Cathie Black Comes To Visit

Nursing a hangover the size of Mayor Bloomberg's wounded post-snow storm ego, Cathie Black starts her first official day as NYC schools chancellor by visiting five schools around the city.

After the p.r. is taken care of, she plans to move forward on the following:

Black is facing myriad challenges as she replaces Joel Klein, who served for eight years under Bloomberg. Schools that have been hit with several years of budget cuts are facing more austerity, and the mayor has promised to get rid of 4,000 teachers by next year.

The Education Department is also seeking to shut down dozens of poor-performing schools and is battling a lawsuit filed to block the release of teachers' names and their ratings based on state test scores.

Klein is gone to greener (as in dollars) pastures, but the policies remain the same:

Fire teachers.

Close schools.

Hold teachers "accountable" using data.

Publish the teacher rankings in the papers.

Cut school budgets.

Don't cut Tweed's budget.

Meet the new (hungover) boss - same as the old boss.