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benign neglect
June 29, 2009
Sen. Sampson to mayoral control supporters: Drop dead
Mayoral control isn’t on the list of bills the Senate Democrats believe must be dealt with by tomorrow, reports Liz Benjamin. A quick reminder: Without a new bill, the mayoral control law expires tomorrow.
“We said we are dealing with noncontroversial bills. In our conference mayoral control is a controversial issue, and we would like some input,” [Senator John] Sampson told reporters.
“…The mayor said he does not want the bill to change. Period. But they have to understand that we have a conference that is 31 members strong, and we represent constituencies throughout the State of New York.”
Asked by the DN’s Glenn Blain if he is ruling out the passage of the mayoral control bill before the 2002 measure sunsets tomorrow, Sampson replied:
“Am I ruling it out? It will be taken up at some point in time.”
Pressed Blain: “Before the deadline?”
Said Sampson: “As I said before, we are dealing with noncontroversial bills.”
No, please, take your time.
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June 29th, 2009 4:41 pm
This is absolutely insane.
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June 29th, 2009 4:53 pm
Bloomberg has to be the luckiest man in the world. The best thing to happen to him is to have Mayoral Control expire right now, as I explained on Room 8. If he has any sense he won’t even appoint two members to the board, claiming that someone has to be accountable and if it isn’t him it should be the city’s political establishment. That would allow him to wash his hands of the schools, including the consequences of his own decisions, as the costs come due and money becomes disastrously tight. And he could always fight a return to Mayoral control in any form, claiming a new home rule message is required since the old system expired, and refusing to provide one.
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June 29th, 2009 5:29 pm
A lot of folks on my job (I’m a computer guy) know I’ve been involved with this issue and I’m getting absorbed in a lot of interesting conversations. Folks are a little distressed by Bloomberg’s fearmongering. After explaining what a sombitch Bloomberg/ Klein have been as stewards of our schools, I explain that this imminent catastrophe is kinda like the Y2K bug: remember nine years ago when planes fell like raindrops from the skies, cars exploded on ignition, and you’re bank account was inexplicably zeroed out. Well, it’s kind of like that.
Ding-dong the dictator is dead.
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June 29th, 2009 5:57 pm
From a yahoo posting, I love this:
Teachers, Principals, Guidance Counselors, paraprofessionals, secretaries, parents, families and community members will be gathering to celebrate the end of Bloomberg and Klein’s control of the New York City Schools beginning at 4:30 P.M. Tuesday June 30, 2009 in the park on the east side of 52 Chambers Street in Manhattan. At the stroke of midnight, June 30, we will serve eviction papers on Joel Klein to remove himself and his cronies from 52 Chambers Street, The “Boss Tweed Courthouse” immediately.For more information of this celebration, call Nicola DeMarco at 917-374-5220 or 718-884-2069
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June 29th, 2009 6:26 pm
The reason that ’sunset’ provisions are built into laws is that it is presumed that if the law is sufficiently popular it will be renewed, and if not, it will revert. Such is the case here. It seems to me that if the law expires despite Boomberg’s threats and fear tactics, it wasn’t terribly popular to begin with.
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June 29th, 2009 10:29 pm
Just what we need in schools–instead of trying to work productively for our students, we’ll be forced to react day to day to a highly stressful state of crisis and chaos. No one will be willing to make a decision, answer a question, or move forward on anything. It will all revert to a state of “I’m not responsible, and I don’t know who is, so I’m doing nothing.” How can I plan, set goals, etc. when I have no idea what our resources will be, or what the rules of the game will be, tomorrow or next month? I am disgusted with the Senate. Don’t they care about schools?
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June 30th, 2009 1:33 pm
Nicole, what makes you think that letting mayoral control sunset means that the assembly doesn’t care about schools? I think the best thing for schools would be the ouster of Klein and the emasculation of Bloomy.
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June 30th, 2009 6:30 pm
Anarchy isn’t good for students or schools. The reality is that much of what happens on the ground is dictated by policies that are set centrally. If we “oust” and “emasculate” those who set those policies without adequate transition planning, this is what it will look like on a practical level: budgets, facilities, hiring, HR, special education, facilities, new school construction, food service, pupil transportation, payroll, etc. will, unevenly, come to a grinding halt. The costs to the morale of those trying to hold it together on the ground, to shield students and teachers from chaos, will be considerable. As for Klein and Bloomberg–from my ten years of experience, the reforms they’ve achieved in the interest of equity and accountability are remarkable. They are not perfect, but in 2000, the system didn’t work at all for kids whose parents don’t have power and access.
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June 30th, 2009 7:19 pm
A board of education with members selected by the mayor and the borough presidents isn’t quite anarchy, I’m afraid, no matter how much you’d like to toe the BloomKlein line. Nothing is going to come to a grinding halt unless Bloomberg decides to skirt the law.
I’ve been around your ten years, and a lot more, and I don’t see how Bloomberg has leveled the playing field in any meaningful way at all. Please don’t cite me test scores–I’ve been teaching long enough to know how those tests have been watered down even as we spend all day teaching kids how to pass them. Under mayoral control, according to an article cited on this very blog, the administration spent 238 million dollars from the CFE lawsuit that was meant to help needy kids on things like plugging budget holes. That’s not helping kids, and it’s not accountability.
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June 30th, 2009 7:38 pm
Things have certainly changed under Mayor Bloomberg. It isn’t just anyone who can load schools to 250% capacity, take hundreds of millions for class size reduction, use the money for who knows what, and increase class sizes sharply anyway.
That takes a special kind of person. I think of him every time I see a trailer, the ones the mayor promised to get rid of by 2012. Of course, he later clarified his remark, saying he would not. Who cares if they’re 20 years past their expiration dates?
The important thing is we now have brand new sports stadiums.
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June 30th, 2009 8:50 pm
Nicole’s right - before mayoral control, there was a whole underclass of families with no access to voice or safe, sound schools.
Now, at best these families have schools in their communities that push kids to high academic levels and don’t make excuses for failure and at the very worst these families are the focus of media concern. It sure wasn’t like that when I started teaching (also *more* than ten years ago).
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June 30th, 2009 9:55 pm
KitchenSink, I understand your need, as a principal, to claim that schools are now safe and sound, and that higher academic standards are in place. That is all BS.
Unsafe schools still proliferate in this city. The only real change made by mayoral control was the implementation of report cards, which gave schools a disincentive to report both major and minor incidents. As regards academic rigor, if you have taught for as long as you claim, surely you know that the tests have been severely dumbed down. Beyond that, we have been instructed to do nothing else but test prep all year long. The results are as predictable as they are illusory.
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July 1st, 2009 10:42 am
We really need to be thankful. The Bloomberg/Klein tenure has been one constant stream of misleading data and poor leadership. Merryl Tisch, Chancellor of the New York Sate Board of Regents, said that 74% of students who reach college need remedial work to QUALIFY FOR COURSES. She also said, “Just because the scores have gone up dramatically doesn’t mean that our youngsters are ready to go to college.” It’s clear that something is very wrong with the data presented by Bloomberg/Klein. Let’s end this charade and let educators lead the schools!
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