No Chancellor Pick Announcement Again Today

From Daily Politics:

Mayor-Elect de Blasio is in Connecticut. There are no public events scheduled.

More and more it's looking like come January 2, some of the same demented people running the NYCDOE now will still be in charge.

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

No Chancellor Pick Announcement Coming Today

From Daily Politics:

While Chiara’s revelation is, by all means, a big story, attention still likely turns now, with the holiday over, to when the new Mayor will fill out his cabinet -- and with whom! With only six days remaining before de Blasio’s inauguration, he still hasn’t named a schools chancellor. The only thing we do know is that the announcement won’t come Thursday -- de Blasio’s public schedule is empty.

And so we wait, and the longer we wait, the more I wonder what is going on behind the scenes to delay the announcement.

Mark Naison has been tweeting all kinds of warnings about de Blasio picking a reformy chancellor, suggesting that is what may ultimately happen:

@ya_kamagana Some. Carmina Farina should have been appointed a week again. Something happened and it's not good.
— Mark Naison (@McFiredogg) December 26, 2013

I would agree that the delay is unsettling.

We know that de Blasio has been getting pressure from the Obama administration to appoint a pro-test person.

I would say one thing - you can bet the reason for the delay in the chancellor announcement from de Blasio is not a good reason. 

As Naison says, given that she wants the job and de Blasio supposedly wants her, Farina should have been announced a week ago.

That she wasn't means there is something funky going on behind the scenes.

A Christmas Wish

It's a traveling day for me, won't be back on the Internets until later this afternoon, but I wanted to leave this Christmas wish, via Leonie Haimson, before I head out on the road:

"@McFiredogg: All I want for Xmas a School Chancellor who actually respects teachers. What's up, Mayor Elect DeBlasio?" & respects parents!
— leonie haimson (@leoniehaimson) December 23, 2013

De Blasio Promises Chancellor Announcement Will Come "Soon"

From Eliza Shapiro at Capital NY:

Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio said Thursday he has not yet offered the city schools chancellor job to any of the leading candidates, but promised an announcement would come "soon."

De Blasio gave few details about the chancellor search at an event at a Crown Heights preschool where he unveiled another part of his campaign to enact universal pre-K and expanded after school programs.

"Until I get what I know we need I'm not going to jump too soon," de Blasio said when asked about the chancellor search, in which school system veteran Carmen Farina, a longtime de Blasio education advisor, has emerged as front runner, according to sources. De Blasio said finding interested candidates was not an issue. "There is so much extraordinary talent out there. There are a lot of people who would love to be chancellor. We think there are some very intriguing possibilities."

When asked about an ideal chancellor candidate, de Blasio said he's looking for a chancellor who shares his educational values. "They have to be a change agent and a very effective leader and administrator," he said. "We will have an announcement soon."

I wondered earlier this morning why the announcement is taking so long, especially since rumors are swirling that de Blasio wants Carmen Farina for the job and Farina, after saying she didn't the position, is now ready to take it.

De Blasio's comments from yesterday do nothing to change my wondering aloud why the announcement is taking so long.

Is pressure being exerted on de Blasio behind the scenes by various constituencies in the education reform world?

Is the Obama administration or the Cuomo administration weighing in on the process?

Have some DFER's shown up with a suitcase full of cash for BdB if only he picks an Eva-friendly chancellor?

Is Carmen Farina having second thoughts about taking the job or is Bill de Blasio having second thoughts about offering it to her?

Dunno the answer to any of this, but I do know that the longer the process goes, the more I think Farina is not the choice to be chancellor.

Starting To Look Like No Chancellor Announcement This Week (UPDATED - 7:28 AM)

At least if you buy what's in this NY Times article about de Blasio's chancellor search.  Carmen Farina is supposed to be the frontrunner for the position now, but she told the Times yesterday that she didn't know if she would be offered the position:

Carmen Fariña, a former deputy chancellor and the candidate who most closely matches Mr. de Blasio’s own thinking on education, was telling friends as recently as November that she was not interested in coming out of retirement and giving up her time spent helping raise her grandchildren.

But the short list of candidates now seems to include her. Recently, Mr. de Blasio called Ms. Fariña, 70, to see if she would reconsider her earlier reluctance, and she said she would, according to a longtime friend of Ms. Fariña. 

Ms. Fariña said in an interview on Tuesday that she did not know if she would be formally offered the job. But it is known, she said, “that Bill is a very persuasive person.” 

“My grandchildren are important to me,” she added. “I spent a lot of years in the system. But I will do whatever the new mayor wants me to do.”

A de Blasio spokeswoman tells the Times de Blasio takes the search seriously and is continuing to look at candidates.

Michael Mulgrew is quoted as defending the slow process and saying he expects an announcement before the end of the year.

De Blasio is making an appearance at City Tech today but people on the Twitter say that de Blasio will not announce his chancellor pick there.

The Times article does give you the sense that Farina is the choice:

In an interview last week, Dorothy E. Siegel, a former Brooklyn school board member and a longtime friend of Ms. Fariña’s, said that Ms. Fariña seemed uninterested in the position. Ms. Fariña, a Cobble Hill resident, is dedicated to helping raise her grandchildren, including the 1-year-old son of her daughter, Mia, who is a police officer. 

But Ms. Fariña still seems squarely in contention.

And on Tuesday, Ms. Siegel said that something changed after “Bill called.” 

She said she did not know what was discussed, but “apparently he changed her mind” because now “she is interested.” 

And so it goes.

I can't imagine he wouldn't announce the chancellor pick this week, but if he's not going announce today, that leaves only Thursday and Friday for the announcement.

Hard to see him announcing on Friday and having the news buried in the Saturday papers nobody reads and the pre-Christmas frenzy.

But de Blasio does have a reputation for being late to everything, so we'll just have to sit tight like it's one of those speeches he's always running late to give.

UPDATE - 7:28 AM: NY Post reports Farina could be named as early as this week:

Former top schools official Carmen Farina is ready to take the chancellor’s job, and could be appointed by Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio as early as this week, sources told The Post.

A former deputy schools chancellor, Farina, 71, had earlier said publicly that she wasn’t interested in running the nation’s largest school system.

Her denials fueled speculation that Farina might be tapped as an interim chancellor to buy de Blasio time to conduct a more thorough search.

But her newfound willingness to stay on past the end of the current school year cleared a path to a permanent appointment.

“She said [privately] she’s open to it,” a source said.

Wash Post & Politicker: Carmen Farina Likely To Be Named Chancellor

From Politicker:

According to The Washington Post, Bill de Blasio is reportedly “likely” to name Carmen Farina, a former adviser and deputy schools chancellor, to be the schools chancellor in his incoming administration–possibly on an interim basis. A source following the process relayed similar information to Politicker yesterday.

We'll see.

Daily News: 140 Principals Write De Blasio, Say Eval System Needs Overhaul

Having just undergone my second observation of the year, with two more to go, I can say that yes, the system is insane:

More than 100 New York City principals are in full-fledged revolt against key Bloomberg administration reforms of the last 12 years.

In an open letter to Mayor-elect de Blasio, the principals call for “completely” overhauling the new teacher and principal evaluations, among other changes.

They want to see the school system transformed “after years of detrimental educational policies and practices,” the letter signed by 140 principals said.

“We are hoping for considerable change,” said Julie Zuckerman, a co-author of the letter and principal of Castle Bridge School in Manhattan, where city tests that form a key part of the evaluations were canceled after more than 80% of parents opted out.

The principals also want to reduce the use of test scores to the minimum required by federal law, including the elimination of the high-stakes letter grades for schools — a move de Blasio has supported during the campaign.

They also support his stand on universal, full-day prekindergarten, but at the same time, they want him to cede the mayor’s majority control of the Department of Education’s Panel for Educational Policy to at-large community members — a move he opposes.

The response from the de Blasio camp:

De Blasio spokeswoman Lis Smith promised a change in tone, noting the mayor-elect plans to work with parents and educators.

“He has championed many of the policies laid out in the principals’ letter, including universal pre-K and lowering the stakes on standardized tests,” she said.

“Along with the next education chancellor, he will set a tone of respect for the city’s educators — even when they may disagree.”

Rumor is, the chancellor position will be announced today.

 

The choice will tell us a bit about which way de Blasio intends to take the school system.

NY Post's Michael Goodwin Misleads Over De Blasio Chancellor Search

Another Sunday at the NY Post, more lies from NY Post propagandist Michael Goodwin.

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.

Is Carmen Farina Now The Frontrunner To Be Chancellor?

From Capital NY:

Carmen Farina, a leading chancellor contender, not only shares an educational philosophy nearly identical to Bill de Blasio’s, but helped to construct the mayor-elect’s beliefs during the decade she has advised him on school issues.

“They are of one mind,” said Dorothy Siegel, an education advocate, former District 15 school board member and a close ally of Farina and de Blasio.

Sources close to Farina and de Blasio say the mayor-elect is trying to convince his longtime adviser to become the next schools chancellor, and that Farina is considering the post.

The 70-year-old Farina’s influence on de Blasio’s educational philosophy is strong. Her progressive stance of focusing on the whole child and doubling down on early childhood education and middle school are themes de Blasio adopted in his campaign. He made education his centerpiece, promising universal pre-k and after-school programs for every middle schooler.




Previously, Farina insisted to Capital and other outlets that she was not planning on coming out of retirement for the schools chancellor post. Now, she’s not returning Capital’s phone calls, and sources say she’s begun to reconsider in the last few days after telling de Blasio of her dissatisfaction with the newest crop of chancellor candidates, including Barbara Byrd-Bennett, now superintendent of Chicago schools, and Kaya Henderson, chancellor of Washington’s schools, who both support the expansion of charters and closing of poor performing schools.


Former Baltimore superintendent Andres Alonso, considered a leading contender a few weeks ago, is reportedly not interested in the post, and state Regent Kathleen Cashin, more of a traditional educator who has said she wants the job, is not considered a frontrunner, sources say.

Montgomery County, Maryland superintendent Josh Starr is still a contender, but appointing another white male could be problematic for de Blasio, sources say.

I'd agree with Farina that Henderson and BBB are problematic.

Norm Scott thinks Farina is the best choice from the list of available candidates.

Couple of recent stories say Cashin is not a likely choice and Alonso supposedly doesn't want the job.

Sounds like it's between Starr and Farina, with Farina getting the job if she wants it.

But who knows - this "chancellor's list" has changed so much that's it's difficult to know what to believe.

Valerie Strauss Says Kaya Henderson Was Never Seriously Considered By De Blasio For Chancellor

Informative post from Valerie Strauss about de Blasio's chancellor search:

Among the people who have been considered at one point or another in the decision-making process are, according to sources, Joshua Starr, Montgomery County Public Schools superintendent, who has good union relations and who became nationally known when he called for a three-year moratorium on standardized testing last year; Carmen Farina, a former superintendent of a New York district when de Blasio was a school board member and who has long been an advisor to the mayor-elect; Kathleen Cashin, a member of the New York State Board of Regents and a former teacher and district superintendent.

Kaya Henderson, the chancellor of schools in Washington D.C., was thought to be an early candidate and de Blasio and Henderson had a phone conversation, but sources say de Blasio would not select her because she supports the kind of school reform he has criticized. Other names have popped up too, along the way, including Chicago Public Schools Chief Executive Officer Barbara Byrd-Bennett, and Andrés Alonso, the former chief executive officer of Baltimore City schools who resigned last summer after six years and who was a deputy chancellor in New York before going to Baltimore.

Strauss goes on to say that de Blasio really wanted Linda Darling-Hammond, but she turned the gig down.

Couple of questions:

If de Blasio wouldn't pick Henderson because she supports the kind of school reform he has criticized, why was she even on the list to be interviewed?

And if Henderson was torpedoed as a possible chancellor pick because of her support for the kind of school reform de Blasio has criticized, why hasn't Barbara Byrd-Bennett, infamous for closing 50 schools in Chicago this year, been cut from the list as well?

The DN reported the Obama administration has been putting pressure on de Blasio to pick someone who isn't perceived as "anti-testing."

I wrote yesterday that if the Obama administration is lobbying behind the scenes, you can bet that other education reformers are as well.

That's why it is a good idea to write Bill de Blasio's transition team and let them know how choosing a pro-corporate reform figure for chancellor is unacceptable.

With all that lobbying going on behind the scenes and with de Blasio not getting his first choice as chancellor (at least according to Strauss's reporting), you never know what can happen in this kind of process.

Better to get on record and remind Mayor-Elect de Blasio of those promises he made during the election about turning back from a test-centered, charter-focused school system.

You can find the information to contact de Blasio here.

Put Pressure On De Blasio To Keep His Campaign Promises On Education

De Blasio said today that he probably won't announce his pick for the next chancellor this week.

Ross Barkan at Politicker wrote that de Blasio is still taking names for the job:

Mr. de Blasio, who will be the city’s first mayor in recent times with a child in the public school system, said the decision was a particularly important one for his family, and that, thanks to his experience, he and his wife have a “very substantial personal network” of experts to consult.

“This is an area where I’ve been blessed to put part of my life in this work. Chirlane put part of her life into this work. So we start with a lot of personal perspective and very, very substantial network of people that we know and respect in the field,” said Mr. de Blasio, who previously served as a school board member back when school boards existed and on the City Council’s education committee.

“Some of the leading candidates are people that I have worked with at various points along the way,” he continued. “So it is a decision that we’re doing very carefully. We’re talking to a lot of people we respect. There are still nominations coming in.”

Barkan writes that de Blasio has to tread carefully on this because he is already taking criticism over his pick of Bratton to run the NYPD. 

If de Blasio picks a chancellor who is perceived to be pro-charter or pro-reform, Barkan writes, de Blasio may be accused of "tacking to the center" and breaking his campaign promises now that he has gotten elected.

With rumors around that reform-friendly candidates Kaya Henderson and Barbara Byrd-Bennett are on his short list for the nomination and word out that he is getting a lot of pressure from the Obama administration to avoid so-called anti-testing candidates like Joshua Starr, I'd say there is a real danger of de Blasio tacking to right on this nomination and going with somebody who is reform-friendly.

It behooves those of us interested in seeing a post-reform chancellor, somebody who will not emphasize testing, charter schools and many of the other tenets of the corporate ed deform movement, to let Bill de Blasio know in no uncertain terms that a pro-reform chancellor pick is a deal-breaker.

De Blasio must not be allowed to pull an Obama on us here and trot out someone like BBB or Kaya Henderson or someone under those two in name recognition who nonetheless will run the system in a reform-friendly way.

I let de Blasio know all of this yesterday on the Twitter and the blog.

You should let him know too - you can start here:

http://transition2013.com/

Do NOT assume that the Gotham Schools/Times rumors about BBB or Henderson are b.s.

That de Blasio is taking so long on the pick should be a warning to all of us that the moneyed classes and reformers are lobbying long and hard behind the scenes to get someone they can work with.

De Blasio must be told that such a sell-out will be unforgivable.

A Response To The Daily News Corporate Education Reform Editorial

 A commenter responds to the DN neo-liberals shilling for corporate education reform and calling for a pro-charter chancellor:

If "it's really about the kids," Mr. DeBlasio will do nothing less than the following:

1. Appoint an educator who has valid school district administrator credentials, no more emergency waivers from the state. We have not had a qualified educational leader since Dr. Rudy Crew in the 1990s. We don't put "managers" with little or no law enforcement experience in charge of the NYPD. Why do we do this with education?

2. Appoint a chancellor who has a vision and a strategy of supporting ALL schools, not just the ones cited in this editorial.

3. Stop the practice of co-locations. It doesn't work. Every school should have its own space and not have to compete with scarce resources within a building. Those that are already co-located must all pay their fair share of maintaining the building. In most US cities, charters must be able to support themselves out of their own budgets. NYC public schools all have to pay for building upkeep out of their budgets. Why are charters given a free pass?

4. Teacher retention. Any profession that loses half of its workers within a few years of hiring is in trouble. It takes at least 5 years before a teacher becomes proficient in his/her practice. We lose 50% of each cohort we recruit by the time they learn the craft and then spend millions to recruit more folks who will leave the system in droves yet again. Moreover, schools having to pay actual salaries out of their shrinking budgets discourages the hiring of experienced personnel. Why hire a veteran when you can get two rookies for the same price? This madness has to stop if "it's about the kids."

5. Curriculum and training. This has been absolutely horrible over the last 12 years. There are very few content specialists in the DOE. Everything now is about accountability and testing. There is very little invested in teachers being trained in their respective content. We need scholars in math, science, history, English, foreign language, physical education, music, art, etc. Teachers must be experts in their respective fields. Pedagogy is very important, but you must know what to teach, not just how to teach. The new chancellor must appoint content experts in every field to supervise what is taught is research driven, cutting-edge, and least of all, correct.

6. Waste. No more no-bid contracts; the city comptroller can't even keep with the hundreds of dollars being wasted. Moreover, we have enough talent in-house to get the job done. ARIS, the $80 million data base is now being scrapped. SESIS has also been an expensive boondoggle The privately run "Networks" that replace the authority of the superintendents should also be scrapped. Why are we paying private organizations to manage schools while we also pay the superintendents of the 32 NYC school districts? NYC still has not filed the paperwork to recover billions from Medicaid reimbursements. The list goes on and on!

The next chancellor has a daunting task of repairing substantial damage done to public education with regards to instruction, morale, equity, and finances. Opening up more charter schools (and enriching operators like Eva Moskowitz) should be at the very bottom of his/her priorities!

Is Obama Administration Lobbying De Blasio To Go With A Pro-Testing Chancellor?

In the DN article that reported Carmina Farina is back on the short list to be de Blasio's chancellor pick is this doozy:

Montgomery County Superintendent Joshua Starr has been mentioned, but may have Obama administration heavyweights lobbying de Blasio not to consider him because of his strong anti-testing positions, sources said.

Not a surprise, given how much weight they have put on high stakes testing in their ed policy.

Still, it's screwed up if true and just one more example in a long list of them why I regret voting for Obama in '08.

One other interesting point in the article - Kathleen Cashin now seems to be a long shot:

Also mentioned by sources is Stanford University professor Linda Darling-Hammond, who does not have administration experience, and Kathleen Cashin, a former city superintendent and member of the state Board of Regents, who has yet to get an audience with de Blasio, sources said.

I'm not biting on the Darling-Hammond mention.  I am skeptical she is on the list.

I did think Cashin was on the list, but if de Blasio hasn't yet had "an audience" with her and the pick is expected to be announced next week, then maybe she isn't a serious contender.

Someone on twitter said, if the Obama administration is opposed to Starr, then there must be something very, very good about him.

I'd have to agree with that.

Daily News: Carmen Farina Back On Chancellor List, No Decision Made Yet

Went up at 10:28 AM:

Carmen Farina, a former deputy city schools chancellor, has emerged as a leading contender for the top education job, the Daily News has learned.

Farina — an unofficial yet key education adviser to Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio — has repeatedly denied a willingness to return from retirement. This week she’s made the slight shift of refusing to answer a reporter’s questions about whether she’d consider the post.

No decision has been made yet, sources and the transition team said.

The News story says Kaya Henderson and Barbara Byrd-Bennett have been mentioned for the job but both are closely associated with school closures, a policy that de Blasio said he opposed during the mayoral campaign.

Did De Blasio Interview Kaya Henderson To Be The Next NYCDOE Chancellor?

On the heels of Bill de Blasio's flip flop over wanting an open process for the picking of the chancellor comes this doozy from the NY Times:

In recent weeks, Mr. de Blasio and his team have reached out to Dr. Starr, the superintendent of the Montgomery County school district, and Kaya Henderson, chancellor of the Washington school system, say people close to Dr. Starr and Ms. Henderson. It was unclear whether the calls were to gauge their interest or to merely solicit advice.

...

 Ms. Henderson is considered friendly to the kind of policies endorsed by Mr. Bloomberg — she was once a deputy to Michelle A. Rhee, the hard-charging former chancellor of Washington schools. But she is considered more of a peacemaker than her predecessor and an agile negotiator with the teachers’ union. A spokeswoman said Tuesday that Ms. Henderson was traveling and unavailable for comment.

It doesn't matter if de Blasio was interviewing Henderson for a possible hiring as the next chancellor or simply soliciting advice from her.

As the deputy to Michelle Rhee at DCPS, as one of the key ed deformers who has pushed test score-based schooling and teacher evaluations, either interviewing her for a job or soliciting advice from her is problematic in my eyes.

I wrote last night that de Blasio's flip flop on the chancellor pick process was a troubling sign for what may come in a de Blasio mayorality.

If de Blasio reached out to Kaya Henderson for either reason - to interview her for the DOE job or just to ask her advice about something or somebody else - it's another troubling sign.

That's a big if, of course.

This story could just be one of those "planted" things by some DFER or Eva Moskowitz ally looking to stir things up.

Nonetheless, I think it is important to warn de Blaiso publicly that holding Henderson in anything other than contempt for her education record and policies is unacceptable.

One good thing might result if he does tap Henderson to be chancellor, however.

She might finally get some scrutiny for the cheating scandal in DC she helped quash, along with her boss at the time, Michelle Rhee.

De Blasio Is Full Of @#$% Over Chancellor Pick Process Flip Flop

And so we get the first slimy move post-election by de Blasio:

Bill de Blasio said Tuesday that when he called for a public screening of schools chancellor candidates, his point was merely that the city must avoid a repeat of the Cathie Black debacle.

De Blasio was asked to explain an apparent reversal: He said at a mayoral forum a year ago that schools chancellor candidates must undergo a “serious public screening...We need a chancellor who is presented to the public, not just forced down our throat.”

But Monday, as he mulls his own schools chancellor pick, he said there would be no “beauty contest” where finalists for the job are publicly identified and scrutinized. The change angered some education advocates.

“I want to be very blunt about this. That was clearly a reference to an unfortunate chapter in our city’s history related to Cathie Black,” de Blasio said of his earlier comments. “And I am going to ensure that we will never have a situation like that on my watch.”

...

“We are talking to a number of individuals who have extraordinary careers in education,” de Blasio said. “This is an open process in the sense that any name could be put forward, and names are being looked at that clearly have extraordinary educational credentials. So there’s not going to be a Cathie Black situation here.”

A reporter pressed de Blasio on how a public screening could be possible if the public is not informed of who the candidates are. An irritated-sounding de Blasio replied only: “I’m defining what I was saying then and what I’m saying now.”

He's defining what he was saying then and what he's saying now?

What the hell does that mean?

That's a slimy way of saying,"Yeah, I said I wanted a public process last year, but now that I'm elected mayor, I don't want one."

In short, he's flip-flopped.

Won't be the first flip-flop, but it is not a good sign from Mayor-Elect De Blasio that he is already full of crap a month before he takes office.

That last statement has to be read a couple of times to be believed.

It's perfectly Clintonesque in its full of shitness..

Well, he did make his bones working for Big Bill back in the day, so I guess he's learned how to parse words from the best of them.

As I have said before, de Blasio will have to be watched very, very closely.

The kind of flip flop he engaged in yesterday over the chancellor pick process should raise some concern over what else he'll decide to flip flop on after he's sworn in.

De Blasio: No Chancellor Pick Yet

And so, if you're interested to see which direction de Blasio takes the schools system in, the wait goes on:

Nearly three weeks after his election, Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio has yet to decide who will run the city’s public schools.

Asked for a status update today during a rare public appearance, Mr. de Blasio offered reporters eager for any tidbits about his transition efforts few hints.



“I will say I appreciate the question. I don’t think it’s quite time to go over that,” he said, following an education speech at Columbia University. “The conversations are just being arranged now, so let us get a couple more days down the road and we’ll be in a position to give you some more.”

We wait, we wonder.

Shael Polakow-Suranksy Will Not Be The Next Chancellor

More politicking in this Capital NY piece about the next chancellor - one of the names mentioned is current deputy chancellor Shael Polakow-Suranksy.

I'm going to go on record now - there's no way in hell de Blasio picks Shael.

De Blasio ran pushing a clean break from the Bloomberg years - how does he pick one of the chief architects of the Bloomberg ed agenda, a guy still working for Bloomberg now, make him chancellor and still claim he's making a clean break from Bloomberg?

I dunno what the over/under on the other names are, but another name that is being thrown around by ed deformers like Eric Nadelstern is Andres Alonso, former head of the Baltimore school district who made his bones working under Joel Klein at Tweed.

I'm not privy to the machinations going on behind the scenes between the deformers and the union and others pushing their favorites, but it's difficult to see how de Blasio can pick Alonso and remain true to his "Clean Break From Bloomberg" platform as well.

Which doesn't mean he won't pick someone like Alonso - after all, he did just meet with Rahm Emanuel to talk shop, so who knows what de Blasio is capable of?

Personally I think this Capital NY piece is just more politicking by the candidates and their supporters, the way a Gotham Charter Schools piece a while back on the chancellor sweepstakes was.

With the election tomorrow, we'll know soon enough who de Blasio picks to be chancellor and just where he intends to go post-Bloomberg.

I'm not all that confident the break is going to be as clean as most of us would like from the Bloomberg years.

But I am pretty confident writing that Shael is going to get a chance to lap up some of that wingnut welfare courtesy of Gates/Bloomberg/Broad on January 2.

BREAKING NEWS: Two More Names On De Blasio's Short List For Chancellor Revealed

Gotham Schools and the Post ran speculation pieces about who Bill de Blasio might pick to be the next NYCDOE schools chancellor.

Both pieces gave proponents of various candidates the opportunity to shill for them and try and promote their "perfect candidate" for the position.

The Gotham Schools piece touted former Baltimore schools chief Andres Alonso, president of New Visions for Public Schools Bob Hughes, current NYCDOE Chief Academic Officer Shael Polakow-Suransky, Montgomery County Maryland superintendent Josh Starr and former deputy chancellor Carmen Farina as five names on de Blasio's short list.

The Post reported Alonso is being heavily considered.

Perdido Street School can reveal that two additional names can be added to the list of the five names Gotham Schools had and you can see them after the jump:

Quinn Refuses To Promise To Nominate An Educator As Chancellor

From the Daily News:

City Council Speaker Christine Quinm was the only Democratic mayoral candidate not to pledge to appoint an educator as schools chancellor at a candidate forum Tuesday.

Mayor Bloomberg has drawn heat for his non-educator chancellors, most notably the short-lived Cathie Black. 

Asked if the chancellor must be an educator, the four Democratic hopefuls besides Quinn, plus Independence Party favorite Adolfo Carrion raised their hands.

Quinn said she wanted the option to consider all candidates, such as the head of an educational nonprofit. "I want to make sure we consider everybody out there," she said.

I don't think Quinn's refusing to promise to nominate an "educator" as chancellor is a big deal.

John King is an "educator," for what that's worth.

Worked a couple of years in a classroom, then started a charter school operation most famous for its attrition rate.

Michelle Rhee is an "educator" too.

I suspect if Quinn is elected mayor, whether she picks an educator or a non-educator, she'll still pick a corporate wanker.

That to me is the bigger issue.

Maybe somebody in the press can ask this at the next debate?

How many of you will promise to not nominate a corporate wanker to be chancellor of the school system?