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1. 

   leonie haimson

   July 1st, 2009 8:23 pm

   pretty nauseating stuff.

2. 

   Michael M.

   July 1st, 2009 8:51 pm

   “PUBLIC OFFICERS LAW
   Laws 1909, Chap. 51.

   AN ACT in relation to public officers, constituting chapter forty-
   seven of the consolidated laws.

   Became a law February 17, 1909, with the approval of the
   Governor. Passed, three-fifths being present.

   The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and
   Assembly, do enact as follows:

   CHAPTER 47 OF THE CONSOLIDATED LAWS
   PUBLIC OFFICERS LAW
   ARTICLE 7
   OPEN MEETINGS LAW
   Sec. 100. Legislative declaration.

   It is essential to the maintenance of a democratic society that
   the public business be performed in an open and public manner and
   that the citizens of this state be fully aware of and able to
   observe the performance of public officials and attend and listen
   to the deliberations and decisions that go into the making of
   public policy. The people must be able to remain informed if they
   are to retain control over those who are their public servants.
   It is the only climate under which the commonweal will prosper
   and enable the governmental process to operate for the benefit of
   those who created it.”

   http (colon) //www (dot) tenant (dot) net/Other_Laws/Pubofc/pubofc09 (dot) html

   So I ask: WHAT OF THE DELIBERATIONS that lead up to today’s off-off-broadway performance?
   Our leaders were wiser in 1909. (Less Kremlinesque, too.)

3. 

   Joyce Saly

   July 1st, 2009 8:56 pm

   This kind of nonsense is exactly why we need to vote Bloomberg out this November.

4. 

   The Board of Education, a US Senate Seat and Racial Politics: Mike Bloomberg’s Dilemna « Ed In The Apple

   July 1st, 2009 10:46 pm

   [...] a rubber stamp is a useful tool. If you want to view four minutes of the eight minute meeting click here. After continuing Joel Klein in office they adjourned until September … hoping against hope [...]

5. 

   KitchenSink

   July 2nd, 2009 2:28 pm

   Do any of the anti-Bloomklein people actually think that this body should be making huge decisions like firing the Chancellor? Or are they grasping at any opportunity, however born of chaos and dysfunction, to oppose the administration? It is amazing what leaps of logic those with a personal gripe will take to justify their bias. And make no mistake: Klein has repeatedly said, over and over and over again: “The system should work for the benefit of the children before it works for the benefit of the adults.” Those who have had the most to lose are those who are unhappiest, but students by and large are better off than before mayoral control.

   I don’t think 100 years ago the state legislature was envisioning one of their own chambers failing to address a major piece of legislation, creating a temporary decision-making body, and I fail to see how this meeting violated Open Meetings Law. The existence of this Board of Education may execute the letter of the current applicable law, but given the circumstances no rational person would argue that it follows the spirit of the original law. It is a calamitous distraction from the real work of education our children and preparing for next year that administrators, teachers and principals have to do this summer.

6. 

   Pogue

   July 2nd, 2009 3:40 pm

   Kids are not better off than before Mayoral Control. College remedial classes, then dropping out is the course for many of the mayoral Control graduates. As far as who this system now benefits the most…simply ask the huge number of DOE administrators making six-figure salaries and test companies making millions off these kids. The mayor hinders, not helps public school children.

7. 

   Michael M.

   July 2nd, 2009 6:29 pm

   KS,
   While I agree that 100 years ago NYS lawmakers may not have envisioned our current dysfunction in Albany, which is not the point of the law I quoted, but I’ll go ya one better: 233 years ago they knew what to do with despotism. To whit: charge all citizens in generations yet to come with a “duty” to cast off same. See Declaration of Independence, second and main paragraph. Timely, eh?

   More to the point, our legislators of but SEVEN or so years ago knowingly passed a law with a “sunset.” (Lapse is more their fault than the lawmakers of 100 years back, no?) They may or may not have known what they were doing, but as yesterday’s events proved, “chaos” did not ensue, and the “Soviet Union” did not come to Chambers Street. (Debatable. See numerous prior comments re irony. Or your Klein quote.)

   And what part of “deliberations” was unclear?

   Last, should we stand and applaud, or kneel and kiss the signet ring, that the “Bored of Education” — having worked their rotator cuffs sore in a few brief minutes — voted themselves a vacation until September? Nothing to see here folks, let’s just keep moving along. Wouldn’t want the board to be a calamitous distraction, let alone fulfill their fiduciary responsibilities for a third of the city’s budget. Good gosh no.

   Those who have the most to lose are the STUDENTS, about whom all the performance hype is doing a life-long disservice.

   Where are your principles, principal?

   P.S. To answer your first question: yes. Or are you willing to admit this meeting was, and this board is, an utter charade? Got Patrick?

8. 

   KitchenSink

   July 2nd, 2009 9:26 pm

   The BOE meeting was a logical reaction to Albany inanity.

   We all know MC, in some form or other, is going to be renewed, revived, whatever the term is now, when the senate gets its act together.

   Jefferson knew despots quite a bit more despotic than Bloomberg, who has made most people in the city happy enough to elect him twice–and is confident that he’s going to be able to stand for election again in the fall, even after using his executive power to overturn term limits.

   If his decisions are despotic, they must have violated some constitutional mandate. Can you please clarify what exactly is this despotism, other than his pointing out where bad principals and burned out teachers are hurting kids and trying to do something about it?

9. 

   leonie haimson

   July 2nd, 2009 10:10 pm

   You think the huge abuses in contracting on the part of the DOE benefit the kids of NYC?

   More than 3000 no-bid contracts totaling $6.2 billion in the last three years, most of which had no documentation or explanation of why they were awarded, and 59 percent of which started prior to the DOE Committee meeting at which the contract was supposedly approved, according to the State Comptroller?

   And in 25 percent of the regular contracts, according to the City Comptroller, the DOE spent over the amount budgeted — sometimes to the tune of millions of dollars — with “taxpayer money … squandered through an opaque process that does not take advantage of the competitive marketplace.”

   The members of the BOE have a fiduciary and regulatory duty to clean up this mess and to oversee the contracting process, and yet they voted to abdicate this responsibility and ceded ignored complete authority for procurement and contracting to the Chancellor alone. What a disgrace. They should hang their heads in shame.

10. 

    NYC Educator

    July 2nd, 2009 11:43 pm

    I’m pretty sure hanging your head in shame requires the ability to perceive your own errors.

11. 

    Pogue

    July 3rd, 2009 9:28 am

    Those fighting for, standing up, and backing this dictatorial mayor most likely fall into the “I got mine, I want more, and screw the rest of `em” crowd.

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