backlash.com
November 13, 2008
NYC teachers going public with opposition to Klein as Ed Sec
Teachers are signing up in droves to oppose a promotion for Schools Chancellor Joel Klein.
An online petition opposing Klein as Secretary of Education has collected more than 2,000 signatures since it was created Monday by a California education professor, Duane Campbell. The petition has attracted attention from dozens of Web sites, including those of Gotham Gazette and the progressive Nation magazine.
Many of the petition’s first signers were parents from New York City and educators from across the country, as Leonie Haimson pointed out on the NYC Education News e-mail list.
But increasingly, it appears to be people identifying themselves as New York City public school teachers, both active and retired, who are signing on. (There are 80,000 teachers in the city; most, obviously, have not attached their name to the petition.)
Below the jump, several teachers’ recent comments:
| 1680. | Elizabeth Shanklin | Klein’s agenda to privatize education undermines democracy! | NYC teacher | Bronx, New York 10463 |
| 1777. | Elizabeth Hovey | I have come to loathe Joel Klein as the embodiment of narrow, expedient restrictive leadership, anti-education in many ways. | Public school parent and educator | 139 Fulton Street, #915, NYC 10038 |
| 1796. | Chris Phillips | Chancellor Klein in concert with Mayor Bloomberg have destroyed teacher morale in the NYC school system. Klein is a businessman with little educational experience whos only goals are test scores and breaking our union. His ongoing harassement of teachers has intentionally made our jobs more difficult. His first priority should be to work with his most valuable asset, his teachers, who constantly sacrifice their own time and money because they are often the only ones who put the needs of their students first. Appointing Klein would be a disaster for education in America and I know that based on what I have seen and read about the president elect that he is too intelligent to make this serous appointment without a great deal of thought and input from others. | teacher | 30 Ocean Parkway #3E, Brooklyn, NY, 11218 |
| 1904. | Soledad Villanueva | I have been a teacher in NYC for 8 years. Mr. Klein has worsened our schools with each passing year. Please carefully evaluate your choices and choose someone who has made schools better, not force teachers to do quick cover-ups when inspectors come through. Thank you, a very devoted teacher. | Teacher, NYC DOE | Queens, NY 11368 |
| 2008. | ronald fliegelman | I worked in the NYcity public schools as aspecial ed. teacher for 25 years. When Klein became leader he effectively destroyed the system. He got rid of all supervisors which ment that there was nobody in charge and children did not get their services. The way the system works there is nobody there to speak with if you need to solve a problem.Teachers and parents have no input. | Retired teacher NYcity | 635 Warren St. Brooklyn,NY 11217 |
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