Comments on: Facing outcry from educators, Kenneth Cole to remove billboard

By: Carol Graham

Carol Graham — Sat, 05 May 2012 21:09:00 +0000

How true-we take every student in public school and do our level best to meet their needs, while the legislators in most states take school tax support and swing it to private or charter schools-I despair at the lack of understanding. An educated populace is the backbone of a successful, healthy society. Not an educated 2%.

By: Carol Graham

Carol Graham — Sat, 05 May 2012 21:05:00 +0000

Few teachers object to being fairly evaluated-but when student
performance is often affected by circumstances outside a teacher’s
control, using the results of one test to do so is short-sighted. Such
things as poverty, neighborhood, family dynamics, health and even the language spoken
at home impacts a child’s learning-all things a teacher can not
influence or change. Teaching is not working on an assembly line, where
we get a child in September, plug parts in over the next 9 months, and
push out a completely built model in June.

By: Gregglund

Gregglund — Sat, 05 May 2012 12:07:00 +0000

I’ve noticed over the years that Kenneth Cole clothes are cheap, low quality, and frequently relegated to the discount stores. I recommend that we do a wholesale campaign telling the truth about the brand and how the clothes make us feel uncomfortable. It would also be embarrassing to be caught wearing such a negative brand.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 01 May 2012 23:36:00 +0000

And another customer lost…forget u Kenneth Cole..I’m seeing red now!

By: Kellnerelizabeth

Kellnerelizabeth — Tue, 01 May 2012 14:40:00 +0000

Reminds me of the Susan G. Komen fiasco — and success. We shouldn’t let the company off the hook. Hope somebody writes it up as a case study for a marketing class. Somebody loses their job over this

By: justice

justice — Tue, 01 May 2012 12:57:00 +0000

As with Bill Gates ,Ken Cole just proved you don’t have to be poor to be a bum!

By: Adktrout

Adktrout — Tue, 01 May 2012 12:10:00 +0000

Too Little, Too Late. Kenneth Cole has shown his true colors…. including red!

By: Maureen N

Maureen N — Tue, 01 May 2012 02:50:00 +0000

Interviened

By: Maureen N

Maureen N — Tue, 01 May 2012 02:49:00 +0000

I agree. Teachers should have job performance reviews. My kids went to public school and were fortunate to have great teachers, but as chair of the parents council you bet I would have interviewed if they had received different teachers.

By: William Hunter

William Hunter — Tue, 01 May 2012 02:23:00 +0000

Parents need to do just that. We need to realize that the agenda that is being moved forward slowly but surely is one of disenfranchisement of huge segments of this country’s population.

When private schools can pick and choose their students as a result of the defunding of public schools through bully tactics of politicians hell-bent on satisfying their rich lobbyists, student achievement scores at public schools WILL be lower than those at private and charter schools. When this “data” is used to convert public schools to charter (for profit) schools, who loses? Students. My kids will never be profit drivers for schools. Ask yourselves: are you willing to have your kids become an asset? I know the answer.

By: William Hunter

William Hunter — Tue, 01 May 2012 02:17:00 +0000

This is a simple and bald faced effort by certain people to defund public education.Pay attention, America. There is an agenda being pushed here, and too many of our politicians are on board, including a number of those we consider to be “liberal” including Governor Cuomo. This agenda is about the end of public education, and needs to be stopped. Educate yourselves, and vote!

By: William Hunter

William Hunter — Tue, 01 May 2012 02:14:00 +0000

I am hereby foreswearing the purchase of any Kenneth Cole product, ever. The owner of this company knows one thing: money. He sent his own kids to expensive private schools, yet he feels qualified to judge public schools? Shame on him.

By: Rosie

Rosie — Tue, 01 May 2012 01:30:00 +0000

I am horrified by the grotesque photo-shopping of the model. Kenneth Cole needs to think about how this deformed figure will impact young girls.

By: Michael M. (parent still)

Michael M. (parent still) — Tue, 01 May 2012 00:55:00 +0000

Re “We misrepresented the issue – one too complex for a billboard – and are taking it down,”

Kenneth “Public-School-Isn’t-For MY-Kids” Cole stands by his position, and (as pointed out below) offered no apology.

Still seeing red.

By: Nadine Fisher-Kirby

Nadine Fisher-Kirby — Tue, 01 May 2012 00:04:00 +0000

Not necessarily just the poor areas , the bottom line is that we pay more for prisoners in prison than we invest in our childrens education and that is very sad ! The profiteers keep on profitting off of test expecially designed to create more failure so that remedial supplies have to be bought from profiteering testing companies : ( If you think about it its a revolving door of failure for profit and our children lose !

By: perimeter primate

perimeter primate — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 22:04:00 +0000

I constantly get the feeling that a set of members of the out-of-touch, exclusive-private-school-attending-elite regularly engage in tipsy, superficial and uninformed conversations about public schooling with each other at their cocktail parties and other social events. Their chatting about “those awful” schools must give birth to ideas about projects (like putting up this billboard) that they imagine will somehow help *fix* things. Yes, this topic must definitely be the “movement du jour.”

PS: Parents signed the petition, too.

By: Caroline Grannan

Caroline Grannan — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 21:45:00 +0000

Right! I think pretty much ALL the schools listed as underperforming serve low-income kids. I challenge anyone to find an underperforming school in a wealthy community, unless it has a big influx of low-income students.

By: Clay

Clay — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 21:21:00 +0000

Seems like Kenneth Cole stopped short of an apology.

By: Phil Perspective

Phil Perspective — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 20:44:00 +0000

As people elsewhere point out, the problem with schools comes down to an economic one. Where are the schools most often listed as under-performing? In poorer areas!!!!

By: Tim

Tim — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 20:40:00 +0000

Whew. It was going to be weird having to wear a trench coat in May and June to hide my Kenneth Cole “Blue & Orange” summer wear from my children’s teachers.