Here's the part of the Goodwin column relevant to our topic here at Perdido Street Schools:
Seeking fools for NYC schools
Bill de Blasio is having a hard time getting to yes. Depending on who is counting, as many as three people have turned down an offer to be the new schools chancellor.
The latest “thanks, but no thanks” came from Washington, DC, Chancellor Kaya Henderson. In a letter to her staff squashing rumors she was coming to Gotham, Henderson wrote, “I love DC and I’m not about to leave.”
The mayor-elect should take a hint. Namely, the job isn’t attractive because his agenda aims mostly to keep unions happy. In big ways, that puts de Blasio on the opposite side of the national reform movement, which supports merit pay and teacher evaluations based on student performance.
Instead, the Democrat campaigned on a platform that only opposed things Mayor Bloomberg favors. Because Bloomberg is for charters, de Blasio is against them. Bloomberg closes failing schools, so de Blasio will keep them open. He never actually says how he will improve results.
It’s no coincidence de Blasio’s positions line up with the United Federation of Teachers. None of his ideas will help kids learn, but they will keep the union off his back.
That doesn’t make the job attractive to successful educators. Nor does de Blasio’s push for universal pre-kindergarten if it means protracted political fights over a tax increase. Even if Dollar Bill gets his hike, a new chancellor will face years of classroom squeezes to make room for pre-K students.
Early on, there was talk de Blasio would offer the job to Randi Weingarten, the former head of the UFT who now leads the national union. I don’t think she wants it, but her appointment would have the advantage of honesty. It would make it crystal clear the union is the boss.
Lindsey Crist, a much more reliable reporter and journalist than propagandist Goodwin, tweeted the following when the Henderson news broke:
@NYDNBenChapman but true, right? Such smart politics! From everything I've been hearing, she had a VERY small chance (and that's generous)
— Lindsey Christ (@LindseyChrist) December 13, 2013
Goodwin has an agenda here - de Blasio is beholden to the unions, the UFT is going to run the DOE now, blah blah blah.
He wants to get the meme out that nobody wants the DOE gig because the UFT is actually going to be in charge.
If it's between Lindsey Crist saying Henderson had VERY little chance for the job and was only trying to save face with her letter to her DC staff or Goodwin saying Henderson turned de Blasio down because de Blasio is too close to the UFT, I'll take Crist's side.
First, because she's got no agenda in this other than to get the story right.
And second, because Michael Goodwin does have an agenda, which is to bash de Blasio, bash the UFT, bash teachers and bash NYC schools.
You know, the normal stuff at the Murdoch Post.
