NY Post Runs Damaging Stories On Carmen Farina, NYCDOE, As Part Of "Massive Agenda" To Destroy De Blasio

This is Bob Hardt, the NY 1 Political Director, writing about the NY Post's jive coverage of crime stories in New York City, but it could just as well be about their jive coverage of the cheating scandals at the NYCDOE:

There was an alarming spate of shootings over the weekend and one New York City tabloid quickly does what it does best:  pointing its finger – and I'm not saying which one – straight in Mayor de Blasio's direction.

The New York Post rang its alarm bell yesterday with this crime story that quickly veered into the paper's political playbook: "Brooklyn residents said Sunday that they fear the return of the bad old days of 'Crooklyn' — and placed the blame squarely on Mayor Bill de Blasio — after a bloody weekend in which at least 19 people were shot in the borough."

As a former reporter for the paper where I proudly worked for nine years, it's not hard to smell a rat somewhere high up in the Post's production line. This story could have been written before any reporter was sent out to find the quotes that would damn City Hall back to Dinkinsville.

While everyone should be concerned and worried over a weekend of violence, it's also important to actually look at some numbers provided by City Hall. As of yesterday, there were five fewer shooting incidents in the city than in 2014 and there have been seven more additional shooting victims than last year. More alarmingly, homicides are up by ten percent but the numbers are still lower than they were for almost any year in the Bloomberg administration.

But perception and reality have been divided by a blurry line for the tabloid's City Hall coverage for some time now – dating back to the paper's slanted coverage of the mayoral race in 2013.

And witness the newspaper's recent obsession with a homeless man who has been wandering the streets and urinating in public for more than a decade – dating far back into Michael Bloomberg's administration.

None of this would matter if the paper was on its angry little island – but a screaming front-page headline in the Post still has influence on some radio and TV stations. And it still pressures City Hall to jump – from releasing crime statistics yesterday to having the mayor quietly visit Tompkins Square Park after the Post made it sound like it's reverted back to the bad old anarchic days of the 1980's.

Clearly, the de Blasio administration has plenty of work to do and some of the work it has already done has been far from perfect. But as journalists, it's also important to try to focus on things fairly and objectively without putting your finger on the scale. In the Post's case, it's more than a finger. It's a massive agenda.

The massive agenda the Post has against de Blasio is not only playing out in crime and quality-of-life stories, it's playing out in education stories too.

The Posties would have New Yorkers believe there is a systemic cheating scandal going on in the New York City school system that was ushered in by Chancellor Carmen Farina, that it is a "growing trend" and is only being exposed because the intrepid reporters at the Post are on the case.

As I posted yesterday, the truth is cheating has being going on for years in the NYCDOE, long before Carmen Farina became chancellor, and if anything was more prevalent during the Bloomberg Years when there was untold pressure for schools to improve their statistics and be shut down.

There were cheating scandals in 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 - many reported by the NY Post, btw - and the scandal of Chancellor Klein's credit recovery scam that allowed schools to give students semester credits for watching movies or reading comic books.

Limits were placed on credit recovery programs in 2012, after Klein was gone, but the Bryant scandal is a vestige of the old Bloomberg/Klein credit recovery program -  they were the first to hand out semester credits for minimal work in order to juke the overall stats.

How cheating has suddenly becoming a "growing trend" (as somebody who didn't know better and was buying the Post coverage put it on Twitter yesterday) when it's been around since the Bloomberg Years is beyond me - but that's how it's being framed in the Post.

And just as the crime stories are full of hyperbolic language meant to scare the city into electing a new mayor (crime stats are done across the board and as, Hardt noted in his NY1 piece, the homicide rate, while up, is still lower than almost any year during the Bloomberg administration) and the quality-of-life stories are meant to make people think the social fabric of the city is unraveling (as Hardt notes, the Post is using a guy who's been urinating in the streets since the Bloomberg Years as the emblem for what's wrong with "De Blasio's New York"), they're using the cheating stories at Bryant and Dewey High Schools to smear Farina and de Blasio as cheaters.

If the Post wants to do some intrepid reporting, they ought to go back to the Bloomberg/Klein Years and dig into some of the statistics to see how they got so good - how the test scores rose so high (they were inflated), how the grad rates rose so high (credit recovery, cheating.)

But of course Rupert Murdoch does not have a massive agenda to destroy his fellow oligarch and media mogul Michael Bloomberg, so the Posties never tied the cheating incidents under Bloomberg to a larger narrative of "NYC Unraveling" as they do now with the cheating incidents under de Blasio, and they'll never go back and look at the old scandals to show how bad things were in the Bloomberg Years.

The whole thing is jive and it needs to be called out as such, as Bob Hardt did in his NY1 piece about the Post coverage of the crime stats.

At Gotham Schools, one teacher puts the whole cheating scandal into perspective by noting that there's less incentive to cheat in the de Blasio Years than during the Bloomberg Years:

Michael Dowd, a social studies teacher at Midwood High School, said schools under Fariña feel less frenzied to show gains, reducing the worries that can fuel grade inflation and inappropriate credit-recovery schemes. The city has removed two of the big sources of pressure, he said: “The closure threat — coming from the city, anyway — and the progress reports, which reward you for credit accumulation.”

That's exactly right.

Alas, New Yorkers will never know that if they're only reading the Post or getting radio/TV news as influenced by the Post coverage.

Instead they'll think the cheating just started and was fanned by Farina and de Blasio.

NY Post: Farina Says No Excuse For Students Who Took A Snow Day

Wow, Chancellor Farina now rivaling Cathie Black for eye-raising statements.

Here's the latest, as reported by the NY Post:

Farina also callously declared that students who were absent from school Thursday would not be given a pass for taking the day off.

“At the course of a whole day, you can still get to school,” she said.

The Daily News reports that only 45% of NYC school children showed up to school today, so that's an awful lot of unexcused absences Chancellor Farina will be tallying up.

I was too busy teaching the handful of students who showed up to my classes today a rigorous Common Core-based lesson to watch the De Blasio/Farina presser, but I have to say that's the kind of statement that pisses parents off and solidifies the meme that the person who made the statement is clueless (as the Post put it.)

Especially when the same person earlier said “It’s absolutely a beautiful day out there..." as it was sleeting and raining on top of the 9-10 inches of snow that had fallen.

BTW, the chancellor's town hall meeting that was to be held in Brownsville tonight was canceled “due to inclement weather.”

Not so beautiful a day that the town hall meeting could go on.

The problem for Farina here is that she not only made a very poor decision to call school at 10:30 the night before the storm even started, but she has defended that decision with absolutely tone deaf statements that have helped make her one of the newest Internet memes.

Like here:

Or here:

She's not helping herself by stating that students who took the day off will not be given a pass because “At the course of a whole day, you can still get to school."

In fact, De Blasio and Farina both spent a lot of political capital today defending a poor decision.

It's never good when something you say becomes the target of Internet meme mockery or the target of an Al Roker twitter barrage.

De Blasio had no problem apologizing to the entire UES over a manufactured snow outrage last month.

But for some reason, neither he nor his chancellor will acknowledge the poor decision they made here or stop compounding it by saying stupid stuff to defend it.

The Latest Cache Of Cathie Black Emails (UPDATED)

UPDATED - 9:45 PM: Sergio Hernandez points out the first batch of Cathie Black emails came from the mayor's office, this batch is from the DOE.

Here's a rundown on some of the stuff from the latest batch of Black emails that's come out so far:

.@MikeBloomberg to Cathie Black: "All we have to do next week is fix public education. Alot easier than creating a national newspaper."
— Lisa Fleisher (@lisafleisher) December 7, 2013

She needed @NYCSchools staff to give her SUBWAY DIRECTIONS #CBEmails
— Sergio Hernandez (@cerealcommas) December 7, 2013

Cathie Black’s child abuse prevention training was an online course.
— Sergio Hernandez (@cerealcommas) December 6, 2013

.@artmcfarland7 interviewed cathie black for @ABC7NY, then offered OTR feedback & wished her success. Objective! pic.twitter.com/EIs1Yde9R3
— Sergio Hernandez (@cerealcommas) December 6, 2013

Cathie Black lays into @MikeBloomberg: “Frankly this sucks and I cannot imagine a more poorly thought out decision on mb side.”
— Sergio Hernandez (@cerealcommas) December 6, 2013

Bloomberg lawyer to Cathie Black: “Also (and I hate to ask this), the fingerprinting card requires height and weight” http://t.co/rCoNVmSjZ9
— Sergio Hernandez (@cerealcommas) December 6, 2013

SH loves how Cathie Black refers to herself in the third person as “cpb”
— Sergio Hernandez (@cerealcommas) December 6, 2013

exDOE comms director @nravitz to C Black: “just came off the golf course with Steve Elkin from Bergdorf’s who raved about you.” rich people!
— Sergio Hernandez (@cerealcommas) December 6, 2013

Sergio Hernandez really did a public service by fighting Bloomberg to get these emails released.

Great stuff - exposes Bloomberg and his minions as the isolated, arrogant elites they are.

Same goes for a member of the press like Art "OTR Feedback" McFarland.

Fiscal Genius Bloomberg Spent $160,000 To Try And Shield Cathie Black Emails From Public

From Lisa Fleischer at the WSJ:

New York City's fight to shield emails about the appointment of former schools Chancellor Cathie Black cost taxpayers about $160,000 in legal fees.

The city agreed Friday to reimburse a former Village Voice intern's lawyers about $134,500 in legal fees, on top of at least $25,000 the city spent internally defending the case.

Sergio Hernandez, now an editor at the Week magazine, had requested emails between the Bloomberg administration and Ms. Black in the lead-up to her nomination in November 2010 as chancellor.

The emails showed aides to Mayor Michael Bloomberg coordinating support for the high-profile, surprise hire, trying to solicit endorsements from Oprah Winfrey, Caroline Kennedy and others. Ms. Black, the former Hearst Magazines chairwoman, resigned in April 2011 after about three months on the job, amid criticism over her lack of education experience and some remarks that were seen as blunders.

$160,000 to shield the emails from public scrutiny.

To be frank, there wasn't anything in those emails that we didn't already know.

Cathie Black was clueless.

The Bloomberg administration was desperately scrambling to push back against opposition to her being named chancellor.

They used all the contacts and associations they had to try and ratchet up support for her (this is, btw, exactly what they did to get term limits overturned too - it's an M.O. with Bloomberg.)

Yet they spent $160,000 trying to shield the emails from scrutiny even as they worked to make sure the public saw the Teacher Data Reports with the 52% media margins of error (75% maximum MOE for math; 87% maximum MOE for ELA.)

Shows you their priorities, doesn't it?

A Tale Of Two NY Post Cathie Black Editorials

First, a NY Post editorial exhorting the NYSED to grant Cathie Black, Mayor Bloomberg's pick to replace Joel Klein at Tweed, a waiver for lacking credentials for the chancellor job:

Because she has none of the credentialing that bureaucrats hold so dear, Cathleen Black will need a special waiver from state Education Commissioner David Steiner in order to assume the post of city schools chancellor.

And that waiver should be granted without undue delay of any sort, and certainly without interference -- direct or otherwise -- from the teachers union or others with axes to grind.

Please take note, Board of Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch -- and your patron, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.

The state requires all school superintendents to have at least three years of teaching experience, as well as graduate work in school administration.

It's a mandate that might well be proper for suburban or other smaller school districts, but it's of limited value to New York City: The Department of Education has a $23 billion budget, and its 135,000-plus workforce ranks it as one of the largest employers in America.

In any event, the law allows for waivers for "exceptionally qualified persons" whose "exceptional training and experience are the substantial equivalent."

Then-Commissioner Richard Mills had no trouble granting a waiver in 2002, when Mayor Bloomberg named Joel Klein, a career lawyer, to the position.

Just as he did two years earlier when the Board of Education elected as chancellor yet another attorney, Harold O. Levy, over then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani's bitter objections.

Certainly, Black's management credentials appear to be at least the equal of Klein and Levy.

Which is why there is no apparent reason why she shouldn't get a pass, too.

As Bloomberg said yesterday, the Department of Education now has a full complement of education professionals to execute policy.

What it needs is a proven manager capable of making policy.

Cathleen Black appears to fit the bill.

Now here's a NY Post editorial from this weekend after the Cathie Black emails were released and revealed her to be as clueless about education and unqualified for the job as her critics said she was:

Mayor Bloomberg fought for a few months to keep his ill-fated schools chancellor Cathie Black in office. But he fought for two years to keep internal e-mails about her hidden.

And boy is it clear why.

Black was a publishing exec with no experience in education. When she was appointed chancellor, she didn’t take a crash course on public schools or even visit shrines to Maria Montessori.

Instead, she dreamed of Oprah.

The e-mails were released Thursday under court order following a long and bitter lawsuit. They cover the first 10 days after Bloomberg announced Black as the new CEO of city schools in November 2010.

Because she had no background in education, Black needed a waiver from state authorities to ease her into office. The result was a bizarre PR campaign hatched by a coterie of top city officials to get prominent women to back Black.

They courted celebrities such as fashion designers Donna Karan and Diane von Furstenberg. They tried Caroline Kennedy, who wisely didn’t respond. “Would we want ivanka trump?” wondered Black in one e-mail. The jewel in the crown was Oprah, who sang Black’s praises in a newspaper interview and sealed the deal.

Ivanka, Oprah, DKNY — these are the stars of the supermarket check-out counter. Yet their sign-on was the priority of the woman in charge of our public schools. And she was appointed by a mayor who campaigned on mayoral control.

The city’s lawyers argued that revealing these embarrassing e-mails would discourage people from public service. If that means no more Cathie Blacks, it’s the best news we’ve heard all week.

The shamelessness of the Post editors to make as if they had nothing to do with the Bloomberg p.r. campaign to get Black her waiver back in 2010 is not a surprise.

Nonetheless, I would just like to point out how full of crap these people are with yesterday's editorial.

Cathie Black Emails

Bloomberg was forced to release the Cathie Black emails tonight.

Gave the emails (you can see them here) a preliminary skim. 

What I see here so far is a Bloomberg administration trying to save a floundering nomination and throwing around ideas like trying to bring "famous" women on board to sell Cathie Black to the public, to the media and to Albany.

The names of some of the women they wanted to endorse Black for chancellor included:

Marlo Thomas
Bette Midler
Gloria Steinem
Suzi Orman
Phyllis George
Anna Quindlen
Donna Hanover
Deborah Norville
Donna Karan
Whoopi Goldberg

An assorted variety of female politicians, ex-politicians and other public figures are also on the endorsement possibility list.

There's also a go around between Gayle King and Cathie Black on bringing Black's old boss, Oprah, in on the endorsement fun.

One of the points the Bloomies want talked up is that any pushback on Black is a matter of sexism, because Black is just as qualified to be chancellor as Joel Klein was, but he never received the same relentless press Black was getting.

They also spend some time trying to figure out whether they should make clear Black's complete work for and connections to Harlem Village Academies or try and hide some of them

What you get from the emails is that they are looking for ways to sell Black's nomination by hook or crook.

In the end, they did sell that nomination successfully, but Black only lasted for 95 days.

These emails really are a great example of how much effort this administration puts into public relations.

That's not a surprise, given that Bloomberg owns a media company.

If they only ran the school system as well as they created propaganda around the running of the school system (or around the nomination of a woman who had no business being chancellor of the school system), we would all be better off.

Cathie Black's Four Tips On How To Be A Leader

Cathie Black is back in the news, offering advice on how to be a leader to the Daily Muse.

She is described as a "former chairman of Hearst Magazines, best-selling author, advisor, investor and board member in digital start-ups and entrepreneurial companies," but not once is her ill-fated 96 day chancellorship of NYC schools mentioned in the piece.

We here at Perdido Street School, having been keen Black-watchers the past few years since she got run out of the NYCDOE, have our own Cathie Black tips for leadership.

First, know absolutely nothing about the job you're doing, the people who work under you, and the kids you're supposed to be working for.  If possible, have contempt for all of those people and things and show that contempt by mocking people as you close their kids' schools or by suggesting birth control as a solution for all the problems those people bring to you for resolution.  Or even better - reference the Holocaust when talking about making choices about schools.

Second, hide in your office when it becomes clear that the people and your own underlings (including those at Tweed) have as much contempt for you as you have for them.  Go MIA for as long as possible, never give an interview to the press or allow a reporter anywhere near you, as you have no idea what you're talking about and can be assured that if you open your mouth to the press, you will only confirm that fact to others.

Third, drink as much as possible to hide your pain.  Attend as many parties as possible, where social drinking is accepted, but go over the limit as often as you can and sometimes take out a tree on the way home with your car.  Then have your p.r. flak insist you weren't driving drunk and tell the press that the driveaway where the other 20 cars made it out okay was too narrow for you and you just couldn't help but ding a couple of cars and killing a tree on the way out.

Fourth, try and re-emerge into the business world after the disaster that was your 96 day wonder chancellorship by offering an idiotic little piece like "How To Be A Leader" at the Daily Muse even though it's clear you do not know the first thing about good leadership and frankly wouldn't know a good leader if you fell over one on the way home from Happy Hour.  Know that your entire career has been enabled by nepotism and cronyism, that knowing and socializing with the right people means more than anything else in 2013 America.

These are the tips we here at Perdido Street School have picked up from watching Ms. Black work her magic on both the private and the public sectors.

Now you don't have to read her little Daily Muse article or, heaven forbid, buy her books on leadership skills.

The Cathie Black Emails

I can't wait to see these:

The city was dealt another blow in its attempts to keep secret a series of e-mails surrounding the selection of failed schools chancellor Cathie Black.

The Bloomberg administration was denied its request that the state’s highest court reconsider the ordered release of the information.

Black moved from head of Heart Publishing to head of New York City’s schools for a brief, tumultuous stint before her ouster in April 2011.

Sergio Hernandez, 23, a former reporter for the Village Voice, had tried to get access to e-mails between Black, the mayor and his office, using the state’s Freedom of Information Law in 2010.

Hernandez told The Post he was “gratified” by the most recent decision.

He suspects the e-mails will reveal public-relations strategy over Black’s controversial appointment, given that she had no background in education.

The city said the e-mails were private, and Hernandez turned to the courts for access. Two lower courts ruled in his favor last November.

“We are still reviewing our potential next steps,” a city Law Department spokesman said, adding that releasing a public servant’s e-mails could discourage others from public service.

Two things here:

First, notice how Bloomberg is big on getting information about teachers out to the public, but when it comes to 911 system reports or paperwork/communications involving his personnel, he's not so much in favor of getting that information out to the public.

The word that comes to mind for that is, uh, "hypocrisy".

Second, I really miss Cathie Black.

I argued back than that the longer Cathie Black remained chancellor, the less harm Bloomberg would do to the school system.

I think that has been borne out.

The increase in closures, the turnaround nonsense, the publishing of the TDR's, the teacher evaluation mess - that stuff has all come under Walcott.

If Cathie Black were still chancellor, she'd be too busy trying to remember where she parked her car last night or trying to get her bra back from the wall at Jeremy's Ale House to get into too much of that stuff.

Bloomberg Loses Appeal Over Cathie Black Emails

From the WSJ:

The Bloomberg administration on Tuesday lost another round in a court battle to shield emails leading up to the short-lived appointment of Cathie Black as schools chancellor.

An Appellate Court upheld a lower court’s decision ordering the administration to release emails between the mayor’s office and Cathie Black or anyone at Hearst Corp., her employer at the time of her appointment.

The courts said the city improperly withheld emails requested in November 2010 by reporter Sergio Hernandez, who at the time was an intern at the Village Voice.
City lawyer Susan Paulson said the city is reviewing the decision and will ask the court for permission to appeal.

Black stepped down in April 2011  after three months on the job. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he selected her for her managerial skills, and she required a waiver from the state education commissioner because of her lack of education experience.

The city argued that Black and her staff should be considered city consultants as it gathered information to apply for the waiver.

In the decision, the court wrote: “Black was not acting simply as an outside consultant on behalf of the City, but was a private citizen with interests that may have diverged from those of the City.”

Hernandez said he asked for emails shortly after her November 2010 appointment because he hoped they would shed light on the search process.  Hernandez now freelances and works part-time for The Daily, which is owned by News Corp NWSA -0.83%., which owns The Wall Street Journal.

Judge Alice Schlesinger ruled against the city in November 2011:

“As Ms. Black did not meet the credentialing requirements for the all-important position of School Chancellor, the public has the right to know what information about her employment history and qualifications was disclosed in the emails. Any information of an intensely personal nature could easily be redacted, with the balance of the information disclosed. … Simply put, the statute offers no exemption for agency communications with private citizens such as Ms. Black.”

Hernandez said after the city denied his request, he contacted the Media Freedom and Information Access Clinic at Yale University. Elizabeth Wolstein, a partner at Schlam Stone & Dolan, supervised students at the clinic and her firm continued to serve as counsel of record after the city’s appeal.

 What's he hiding?

Why keep the emails under wraps?

Why redact so much in the Klein emails?

Again I ask - what's he hiding?

How Will Chancellor Walcott Give The Finger To Teachers This Fall?

Oh, no - Chancellor Walcott dislocated his middle finger this week while walking to the gym.

As a result, he has to wear a cast over his hand that puts his middle finger out of commission for at least a couple of weeks until it heals.

With school beginning for teachers in less than three weeks, will Chancellor Walcott be healed in time to give the traditional "Middle Finger" to educators on the first day back to school?

Will he be able to give the "Middle Finger" to all those schools he tried to close a couple of months ago that a judge said he couldn't close?

Throughout the Bloomberg administration, the first day back to school is traditionally a time to recommence teacher-bashing season, to warn teachers about impending layoffs during the January budget fight, to smear teachers in the press as perverts and sex offenders, and to suggest that anybody off the street could do a better job teaching than the 75,000+ current people working as NYCDOE teachers.

An indispensable tool for the administration to get these ideas across, a shorthand for it, if you will , is the ceremonial "First Day Back To School Chancellor's Middle Finger."

Joel Klein was a master at it, often employing Eva Moskowitz to join him in his reverse salute to teachers, when he wasn't ignoring people and playing Angry Birds on his Blackberry, that is.



Bloomberg is pretty good at giving people the finger too, although like most oligarchs, he often prefers to hire somebody else to do the dirty work for him.




And of course his hiring of Cathie Black - a woman with no education experience, no common sense, no empathy, no class and no clue - was a "Middle Finger" to all the students, parents teachers, and administrators in New York City.



When you look up the phrase "Middle Finger" in the Urban Dictionary, you see "Bloomberg's hiring of Cathie Black as NYC schools chancellor" as one of the definitions.

In any case, here's hoping Chancellor Walcott's middle finger will be healed in time to tell teachers just what he thinks about them on September 4, 2012.

Sure Walcott can express his disdain, scorn and contempt for teachers without it, but nothing gets those feelings across like a good middle finger.

See what I mean?

Get well soon, Dennis - and stop drinking with Cathie Black, okay!

Or you'll end up like her.

DOE Tells Parents Of Wait-Listed Kindergartners To Send Their Kids To $16,000 Private School

With the NYCDOE, it's "children first...always":

Officials at a popular lower Manhattan public school have outraged dozens of parents whose kids are wait-listed for kindergarten by suggesting that they consider a $16,000-a-year private school down the block instead.

In an e-mail to prospective parents, PS 276 staffers gave parents scant hope of landing an open slot while touting the opening of “The Learning Experience Children’s Academy,” a new private school set to open next week.

The sales pitch hailed the private school’s class-size limits of 16 kids, and noted that it models its program on the Department of Education’s “core curriculum” for kindergarten.

Unmentioned in the e-mail from parent coordinator Erica Weldon — on which PS 276 principal Terri Ruyter is copied — is the private school’s price tag of $1,600 per month for 10 months, with summers off.

Well, I guess this solution is better than the last one the DOE came up with - birth control for parents to keep the kindergarten population down.

But something the NY Post fails to mention is just how "hot" this new Learning Experience Children's Academy chain is - and indeed, it is a "chain."

Here's a press release from the company crowing over their new Manhattan location:

NEW YORK, April 18, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- The Learning Experience® (TLE®), the nation's top growing early learning academy for children 6 weeks to 5 years old, announced today it has opened its first Manhattan location. The newest TLE® Children's Academy, the 150th location nationwide, is located at 20 West Street, New York City, NY.

On the heels of a study released by the Education Department stating that nearly 5,000 children qualified for gifted and talented kindergarten seats in New York City public schools in the fall (22 percent more than last year), TLE's® Brooklyn location reported that 100 percent of its center's children that qualified for kindergarten passed the New York City Gifted and Talented test and 85 percent were already performing at the first grade level.

"In spite of, or possible directly related to our economic displacement, parents are stressing advancement through early education as a high priority for their children," says Richard Weissman, TLE® President. "Our nationally proven platform is best suited to instill preschoolers with the necessary tools for future academic and life successes."

The 9,600-square-foot state-of-the-art center in the landmark Art Deco building, formerly the Downtown Athletic Club in Battery Park City, Manhattan, will serve the growing demand of parents who wish for their children to be fully prepared for grade school, and beyond. The exceptional, high-quality curriculum - including yoga, early reading program Fun with Phonics®, sign language for infants, foreign languages such as Spanish, and manners and etiquette - has 90 percent of children enrolled at TLE® reading before the age of 4.

Averaging a center opening every 15 days, TLE® has a growth rate of 81 percent for the past 7 years. "We recognized the continuing demand for high-level preschool education in Manhattan and sought to bring our centers to key locations throughout the city for some time," said Mr. Weissman. "We bring more than 30 years of educational and business success to the market, which makes this a perfect fit for an established city."

Headquartered in Boca Raton, Fla., TLE® is thriving and continues to be a leader in the advanced preschool industry with a mix of company-owned and franchised locations. In addition to the Manhattan location, TLE® has a prominent presence throughout the Tri-State area with over 60 centers in New Jersey, 5 in Connecticut, and 13 in New York, including one in Brooklyn, and several more scheduled to open throughout the 5 boroughs including Staten Island.

Gee, it sounds wonderful. I mean, who wouldn't love a school that offers yoga for four year olds.

And yet, I seem to remember that the DOE letter to parents with wait-listed kids stated how the Learning Experience Children's Academy stresses a "core curriculum," you know, like the Common Core curriculum the NYCDOE uses to indoctrinate, er, educate children for 21st century feudalism, er, challenges.

Is yoga for four year olds part of that "core curriculum"?

Or do you have to pay $16,000 a year to get that?

Just wondering.

Oh, and you know what else I noticed about the Learning Experience Children's Academy?

It doesn't seem to be obsessed with standardized testing and test prep.

Indeed, they still have something call "playtime" on what they call Make Believe Boulevard, an indoor Main Street, USA playset that allows for socio-dramatic play.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but most NYCDOE kindergartens don't have this kind of thing anymore, do they?

I can't say for certain, but I just don't there's a "socio-dramatic play" component in the Common Core curriculum.

Not in between all that test prep and drills they're doing...

Bloomberg and Black Ring In The New Year

Times Square, New Year's Eve, 2011 - Bloomberg kisses Cathie Black at the stroke of midnight.

It's nice to see that Bloomberg harbors no ill feelings toward the woman who not only wasn't able to fire half of all New York City teachers - as the mayor wanted - but couldn't even save her own chancellorship.

The nice thing is, she landed on her face, er, feet in the Hamptons, re-emerged in New York City society with a splendid party she gave late last year that the mayor himself attended, showed up in Zuccotti Park to support Occupy Wall Street (or to just take a break from, uh, driving), got help from the Bloomberg administration in keeping her emails secret, and helped ring in the New Year dressed as Lady Gaga in Times Square last night.

She's really turned things around, hasn't she?

Why just last year she was the laughing stock of the city (except for all those kids, parents and teachers who had to deal with her crazy policy initiatives like dealing with school overcrowding by forcing stringent birth control onto people in various neighborhoods...)

Now she's back on stage looking so splendid that even the NY Post is raving about her.

Heck, let's give that woman a value-added "highly effective" bonus.

She's really adding value to this city.

Or if not that, at least this blog.

Bloomberg Administration Told To Release Cathie Black Emails

The Bloomberg administration was ordered to release emails between Cathie Black and members of Mayor Bloomberg's office before she was appointed NYC schools chancellor by State Supreme Court Justice Alice Schlesinger.

A journalist working for the Village Voice asked for the emails under the Freedom of Information Act in 2010 but was denied by Bloomberg's office.

According to Reuters, the Bloomberg administration claimed the emails should not be released because they "would constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy."

They also claimed an inter-agency and intra-agency exemption as another reason to withhold the emails.

The journalist, Sergio Hernandez, filed a civil petition to get the emails and Justice Schlesinger found in his favor:

"The conclusory, blanket denials do not satisfy the standard set by the law," she wrote. "What is more, a review of the two claimed exemptions reveals that neither one applies."

The privacy exception, she ruled, was intended to protect "information of a genuinely private nature only" and had to be balanced with the public interest in disclosure. In the case of Black, who was previously the president of Hearst magazines, Schlesinger noted that her background was of particular value to the public, since she required a waiver from the state education department due to her lack of relevant experience.

"As Ms. Black did not meet the credentialing requirements for the all-important position of School Chancellor, the public has the right to know what information about her employment history and qualifications was disclosed in the e-mails," the judge wrote. "Any information of an intensely personal nature could easily be redacted, with the balance of the information disclosed."

Schlesinger also said that the "inter-agency" rule did not apply, as Black was still a private citizen at the time and did not yet work for the city.

The Bloomberg administration says it may appeal the decision and will withhold the emails until they decide what options they will pursue in the matter.

The hypocrisy in this stonewalling of the Black emails is quite stark.

Bloomberg and the NYCDOE can't wait to release the teacher data reports of fourth through eighth grade English and math teachers even though the reports are rife with errors.

They claim releasing the TDR's does not constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy because teachers are public employees so the public has a right to any and all information and evaluations related to them in a work capacity.

But somehow the emails Between Cathie Black and the mayor's staff the public does not have a right to see because the release would "constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy."

Just one more example of two sets of rules in Bloomberg's New York - one for the working schlubs and another for Bloomberg and his corporate cronies.

Cathie Black Shows Up At Zuccotti Park

Hard to know if she showed up to support Occupy Wall Street or if she was just on the way back from a Hamptons cocktail party and couldn't quite make it all the way home.

But in any case, it's nice to see the woman who gave tips to the 1% on how to lay members of the 99% off doing what she does best.

And doesn't she look just fabulous in her stylish boots and dress - even the NY Post thinks so!

One thing, though - I thought the cops weren't letting anybody at Zuccotti lay down on the benches?

Shouldn't they be putting orange netting around her or something?

Bloomberg Fights FOIL Request For Chancellor Search Emails

A journalist cannot get Mayor Bloomberg's office to provide him with any emails the mayor's office either sent or received related to the alleged search that was done to find a replacement for Joel Klein as chancellor late last year before Bloomberg ultimately gave the job to Cathie Black

That journalist is now suing to get those emails:

Today, I am suing New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Last year, Bloomberg baffled New Yorkers when he appointed publishing executive Cathie Black to be the city's next schools chancellor. Black was an unpopular choice, and for months, responses to her appointment ran the gamut of ridicule, confusion, and outrage.

Black's tenure came to an abrupt end in April, when the mayor asked her to step down from the post after just three months on the job. New Yorkers who opposed her appointment were vindicated, but the question remained: What led the mayor to make such a choice?

When he first appointed Black, Bloomberg insisted he'd cast a wide net to find the right fit. "I did have a public search, and I picked the best person," he said.

But critics responded with skepticism, and the New York Times' City Room blog added a healthy dose of snark when it begged anyone who was considered for the job, or even merely heard about it, to come forward.

No one did.

At the time, I was reporting for Runnin' Scared, and in November, I filed a Freedom of Information Law request with the mayor's office to ferret out more details about the "public search" that resulted in Black's appointment. I figured the modern conveniences of e-mail meant there was a decent chance I would find a digital trail leading to Black's nomination.

So on November 19, I asked City Hall for any e-mails between the mayor's office and Black (who, at the time, was still employed at Hearst Magazines). E-mails by city officials are, after all, presumptively public records under New York's FOIL.

The mayor's office dragged its feet (which is not particularly unusual in the case of public records requests, although a spokesman told me for a separate storythat Bloomberg's office received only 38 FOIL requests last year. I guess New York City doesn't have enough lawyers or something). On January 13, a city lawyer wrote that he was denying my request.

The e-mails, he argued, were privileged, internal documents and releasing them would violate someone's (although nobody said whose) privacy. Bullshit.

I appealed the decision, and was blocked again.

By then, I'd left the Village Voice for a reporting stint with the investigative journalism nonprofit ProPublica and dropped the story until late February, when a friend of mine referred my case to the Media Freedom and Information Access Clinic at Yale Law School. In March, one of the clinic's students wrote me back, and we began working together to draft today's petition.

The case is being handled by Elizabeth Wolstein, a partner at Schlam Stone & Dolan and a former Assistant U.S. Attorney who used to supervise appellate litigation for the United States in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. The petition will be filed in Manhattan Supreme Court later this afternoon, after which the city will have 20 days to respond.

We'll keep you posted.

Now if the FOIL requests were for Teacher Data Reports that use a flawed value-added methodology and have a margin of error in the scores of anywhere from 12%-36%, the mayor would try and have that request out faster than he can turn a New York avenue into a pedestrian plaza.

You see, those he has no trouble making public.

But FOIL requests about his alleged search to fill the chancellor position that ultimately went to Cathie Black?

Oh, no - that he'll fight with all the tools at his disposal.

Project Cougar - Maybe She Should Run The NYCDOE?

The arrest of the tech consultant that the NYCDOE had hired to provide Internet access to schools is the scandal that just keeps on giving.

Bloomberg claims he needs to lay off 6,166 teachers in order to save $300 million dollars so that he can spend $550 million in the next fiscal year to upgrade technology in schools.

Meanwhile he has spent over $1 billion on technology in the past few years and what do schools have to show for it?

An ARIS data tracking system school staff hate and don't use.

Internet access that doesn't provide any access at all (takes fifteen minutes to check your email sometimes, depending upon time of day.)

But of course the outside consultants hired by Bloomberg to provide all this technology have done very well.

Take the one who was arrested this week for stealing $3.6 million from the city from 2002-2008 on top of the six figure salary the DOE was already paying him.

Willard "Ross" Lanham was really living it up on the mayor's largesse.

He bought three luxuries home and built his own real estate subdivision on Long Island - even took the neighbors on vacation trips.

And his wife - now estranged - well, what can we say about her that the Daily News hasn't:

Red-spiked Steve Madden heels with a barely-there sundress, a fire-engine red shade of lipstick and green eyeshadow.

Self-proclaimed cougar Laura Lanham is ready for a typical Saturday night out - although she makes it clear her provocative outfit isn't hunting gear.

"I don't prowl - they find me," the lithe, hazel-eyed housewife said Saturday. "The young guys love hanging out with me and my friends because we're not demanding."

Lanham, 42, met with the Daily News at Four - a trendy Melville, L.I., spot that bills itself as a "Food Studio/Cocktail Salon" - to describe an ordinary day in her unusual life.

The mother of three said she never set out to be a cougar. She was 23 when she married now-estranged hubby Willard (Ross) Lanham - a Department of Education computer consultant accused of stealing millions in public money - and led a typically sedate suburban existence.

The couple has a 15-year-old daughter, and Lanham is stepmother to a 24-year-old son and a 21-year-old daughter.

But when she filed for divorce in April 2008, Lanham soon found herself looking at men her son's age in a different light.

"Yes, I'm attracted to them," she said. "But you know, at first I thought it was weird, because I'm a mother. My friends said it's much more common than I thought."

The "yummy mommy," as Lanham was billed in one of her blog postings, acknowledges there's an attraction to the 20-somethings in Long Island dance clubs that was missing with her 57-year-old husband - with whom she still shares a home.

"I'm not going to say there isn't a sexual compatibility there, because there certainly is," she said. "Let's put it this way: I get along with these kids."

In a strange twist of fate, Lanham's 15 minutes of recent fame is all because of her estranged spouse.

His arrest for allegedly swiping $3.6 million in city school funds propelled her into media attention. The one-time aspiring Playboy centerfold has handled it well, and even expressed her desire for a reality show.

Her friends say she should aim higher.

"They said, 'Look at Demi Moore. You could be the Demi Moore of Long Island!'" Lanham said.

Now this woman I like - living it up on the city's largesse, unapologetic about it all and just looking for the next cocktail and next co--, er, young buck to make those nights go by faster.

Hell, judging by the articles about her, I'm surprised that Bloomberg hasn't offered her a job as schools chancellor to replace the now defunct "cougar" Cathie Black.

I think because Laura Lanham doesn't go to the same UES parties as Bloomberg, she hasn't been offered the position yet.

But now that she's getting some press and getting the mayor's attention, maybe now he'll put her in her rightful place in the Bloomberg worldview - a position of power and prestige.

After all, Laura Lanham has lived off the largesse of others, has stolen everything she has, is a bloodsucker extraordinaire and seems clueless about every important aspect of life - just like Cathie Black.

Why not have one predatory cougar replace the last one?

Suing Bloomberg Over The Cathie Black Appointment

Now we're talking:

A group led by Brooklyn district leader Chris Owens announced today that they are suing Mayor Mike Bloomberg for $100 million or his appointment of Cathie Black as city schools chancellor last year.

The class action suit, filed on behalf of the city's public school parents, alleges that by appointing Black as schools chief, the mayor damaged the education of public school children throughout New York City.

"Michael Bloomberg, as Mayor, has a fiduciary obligation to act with the utmost of prudence and responsibility in running the New York City school system," the suit claims. "He either knew, or should have known, that the appointment of Black was not in the best interests of the system, but he appointed her nonetheless. By so acting, Michael Bloomberg breached his fiduciary duty to the parents of all school children in New York City public schools and is guilty of 'misfeasance of office.'"

The parents want Mayor Bloomberg to place $100 million of his own money (which they note, comes to approximately $1 million for each day of Ms. Black's nearly 100-day tenure) into a fund used for teacher training "as compensation for the damage to the morale and performance of staff and teachers, which therefore impaired the education of students."

They won't win, but it's fun to file lawsuits and make Mike respond.

Anybody know how that E.E.O.C. lawsuit against Bloomberg LP is going?

Bloomberg Tells Tavis Smiley He Talked To Lots Of People About Hiring Cathie Black

Bloomberg really lives in his own reality:

Tavis Smiley is bringing his late-night PBS show to New York this week, and his first guest was Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

The talk show host asked Bloomberg about the apparent decision to bring in Cathie Black as city school chief without consulting with aides and experts.

The mayor disputed the premise of the question.

"I did ask a lot of people," he said. "I did talk to a lot of people about whether they would be interested in the job."

The Times reported that Geoffrey Canada had been offered the chancellor's job and turned it down. Mayor Bloomberg has denied this.

The mayor also said that despite his falling poll numbers, he has not regretted seeking a third-term, telling Smiley that he thought it would be too easy to just leave office while the city was soaring.

The mayor's own people, through anonymous quotes, claim he hired Black without asking anybody about it.

The Times couldn't find anybody he talked to about the search.

But he still maintains he conducted a search, talked to lots of people, thought through all options, etc.

Why can't he just admit the truth?

He's like the Fonz trying to admit error.

Just can't do it.

Dedicated To Cathie Black

You are an embarrassment:

Bloomberg Picks Katie Couric To Become New York City Schools Chancellor

She's bringing a perky, new approach to education, says Bloomberg.

Sort of believable, isn't it?