steiner. Hopefully he will refuse to issue it as she lacks the slightest qualification for this position.

We went through a nightmare of eight years with a Chancellor who knew nothing about education and he worked systematically to destroy the school system. It is very interesting the day a report came out showing the achievement gap he claimed had been greatly reduced has actually increased under his Chancellorship. Bloomberg made sure to make this annoucement so attention would be drifted away from this.

Mr. Klein you did plenty of damage. Don't let the door hit you as you leave. Ms. Black, you don't hasve the slightest qualificatin for this job. Hopefully SED will do the right thing and stop this nonsense once and for all.

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now klein can more readily further demoralize, vilify, and libel teachers on the front page of the nypost with more editorial control and less invocations of self-annointed "emergency powers," chancellors' reg's etc...burdens of a prosecutor. all in said interests of constant corporate attacks on one of last pensioned public service jobs that wall st. (charter school benefactors/hedge funders) want to privatize, monopolize, but more transparently, capitalize on..oh the data...drives this..karma..baby. priceless.

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Well that just gives one confidence in the education system all around. Yellow journalism, is nothing sacred?

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Well not only couldn't they find an individual within the school system with an appropriate background but they couldn't find someone from the same field without any education experience-what a critique of the education system and Mayor Bloomberg!

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News Corporation both contributes to and profits from human ignorance. Rupert Murdoch has the morals of a war profiteer. And now Mr. Klein is going to develop a "strategy to put [News Corporation] in the education marketplace". I tremble for America.

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Ah yes. I forgot that all business principles can be applied uniformly to education and the system will improve! Teachers just don't know what they're doing without a CEO supervising them and micromanaging every decision in the schools. I'm sure we'll hear about merit pay, punishments for teachers whose students don't perform well enough on the culturally-biased standardized tests, and the end of tenure. No free lunch, right?

Is it too much to ask for someone who has an advanced degree in education, or at least a few years of classroom experience? Teachers work so hard for their students. The profession is draining emotionally, physically, and not at all financially rewarding. Teachers cope with enormous stress when they have to answer to incompetent administrators who have to continously hand down more budget cuts to people who already struggling.

And isn't it sick enough that News Corp has its hand in nearly every type of medium out there? Now they need a chance to "enter the education marketplace?" I fear for the school system when major corporations that have demonstrated extreme bias have the power to sell teaching materials. Big business has no place in school hallways.

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Cathie with an "i-e" says it all. This is pathetic.

Brutal.

Just brutal.

I think Bloomberg fucked up badly on this one.

It's hard to justify a corporate exec with absolutely no education experience or even any connection to public schools.

She went to Catholic school.

She sent her kids to boarding school.

She sits on a charter school board, that's true, but as Leonie points out at NYC Parents blog, it's a charter school with an abysmal record of teacher attrition and student suspensions.

So she has no business running this system.

Of course Bloomberg will argue she has the managerial skills, educators can't run anything, etc.

And maybe that will work.

But I dunno.

I'm going to make a prediction.

I am probably 100% wrong with this prediction.

I am going to say that Bloomberg is forced to pull back Ms. Cathie with a "i" Black and hire somebody else - an educator.

And that educator will be...

...well, somebody who has some free time, is seen as a Rheeformer with Rheeform credentials...

...Oh, all right, you got it.

Michelle Rhee!

As I say, I am probably 100% wrong.

But I'm going to put a dollar in the Irish gaming site on this bet just for the heck of it.

Who knows?

Maybe I'll win and be able to buy some real cheap real estate in the Irish countryside?

In the meantime, I'm going back to the Times website to read the comments.

They're a lot of fun!