Perdido 03

Perdido 03

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

New Yorkers Still Despise Cathie Black

Three months into Chancellor Black's tenure, and things are not getting better for her:

Concern about the appointment of Cathleen P. Black as the New York City schools chancellor does not appear to be easing as she approaches her 100th day in office, according to an NY1-Marist poll released on Monday.

In the poll, her job approval rating among New York City adults was 17 percent, with 23 percent of adults not sure or never having heard of her. The poll, which has a margin of error of 4 percentage points, was conducted by telephone in March and included 772 adults.

“It doesn’t paint a pretty picture,” said Lee M. Miringoff, the director of the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion. “It is a long way from 50 percent, where you can at least say the city is divided about her. There’s no real core support.”

No, she has no core support and she has done nothing of note that was any good:

Ms. Black has remained largely sequestered from the public since taking over in January from Joel I. Klein, and at public functions she commonly hews to scripted remarks or takes limited questions. She made a couple of gaffes in her first weeks in office, including one in which she jokingly recommended birth control as a solution to school overcrowding in Lower Manhattan.

On policy matters like high school admissions and graduation rates, deputy chancellors — particularly Shael Polakow-Suransky, the chief academic officer — often speak for the Education Department. State officials made Mr. Polakow-Suransky’s appointment to that role a condition for permitting Ms. Black to take the chancellorship, because of concerns about her lack of experience in education.


Black's support in the Marist poll has fallen four points, from 21% back in February to 17% now. The number of people who have no opinion of her or don't know her has fallen from 35% to 23%.

So more people know her, fewer people like her.

Heckuva job, Cathie!

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