Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Regents Chancellor Tisch Threatens To Close 94 City Schools Unless Teachers At Those Schools Are Fired

Here's how the NY Post reported Regents Chancellor Tisch's threat to override mayoral control of the city school system and close "failing" schools:

The head of the state’s Board of Regents vowed Sunday to shut down the city’s worst schools if they do not shape up.

Chancellor Merryl Tisch said that 94 of the city’s lowest-performing schools — which Mayor de Blasio has vowed to fix — will be shuttered by this spring if they aren’t fixed by the city.

“From the state’s perspective, if we do not see movement with these lowest-performing schools in terms of their ability to retool their workforces by the spring, we will move to close them,” Tisch told John Catsimatidis on his AM 970 radio show.

“These are the schools that have failed for generations now.”
... 

De Blasio last week announced his School Renewal Program, a sweeping plan to spend $150 million to help fix those low-performing schools — but Tisch said the “devil is in the details.”
“It depends upon what they do with the money,” Tisch said. “There needs to be the capacity to manage how and where we place our teachers.”
The main issue, according to Tisch, is that the principals need leverage to fire educators if they don’t meet standards.
“It’s not just saying, ‘We’re gonna fix these schools,’” she said. “You gotta give the new principals and assistant principals the ability to hire the teachers that they want and fire the teachers that they don’t want.”

You cannot get more direct or stark than the threat issued by Tisch on Sunday:

Teachers from those 94 schools MUST be fired or I will move to close them.

So much for mayoral control, eh?

Raging Horse described the latest salvo against schools and teachers this way:

Tisch, in short, seems to be saying that the state will do what it will, regardless of the plans of Mayor Bill de Blasio or the will of the people who voted him into office. In fact, like Cuomo’s reckless giveaway to charter schools, Tisch’s words seem calculated to humiliate de Blasio and to crush the political will of the city with the power of the state.

That and, of course, demonize teachers while praising the miracle of charter schools.
...
What I do know is this: These relentless attacks are exhausting and debilitating and are the exact opposite of what one would be doing if one had any intention whatsoever of allowing a flourishing school system. I know this too: when the power of a state is allowed to crush the political will of a city we have moved even further into a horrifying new American darkness.

Indeed, the attacks never stop.

Get rid of Bloomberg - on comes Cuomo vowing to destroy the public school monopoly and Tisch vowing to close 94 schools in NYC regardless of the policy of the mayor (who ostensibily has "control" over the school system.)

We are indeed living in dangerous times when a plutocrat like Tisch - whose family made part of their money by selling death to children in the form of Newport cigarettes (I know - I used to smoke them when Tisch owned them) - or a functionary of the plutocrats like Cuomo get to impose their will on the City of New York no matter what the elected mayor or the people who elected him want.

Welcome to the Corporatist America - the corporatists will stomp out the school system no matter what.

5 comments:

  1. They should have one special rule when they turn those failing schools into charters. They cannot change the student body except for allowing new students in. It would be lovely to see how amazing of a job they do with the exact same kids. When they fail miserably, then what Tisch/Berkowitz? er....I mean Moskowitz.

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  2. Queen Tisch is a bitch! She wants to close the schools to open MORE charters instead of helping the "failing" schools. I do not have a PhD but the solution is to reduce class size and get rid of common core,high stakes and of course HER!

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  3. Can I ask a question?
    The article states "Shut the schools if they aren't fixed by the Spring".
    The Spring is about 4 months away. Does she mean shut the schools by June to not reopen in September 2015?
    This article is very unclear.

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  4. I remember Mulgrew at a DA raving about how wonderful Tiisch was.

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  5. First of all, I wonder (seriously, wonder) how Tisch is going to summarily fire teachers when there is a contract in place and (unless I'm wrong) we have something on the books called, "due process." Even Mulgrew (a Cuomo henchman) is going to have trouble ignoring a teacher's right to due process. Honestly, all of these rats deserve one another and I can only hope that the next 4 years are a nightmare for Cuomo, Tisch and King as they continue to sink their own boat. This is disgraceful and NY has become the poster child for corruption, nepotism and greed. Shame on these people. Remember: "what goes around, comes around." Can't wait for their downfall!

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