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Kudos to the Chancellor for being forward-thinking enough to streamline bureaucracy and put the right people in charge. All this talk about DOE people being “mouthpieces” is pure ideology; I’m a former teacher who is now outside the system and I see the contrast from when I was teaching–this is a move that appears to be “children first” to me.

As a recently retired forty year veteran of the DOE I can confirm that the increased number of supervisors of small schools has resulted in a greater number of supervisors per teacher, however the teacher-student ratio continues to become ever more disproportionate. This is surely not an initiative that puts “children first.” Also, the number of attorneys and investigators in the DOE Office of Legal Services continues to grow while most of the investigations by the DOE Office of Special Investigations remain unresolved for years. For example, a case that was opened in October of 2006 into licensing fraud by an individual employed as a teacher, assistant principal and Regional Education Administrator (with all documents submitted as evidence) has not been concluded and the subject of the investigation has received further promotions. The OSI case number is 06 – 8371. The DOE Office of Special Investigations failure to produce a report on this case clearly shows that the DOE still suffers from cronyism and fraud at the taxpayers’ expense.

Why would there be a mole on Gotham Schools? It’s not a subversive organization, but a blog open to people with varying opinions (I hope). Why’s everyone so paranoid? Let me guess, because I’m writing this, I’m now an informer to DOE and hired as its cheerleader.

Was there a time people were happy with the state of education in NYC and who was making decisions. That discussion would be helpful.

This reorganization is better because with each one, the system moves closer to coherence. Look, I don’t agree with every decision the chancellor makes. But can’t we stop and appreciate the fact that this colossal system has been moving increasingly in one direction for six years? It’s unheard of in my lifetime, for most of which the chief frustration wasn’t disagreeing with the administration but ping-ponging from one philosophy/mandate to another due to the revolving door at the top. And by the way from that comment I think KitchenSink’s the mole.

The whole SSO concept still does not add up. Paying for outside consultants is fine but how can internal SSOs made from employees of the DOE (on the city payroll already) also be paid for “consulting” with schools. Does this not just take dollars from the schools and send it back to central – like double dipping? I think it’s time for an old fashioned desk audit of all workers in internal SSOs. Not only does experience not matter for teachers – it’s true for administrative staff as well. It looks like central headcount is low but it also looks like salaries have been improperly inflated. Somebody please shine a light on this before another reshuffle throws it in darkness again. Perhaps the payroll website IS a good thing.

Steve: you write “But can’t we stop and appreciate the fact that this colossal system has been moving increasingly in one direction for six years?” In fact, there has been one massive reorganization after another over the last six years, as the Chancellor creates new organizational structures and and then dissolves them, claiming a reduction in the bureaucracy each time, with little or no objective evidence of that claim.