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December 3, 2010

Black sits down for questions, and we pose some of our own

by Maura Walz, at 7:18 pm

For her first sit-down interview today, Cathie Black enjoyed a friendly softball toss with WABC 7′s Art McFarland.

In the first excerpt of the interview to air, Black defended her qualifications as a manager against critics who charge that she lacks the education credentials necessary to do a good job.

“We’re all human beings,” she said. “It is about people. After all, it is about people. They can be little people as young students or teachers or principals or any of the other organizations that surrounds it.”

McFarland then asked if Black expected the public outrage over her appointment.

“First of all, I’m not taking it personally,” she said. “They don’t know me. If they knew me and said this, that’s something different. But they don’t know me. So they’re venting their anger. I have three words: let’s go forward. None of this is going to change the outcome. So let’s go forward, together.”

This clip, the first excerpt of McFarland’s long interview with Black, did not include more details about how Black intends to move the school system forward. McFarland said that other sections will discuss Black’s plans.

GothamSchools has formally requested an interview with Black through the Department of Education. We don’t usually release our interview questions in advance, but we thought in this case we’d make an exception. Add your own questions for her in the comments.

  • What is your theory of change for public education? Do you favor incremental change, as Randi Weingarten has, or do you endorse Michelle Rhee’s idea of radical change? What are the pros and cons of each?
  • Can you be more specific about what you mean by good management? And who are the people that the chancellor is responsible for managing, in your mind?
  • What factors will you consider when you decide whether to close a school?
  • You have said that you are willing to make “hard decisions.” One hard decision will be determining how to distribute looming budget cuts between classroom expenses and the administrative costs of officials at Tweed Courthouse and the rest of the Department of Education bureaucracy. What distribution do you think is appropriate?
  • You have said repeatedly that children should come first, and your predecessor and the mayor frequently argued that children did not come first in the past. Can you give some examples of how adults have come first in education previously and explain how you plan to change those practices?
  • What is your position on teacher evaluation? How should principals decide whehter to give teachers tenure?
  • Are teachers born or made? How much investment do you plan to make in professional development opportunities for teachers?
  • Can you give us examples, from the schools you’ve seen so far or from your own education, of teaching you consider to be good and teaching you consider to be bad?
  • How do you plan to reach out to parents? How do you think parents should best be involved in their children’s education and the school system at large?
  • Have you read the city’s contract with the United Federation of Teachers? Your predecessor and the mayor sometimes disagreed about how to negotiate with the union. Do you favor working together to make compromises with the union or taking a hard line in negotiations?
  • Researchers and reporters have uncovered cases of perverse incentives for accountability. How will you ensure that teachers and principals and school officials don’t succumb to the temptation to cheat or teach to the test?
  • Do you support housing charter schools inside district school buildings? Given space limitations, how will you decide which charter schools are granted access to district space – if any?
  • Do you favor private school vouchers?
  • Do you have any interest in pursuing elected office? Would you rule out a run for New York City mayor?
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  • LD

    What is your philosophy of special education? Should all students with disabilities be educated in community schools? What are your thoughts on the continuation of District 75 as an entity? 

    The City lost over $100 million dollars in impartial hearings (i.e., lawsuits) because parents of special education children won their cases. What will you do to stem the tide of money that’s flowing out the door and into the pockets of schools like Stephen Gaynor which do no better in educating the mildly disabled? Should more lawyers be hired and paid more to fight unscrupulous lawsuits or do you plan to continue to hire first- and second-year lawyers with no background in education or educational law?

    What are your plans with the CSE’s and new networks? Will they be disbanded with staff getting placed into community schools?

    Social workers are not legally mandated members in the special education process. Do you plan to fill their positions after they retire or cut the line entirely?

  • Michael Fiorillo

    “None of this is going to change the outcome.”

    Wow. Think about that statement for a moment, what it’s saying, and the attitudes that underlie it.

    None of “this” (the absolute lack of any qualifications on her part, the cronyism of her appointment and the contempt for democracy it represents, the casual lack of concern for the legitimate concerns of public school stakeholders…)  is going to change the “outcome” (of wholesale school closings, increased class size, diversion or resources to private entities and interests, and continuing attacks on teachers under the pretext of fraudulent, pseudo-scientific metrics…).

    In a perverse way, I’m grateful for her honesty: she isn’t even making the pretense that she has any respect for the people she’s ostensibly working for.

  • Mustafa

    Am I gonna get banned again for typing “barf”?

  • Clark Kent

    @ Mike F:

    Exactly! Great point. I thought the same thing when I first read it. She already has the Bloomberg swagger!

  • Teacher of LD kids

    Question 1. How familiar are you with the laws governing implementation of IDEA? Do you understand the IEP process and the DOE’s obligations are under special education laws? Will you force principals who are ignoring this process to comply with IEPs and stop illegally modifying or terminating IEPs because they don’t want to honor the IEP as it is?
    Question 2: How are you going to be respectful of the fact that virtually every teacher in the DOE system has more formal education than you do, and holds relevant certification and licensing, which you do not? RESPONSE TO LD (above): for every parent who brings a frivolous lawsuit claiming that their child should receive the best and most expensive education possible, on the public’s dime, because the child has an IEP, there are 50 parents who have no knowledge of the laws and their children’s rights thereunder. Provision of a Free and Appropriate Education is a right, not a privilege. PARC v. Pennsylvania and Mills v. DC Board of Ed provide the minimum standards, and Rowley v. Hendrick Hudson School District provides information on the maximum obligation of an LEA.

  • http://nyceducator.com NYC Educator

    If you really want that interview, you’d better post the answers too.

  • Michael M.

    Oh, where to start…

    1) What are your plans to address classroom overcrowding?

    2) What are your plans to address school overcrowding?

    3) What is your position on co-locations?

    4) In light of the recent disclosure of the deal between Klein and Steiner to redirect Contracts for Excellence funds, will you continue on that track, or restore those funds to their originally targeted purpose?

    5) Do you plan to speak out on behalf of students, teachers, and schools facing budget cuts, or continue in Klein’s footsteps and pretend that all they get is all they need?

    6) Why did you send your own kid(s) off to boarding school, and what was the typical class size?

    7) What is Daniel Koretz known for?

    8) Who penned the line, “Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire,” and how do you propose to inspire a love of learning?

    9) Will you release your college transcript — with grades — before pressing ahead to release teachers’ “grades?”

    10) How many hours a day do you spend reading archived articles on GothamSchools? ;-)

  • Peter

    Are you going to estblish a platform on which CEC members, teachers and parents can evaluate your performance at the end of the school year?

    Everyone in the school systsem, from network leaders, to principals to teachers to schools, are evaluated and the evaluation determines their emplyment, if you receive a low evalauation would you consider resigning?

  • Michael M.

    Oh, where to start…

    1) What are your plans to address classroom overcrowding?

    2) What are your plans to address school overcrowding?

    3) What is your position on co-locations?

    4) In light of the recent disclosure of the deal between Klein and Steiner to redirect Contracts for Excellence funds, will you continue on that track, or restore those funds to their originally targeted purpose?

    5) Do you plan to speak out on behalf of students, teachers, and schools facing budget cuts, or continue in Klein’s footsteps and pretend that all they get is all they need?

    6) Why did you send your own kid(s) off to boarding school, and what was the typical class size?

    7) What is Daniel Koretz known for?

    8) Who penned the line, “Education in not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire,” and how do you proposed to inspire a love of learning?

    9) Will you release your college transcript — with grades — before pressing ahead to release teachers’ “grades?”

    10) How many hours a day do you spend reading archived articles on GothamSchools?

  • miss teacher

    “They can be little people as young students or teachers or principals or any of the other organizations that surrounds it.”

    Is she calling teachers and principals “little people” or do I need to rethink my own understanding and application of reading strategies?

  • Michael M.

    Oops:

    8 ) Education IS not filling a bucket….

    Darn public school edumacation.

  • http://themortonschool.blogspot.com Miss Eyre
  • Mama Bear

    1. What attracted you to the schools where your kids went?

    2. Do you believe education such as your children received should be available to everyone and at no cost? Why? or Why not?

    3. Why didn’t your parents send you to public school? 

    4. How can you ensure that schools and classrooms won’t be affected by the budget? DOE auditing? 

    5, How will you listen to parents’ concerns? Will you be going to all of the districts’ CEC meetings? Are CEC meetings really effective ways for parents to address their concerns, especially when they’re not well attended in many districts. What is a CEC meeting? Will you be working at a better way for parents voices to be heard?

    6.

    6. 

  • cory

    interesting to note that the Kent School, where she sent her kids has an avg. class size of 12!! Student faculty ration of 8:1.

  • An Effective Teacher says…

    ““We’re all human beings,” she said. “It is about people. After all, it is about people. They can be little people as young students or teachers or principals or any of the other organizations that surrounds it.””

    So every student, teacher, principal, and UFT/organization are considered the “little people” compared to BloomBlack. Now I see why Bloomberg didn’t want Black speaking her mind… she doesn’t filter it.

    Thanks for letting us know what we suspected all along.

  • Billy Tweedy

    Mistake to post these questions.  Now that Ravitz and the Mayor’s handlers for Black know that you’re interested in talking substance, they’ll never let Cathie anywhere near you.

    That said, she’s clearly struggling with this media thing.  She doesn’t even understand how to speak about this stuff without sounding like a real jerk.  It might be a tough road ahead for NYC schools…

  • Gideon

    1. How should principals be evaluated? How will you decide whether they keep their jobs?

    2. How will you measure your own success as Chancellor after two weeks, two months, two years?

    3. To what extent do you think there should be a common curriculum?

    4. Do you think NYCDOE should be a charter school authorizer?

    5. What changes do you think need to be made to the labor contracts for teachers and for principals?

    6. What differences do you see between using test data to improve instruction and using it to hold teachers and schools accountable?

    7. Do you think there is value in giving teachers tenure?

    8. Do you think students should go to their neighborhood schools? Should all schools have diverse student bodies? Should students be assigned to schools to attain diversity goals?

    9. What can the district do to help a failing school improve? How much time and effort should be put into a failing school before deciding to close it?

    10. What should the role of district superintendents be?

  • http://theinsurgentteacher.blogspot.com Maria Rosa

    I would like to ask Mrs. Black a few questions, but I’m unable to at this time because the waiver Commissioner Steiner issued t her is not valid. Steiner failed to follow the procedures outlined in NYS Education Law that requires the board of education in NYC to request the certificate not the Mayor as in the case of Mrs. Black.  As long as the NYS Assembly and Senate “maintained” the board of education in both mayoral control bills issued in 2002 and 2009, it is this body or entity that has to request the certificate or the waiver on behalf of the Mayor for Mrs. Black to enable Commissioner Steiner to  issue one.  The NYS education law is very clear about who should ask for the certificate.  In NYC the board of education continues to exist only Mayor Bloomberg and Klein changed the name to the Panel for Educational Policy. Whatever name it is given in the two bills signed into law in 2002 and 2009, the Mayor appoints eight and each Borough president one for a total of 13 members. It is this group that is suppose to request the State Commissioner of Education to issue the professional certificate to Mrs. Black. Though the Commissioner cited the two changes in the law giving the Mayor the power to appoint the chancellor and ruled that it was “proper” for the Mayor to submit the “application,” he didn’t follow proper procedures.  Until the Commissioner of Education follows the  procedures set up in the NYS Education Law, the waiver given to Mrs. Black and the professional certificate is invalid. Moreover, there is a parent with two children in the NYC schools who submitted a lawsuit challenging the procedure as well but he alleges the NYS Education Law doesn’t give the Commissioner of Education the right to waive the Master’s degree requirement that a candidate for superintendent of schools must have. The law specifies “graduate courses” but not the Master’s Degree.  Mrs. Black only has a Bachelor’s Degree in English no Master’s degree. The hearing for the lawsuit set for December 23, 2010 in the Supreme Court of NYS. 

  • Clark Kent

    Wow!
    Great update Maria.

  • Jordan Fullam

    I agree with a line of questioning that has been suggested already: What characteristics did she find favorable of the private schools where she sent her kids?  Will she seek to bring any of these characteristics to the public schools?

  • anon

    The DOE has reorganized itself almost every year. Are you going to continue that pattern? What are you going to do about the network structure that no one is happy with?

  • flcertifiedteacher

    Here are some questions I would like to hear Cathie Black answer:

    (1) In light of the fact a lot of Race to the Top money will suddenly be in the NYC schools —
    and the opportunity for embezzlement and theft always exists — do you believe that Mayor Bloomberg should restore the obligation of “PUBLIC TRUST” to your job title? Because right now it sounds to me that if millions of dollars somehow magically get transferred into GOP coffers instead of NYC schools from Race to the Top, well, you’re not to “blame” because: you’re not in a position of “PUBLIC TRUST.” (Note: there is no public school district head in this nation not in a position of public trust; you’re the first one.)

    (2) If millions of dollars were to suddenly vanish in your eagle-eye money management oversight of the NYC schools, and Mayor Bloomberg simply told you “Don’t worry about it” — but you still felt something was wrong — what you do? Stay silent because the mayor tells you to do so; or contact the FBI; or contact the US DOJ; or contact the press — in short, who exactly is your check and balance in terms of any disagreements you have with the mayor over any unexplained disappearance of money? (Note that over $11 (eleven) million dollars was embezzled from the Roslyn Public School District on Long Island, by corrupt school district officials, including the superintendent — who all did have the public trust as part of their job descriptions and their jail terms were longer because of it. Here is a news article for you:

    NYT: Roslyn Pleas Mean Testifying Against Family
    http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/11/nyregion/11roslyn.html

    (3) Since you tout yourself as a “manager” — do you think the job duties of a teacher are devoid of any management skills? And thus, teachers are unqualified to “manage” beyond their classrooms?

    (4) You were quoted in the NY Times as saying you would spend “a few hours” “reading up” on the “problems in public education.” How many hours have you now spent in total and what topics did you read up on, and what sources did you read?

    (5) You talked a lot in the McFarland interview about how people need to “give you a chance” — do you believe in competition? Should you have competed for your job, along with other candidates, so that others — like qualified teachers, or qualified Hispanics, or qualified blacks should likewise have been “given a chance” as you so demand now?

    Thanks for considering my questions.

  • Truth

    Will you take a salary of $1.00?

  • Teacher

    I don’t think the money to be made is in the salary of the positions. Bloomberg only makes $1 a year as Mayor BUT he in the time he’s been in office he’s increased his wealth by something like 10 BILLION dollars. He’s now the richest person in all of New York State and the 8th richest American. Why would he EVER want to leave his position with that kind of return? His greed has no end. Klein has not only had his Chancellor salary but he’s been all over the world on paid speaking engagements and now will earn what will probably be millions for his new gig with Murdoch. So maybe the question should be, will Cathie Black commit that any “incidental” earnings that are a direct result from her stint as Chancellor be donated to the New York City School PUBLIC School System? (Charter schools do not count because they are only semi-Public and there is money to be made.)

  • edwina

    To quote Ms. Black, “None of this is going to change the outcome.”

  • I noticed that…

    To all my fellow bloggers,

    Providing Cathie Black with questions in the hopes that she’ll answer them publicly is like screaming in a sound-proof room. No one can hear you. Cathie is not listening and her job is not to listen. She’s an expert spinmeister and her responsibility is not to the children of NYC but to the mayor. The slip-of-the-tongue was when she sent in “three years”. That’s what the mayor has left to make himself look like the “The Great and Powerful Wizard”. Cathie will make sure that his image is shiny as a two-headed penny, that his actions are above reproach of any corrupted politician, that his distorted truth prevails over all the genuine facts that are found, and that he continues to buy favors from those individuals, such as Steiner, that will allow him to control the city absolutely.

    Education was never in the mind of the mayor, nor Commissioner Steiner, and it will not be in Cathie’s mind either.

    There are 1.1 million children, at least half should have been at Tweed on Thursday, 12.2.10 protesting the mayor’s disrespect to the governance law and Steiner’s granting of the waiver to Cathie. If the people of NYC must adhere to the law and follow it, why isn’t the public enraged over the mayor not following state education law.

    NYC wake up! You’re asleep at the wheel of our city.

  • flcertifiedteacher

    True re the “3-year” comment by Cathie Black. But having a public set of questions out there (as this blog is doing) is really not a bad idea at all.

  • http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/ norm

    Cathie Black, Bill Gates and the Ed Deformer Assault on Class Size

    Posted at: http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2010/12/cathie-black-bill-gates-and-ed-deformer.html

    I didn’t see the quote myself but there were reports that Cathie Black said that teacher quality was more important than class size. Of course that would be her position since disparaging class size as a factor is a basic belief of ed deform – not really a belief since ed deformers full well know about the impact of class size since they either went to schools themselves with low class sizes (Black, Gates) and/or send/sent their own kids to private schools with low class size.

    But ed deformers must focus their attention on the teacher not the conditions in their assault on the profession and the unions.

    The Dec. 4 edition of the NY Times had an article about how Bill Gates is funding new teacher evaluation projects supposedly intended to find the best teachers and practices, often by video taping lessons.

    This really is a must read article because of what Gates won’t fund as part of these studies.

    First of all, a lesson doesn’t exist outside of the results. My old principal Benjamin Bromberg who came up through the ranks of teaching used to say “Nothing learned, nothing taught.” Thus, if you teach a lesson on the Pythagorean theorem you need some mechanism to see if the kids got it. And then a follow-up method of seeing if they still get it a week later, a month later and at the end of the year. And maybe next year too.

    Second, can you place the blame solely on the teacher for those kids who do not get it? Did some not do any work at home to practice? What about the level of the kids coming in? What if a bunch had never learned or understood basic times tables? Can they really understand the theorem unless a good base has been laid?

    And then comes the big enchilada – what is the impact on the lesson of the number of kids in the class?

    So to do the full research, let’s see the same teacher, same lesson, done in classes of widely varying class size with follow-ups to see which kids learned it and which didn’t and the staying power of the lesson.

    But Gates won’t fund that as the results would show that the basis of the ed deform movement has no legs.

    Afterburn
    I know many excellent private school teachers who shudder at the thought of teaching in public schools and one of the main reasons are the high class sizes. Some think it is the kids they would have to teach that keep them away but they say they could teach anyone of the class size was reasonable.

    I laughed at the idea of videotaping lessons since I was part of a similar project at PS 16 in my 3rd year of teaching – the spring of 1970. They set up a camera and videotape machine. The idea was that I would stay after school and watch the lesson with the idea of categorizing each question I asked the kids looking for the percentage of questions that just asked for facts vs those that made them think. It was time consuming but valuable. I wasn’t uptight at them looking at my lessons – I trusted they wanted to help me be a better teacher. Not like today when they are interested in dumping people.

  • flcertifiedteacher

    To maria Rosa —

    Thank you so much for explaining how the origin of the waiver is all wrong with respect to Cathie Black!

    Now, why didn’t anyone in the media bother explaining that???

  • flcertifiedteacher

    PS It sounds like an ABUSE OF POWER or ABUSE OF AUTHORITY on the part of Bloomberg AND Bloomberg’s lawyers.

    It also sounds to me now like they deliberately bypassed the NYC Board of Ed or whatever it is now called, because Bloomberg and his lawyers knew: that board might have rejected a waiver REQUEST due to the omission of the required Masters.

    So, instead, Bloomberg ignored the school board and went directly to Steiner and applied the pressure on Steiner.

  • dingo

    very good questions!

  • flcertifiedteacher

    BTW, here is a question for Maria Rosa who kindly posted all that info above —

    In light of the actual procedure — that the NYC School Board (whatever it’s now called) should have requested from Steiner any waiver, if the board decided to move forward with a waiver request — why didn’t Steiner know that?

    Why didn’t Steiner tell Bloomberg right up front: “Uh, sorry, but a waiver request has to come from the NYC School Board — and not you, Mayor Bloomberg.”

    I ask that because I read an article online in the NY Times about how Steiner was all stressed out over this decision on whether to grant the waiver, and Bloomberg then made all these comments publicly about how any failure of Steiner to grant the waiver would seriously erode mayoral control or power or something like that.

    Meanwhile, now, I find out: this whole scenario was all wrong. The NYC School Board should have made the request (or, in the alternative, should have stopped any waiver request to Steiner because of a lack of a Masters since the Masters degree requirement can’t e waived according to the parent’s lawsuit.)

    So — why didn’t Steiner refuse Bloomberg’s request immediately, recognizing, immediately, that Bloomberg actually had no authority to make the request for a waiver?

    Did Steiner not know who should make the request? Or is Steiner pretending he did not know? Or did Steiner know and just go along with Bloomberg out of fear, intimidation or deliberate collusion of Bloomberg’s abuse of power?

    I am really curious what you think. Why did Steiner not explain to the press, publicly, that the origin of the waiver request from Bloomberg was not the correct origin? Why did Steiner not return the waiver request to Bloomberg by simply citing actual procedures and actual law?

    Does Steiner not have any access to any lawyers in his job as Top Mop of NYS Ed?

  • Teacher of LD kids

    I read through most of Eric Snyder’s lawsuit – the first 23 pages of the various documents is available thru a link on the NYTimes webpage for the original article (I don’t have it handy to link you thru here, though, sorry!). I’m not familiar with the statutes under which Mr. Snyder is suing, but his argument seems to be that the Commissioner has the authority to grant a waiver for “graduate course requirements,” meaning, that Black would not have had to have taken “educational” courses. It seems, though, that the fact that she took no masters-level courses at all is a deficit that simply cannot be overcome and cannot be legally waived. I couldn’t find any specific language in anything I read that even specified that it be a “masters degree,” but “60 credits” above the baccalaureate level. This is why there is an argument that Black does not only lack the education credentials, but also is not “otherwise qualified.” If any other bloggers on GS can find links to specific statutes and regulations and post them here, I’m sure that other readers, myself included, would like to be able to read them through.

  • Peter

    Black waiver decision:

    http://gothamschools.org/2010/12/03/black-sits-down-for-questions-and-we-pose-some-of-our-own/#comments

    The law appears to give the Commissioner wide discretion in this matter …

  • Peter

    woops! wrong link … correct link to Black Waiver Decision:http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/Cathleen-Black-Waiver-Decision.pdf

  • Teacher of LD kids

    Peter: it would be interesting to know to which law you are referring. Do you have a link to the specific statute? The link above is to the Commissioner’s decision regarding the waiver request. A 23-page packet of documents filed by Eric J. Snyder, filed with the NYS Supreme Court, is available at this link http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/nyregion/blackdocuments.pdf. Part of the merit of Mr. Snyder’s case is that, although Steiner had “broad” discretion in the matter, he could not simply choose to ignore the law. On the ethical side of things, the fact that Black lacks, not only education credentials, but any post-graduate academic work at all, is troubling because every public school teacher must possess the very same credentials that she lacks.

  • flcertifiedteacher

    I agree with the comment made by “teacher of LD kids” above concerning the issue in graduate courses and Cathie Black. For example, let’s say Cathie Black had a masters level degree in business or in some other field; I think that is what the spirit of the law requires — and what the argument is in Synder’s lawsuit: that she has nothing.

    And, with nothing she is not actually “otherwise qualified” on the graduate course requirements.

    It will be interesting to read the judge’s decision in that matter, which should come very quickly, prior to Jan 1st. I am curious to see if the judge says there is such wide discretion that the requirements can basically be nulllified in full, which is what Gabe Pressman even feels Bloomberg did — just nullified the law entirely.

    And I agree with this comment, too, from the same poster:

    “On the ethical side of things, the fact that Black lacks, not only education credentials, but any post-graduate academic work at all, is troubling because every public school teacher must possess the very same credentials that she lacks.”

    Imagine a hospital or a law firm, where doctors/nurses or lawyers are the main workforce. They all have degrees and licenses which they can lose for unethical behavior. Now imagine that a new political force says: It’s the receptionists and janitors who should be in charge, because they know how to “manage” the building. So, now, receptionists will tell doctors and nurses what to do and make more money than all of them, and janitors will be in charge of all the lawyers, and make more money than all of them.

    It sounds like a ridiculous analogy, but here is why it is applicable (and by the way, no offense intended to any receptionists or janitors anywhere): the receptionists and janitors don’t have any licenses to lose. Their theft of money, their abuse of employees, their crime sprees, their abuse and intimidation of employees, well, who on the outside cares? You can’t rid of these people when they are in charge because: now, they answer to no one, as no one can pull their license. They have no license.

    This may sound totally weird what I said above but the exact same scenario has happened and is happening in a public school district in Florida where the military, not the corporate, took over. I am not against the military being in education if they are qualified educators, but these are retired military/CIA types. They have no business being anywhere near a public school or public school district. They have no education, no public records in violation of district policy and FL law, and I don’t want to go into a long list of very frightening things that have happened because of them.

    So, Cathie Black to me is another test case to see: Can the Republicans really succeed in eliminating all licensed people from the top in a public school district? So far, NYC is the second school district I know of that current has this corporate/military model at the top, with no one licensed and absolutely no one is accountable. They answer to their political party and that’s pretty much it.

    This is why it is so important to remove Cathie Black, in my view, and make sure that from now on, every administrator, everyone in education except receptionists, bus drivers and janitors are licensed, with no waivers possible.

    Because the corporate and military do want to take over public education, in my view. They want to bust the union, etc etc. But do teachers, parents and students really want to be bound by an unlicensed political force at the top in every public school district? For many reasons, I think not.

  • Peter

    Teacher of LD Kids:

    The first few pages of the Black Waiver Decision quote the sections of the law, Snyder argues that Steiner exceeded his discretion … the law does not appear to limit the discretion of the commissiioner, in fact, it is similar to the 2001 Klein Waiver.

    Ethically, morally, etc., you are correct; however I would be surprised if the court granted a TRO (temporary restraining order), it usually takes a few months for a judge to render a decision after oral arguments.

  • Teacher of LD kids

    Peter: because I hate leaving stones unturned, I did track down the law itself, which was quoted pretty much as is by Steiner. http://public.leginfo.state.ny.us/LAWSSEAF.cgi?QUERYTYPE=LAWS+&QUERYDATA=$$EDN3003$$@TXEDN03003+&LIST=LAW+&BROWSER=BROWSER+&TOKEN=36403404+&TARGET=VIEW. You are correct that it “seems” that Steiner has a great deal of discretion in the matter, because there’s nothing in the law that specifically states what “other qualifications” Black must have. However, as the Florida teacher, who posted above, states, they basically decided simply to nullify the law. If the Commissioner’s discretion is indeed so broad that he can simply nullify it, then the law is useless. The spirit of the law appears to be that the Chancellor must have some sort of foundation in or tangible connection to the workings of the public schools, and Steiner violated that spirit. In fact, Bloomberg wants to overturn the law because, apparently, he and he alone knows what the job of Chancellor entails and the law simply doesn’t serve him. So rather than having a debate about the spirit of the law versus the letter of the law, why not just get rid of the law?
    In his decision, Steiner rambles on about Black’s achievements in publishing but nowhere in his tome does he really specify how anything in her skill set can possibly translate into the supervision of a massive school district. Much has been made of the release of Black’s college transcript, with grades redacted, of course. It appears that much of her college-level education centered around religion and theology, with a sprinkling of humanities, one math class, and nothing in the sciences. If the waiver is upheld and Black is allowed to go forth as Chancellor, then it undermines and invalidates the credentials, licensing, and certification of every public school teacher in this country, myself included. But then again, that might be the point. Thanks, Peter and Florida, for sharing your well-considered thoughts.

  • flcertifiedteacher

    You’re welcome. Also, I must point out: I was shocked to read that Cathie Black has been in charge of only “2,000″ employees at Hearst when there are over “80,000″ teachers in NYC.

    Setting aside for a moment all the other issues regarding Cathie Black’s qualifications, in my view, she’s not even qualified as a “manager” of a “large organization” because the number of employees she managed at Hearst is rather tiny compared to the actual number of NYC teachers plus NYC education employees.

    I hope what happens as a result of all this is not only that Cathie Black is out of there through one of these legal challenges, but that the People of NY reject mayoral control in the very near future, and small school districts, with local control by neighborhood, returns, because: otherwise you are going to hear more and more “arguments” about why the military needs to be the on (or corporate) to “manage” the “large” organization that is some school districts.

    I live in Massachusetts now, by the way, and here, the organization of school districts is by town, not by county as in Florida. So, here in MA, which is #1 in student achievement nationwide year after year, and ranks well internationally, you have only one high school per school district typically. In FL, which is near the bottom of many rankings, it is not unusual to have ten or more high school in a single school district.

    I think it is better to be small in terms of the size of a school district, and to have an instructional leader as the superintendent. And, to have certified accountants employed in the district.

    This “idea” of corporate or military managers is not an idea that has anything whatsoever to do with education; it is merely to give the public the illusion that “Republicans are in now in charge” of education. They are not. They are not educators. And they do not want to be educators. They only want to “manage” these large school districts for no other reason but political reasons.

    Some food for thought.

  • flcertifiedteacher

    BTW, I hope the Deny Waiver Coalition and the lawyer Norm Siegel are reading this blog here. Because initially they were going to file a lawsuit; and initially, Norma Siegel had mentioned the “origin of the waiver” (Bloomberg illegally bypassing the NYC school board is what I am now guessing he meant) as a cause of action for a legal complaint.

    But once the parent filed that lawsuit, Norm publicly said maybe the Deny COalition will join that lawsuit instead. I think they should not; instead, they should file a lawsuit based on these three issues:

    1) everything the parent said;
    2) plus the issue of bypassing the school board (illegally)
    3) AND the fact that Cathie Black isn’t even qualified as a manager of a large organization when one looks at the actual number of employees she managed verses the number of employees in NYC schools.

    If one is going to hire a “manager” with experience managing the size of the organization of NYC public schools, then Cathie Black is not eligible on those grounds either, since Heart’s “2,000″ employees is a drop in the bucket compared to NYC schools.

    A far better choice would be a qualified woman from NYC schools who was an educator who is now leading a school district of comparable size, and there are at least two such women (I think both of color) out there who were not considered.

    I also think EEOC complaints should be filed immediately by everyone who is not a white female, since NO ONE else was considered for the job of NYC chancellor.

    And Norm Siegel had a very solid argument in my view when he said, very early on, that Cathie Black’s appointment violates the Equal Opportunity Act.

    I hope individuals who do not need a waiver to be NYC chancellor, and who are not whtie females, all file EEOC complaints ASAP because there is a time limit of I think 180 days to file those complaints with the EEOC.

  • flcertifiedteacher

    And if individual educators who are are eligible for the chancellor job with no waiver (and are single, male, or women of color, etc) do file individual EEOC complaints, then I hope they will make this argument in their complaint and say something like this on their EEOC complaint form:

    “Mayor Bloomberg’s appointment of Cathie Black nullified existing law, was done in violation of procedures as he did not go to the NYC Board of Ed to seek the waiver as was required, AND Bloomberg’s argument that Cathie Black is a “qualified manager for NYC schools” is bogus on its face, since:

    the actual number of employees in NYC public schools FAR EXCEEDS and in no way comparable to the actual total number of employees managed by white female Cathie Black at Hearst.”

    Just my opinion as a layman: That would be a valid EEOC discrimination complaint by an individual.

  • http://theinsurgentteacher.blogspot.com Maria Rosa

    Great comments.  All of this preplanned and I suspect Dr. Tisch Board of Regents Chancellor in on the pre-game planning. I was surprised to read she denied knowing Mrs. Black when they are socialites buddies of the upper east side of nyc. The whole case is intriguing shows how the ruling classes operate to profit from public education.  I found it interesting Bloomberg after calling Cathie Black to offer to her the position, he directs her to meet him at 7 am at the Foundation offices not the Tweed Courthouse Building where the offices of the department of education located. It all makes sense since he is hedge fund investor that benefits from windfall profits from investing in projects in underserved communities. Since the passage of the federal government market tax credits in 2002 during the clinton administration billionaire philanthropists have been investing heavily in charter schools for this reason. NYDaily News Juan Gonzalez wrote an excellent article on this topic. Just go to the archives of the paper and search for his name under this subject. I have an quote from it on the side of the my blog as banner.  Rupert Mudock invested $5 million in a charter high school just imagine the tax deduction he’ll get under the federal market tax credit. And he is chairperson of an advisory board of a charter school called Harlem Charter Village academies where Cathie Black mysteriously appears as a board member in July  2 and 1/2 months before Bloomberg appoints her chancellor to make it appear she has experience with public schools and Black and Latino children though the board is merely an advisory one  and she has yet to attend a board meeting. Yet Commissioner Steiner cites her participation and involvement on this charter school board in his decision as well. I suspect the planning all got underway at the media moguls conferene held each summer in July all these folks attend, Bloomberg, Murdock, Klein, Black and other similar tycoons. Hearst recruited a younger man from a rival magazine to be the new president appointed him in June demoted Black to a chairperson role that didn’t appear to have any duties.  They thought she would hang around long enough to show him the ropes in the company but she jumped ship as soon as the offer came from bloomberg in his Foundation offices in October. I figured out the date in the story she provided to NY Post gossip columnist Cindy Adams when she asked her when she first asked to be chancellor. None of the three lawsuits cite how Commissioner Steiner violated the process or procedure for requesting the certificate instead all seem to focus on the facts or substance of the case her qualifications and the requirements of the education law. Courts though may not want to substitute its decision for the Commissioners’ and may not rule in favor of the petitioners.  That is just my opinion based on my reading to the law. As a side note here when Steiner appointed to his job last year he had Joel Klein as his top reference on his CV, and Bloomberg and Tisch in on getting him appointed. The whole case makes for a good novel if someone writes it would be a best seller and thriller. On the equal employment opportunity angle those of you whom have suggested it, I would agree to that anyone whether black, white, Latino who has the certificate Commissioner Steiner issued to Black should submit a complaint to the EEOC especially qualified persons in the past who have applied for administrative jobs in the NYC Schools and denied the opportunity yet they give it to a white unqualified female who didn’t have to adhere to any federal procedures because she is in the personal social phone book of Mayor bloomberg and resides in his neighborhood. She’s not a “world class leader” to good managers as she herself indicated in something I read how she freaked out whenever she had to work with figures and numbers. Her roles is to do the axing both to the employees and to close down the public school buildings they put on some bogus list with trumped up data to replace with charter schools. And she’ll get a sweet three-year  contract with life time health care benefits at the expense of the NYS tax payers and she might be eligible for a pension as well through the New york State Teachrs Retirement System. Oh and did I say,  all the contracts she’ll approve for Joel Klein in his new job for Rupert Murdock opening up “new strategies in the emerging educational maket place.”

  • http://theinsurgentteacher.blogspot.com Maria Rosa

    to flcertifiedteach:  There is a video on Youtube the Coalition for public education produced at the hearing of the Panel for Education Policy (PEP).  The PEP is the body Mayor Bloomberg replaced the old board of education with though “board of education” still exist in both amended laws that give. Bloomberg mayoral control passed in 2002 and 2009.  Since it still exist in the education law it is these body that is required to ask for the certificate noted in a resolution submited to the commissioner.  The video shows commissioner got a letter asking him if appropriate for the mayor to send in request for certificate and Steiner agreed that mayor should send it in.  I would like to see a copy of this letter.  

  • Michael M.

    MR @ 3:06 am.

    Huzzah.

    “It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people’s minds.”
    – Samuel Adams

  • flcertifiedteacher

    To Maria – I think it is good you want to see a copy of the letter. Also see my most recent.new multi-post post to you on your blog here — as I think I understand what is happening with this newest chapter: the “Canada was first/no I Cathie Black was first” twist —

    http://theinsurgentteacher.blogspot.com/2010/12/second-lawsuit-on-cathie-black-critics.html

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