GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg — up by 18 points over his opponent in the latest polls and with Election Day next week — apparently is not willing to use his position to forge new ground with the teacher contract he is negotiating with the United Federation of Teachers. The current contract expires Saturday.

In the first apparent “leak” from the tight-lipped Bloomberg camp, Chris Cerf, now a Bloomberg campaign education advisor and until recently Joel Klein’s deputy chancellor, announced in a WNYC interview yesterday that the Mayor agreed with Bill Thompson that performance bonuses should be handed out to teachers on a school-wide basis, rather than based on the individual merit of teachers. This disclosure, first covered by GothamSchools, likely was a calculated move to dampen expectations before a contract agreement is announced.

If true, the Mayor is sacrificing the straightforward principle that good teachers should get paid more than bad teachers. (more…)

This past week, David Steiner sparked considerable controversy when he expressed skepticism about lifting the charter-school cap. Steiner made his offhand comments after being sworn in as New York State’s 13th Commissioner of Education.

After this controversy blows over, more may be on the horizon. The controversy will come because Steiner is such an atypical appointee. At a time when cautious appointers crave candidates who leave no trace, Steiner — a first-rate intellectual with an iconoclastic mind — has quite the paper trail and a healthy measure of provocative ideas.

Steiner reminds me, in some respects, of a mannerly version of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. This is not a political statement; politics or ideology is not what animates Steiner. But like Scalia, Steiner is a voluminous and gifted writer with a distinctive voice, strongly held views, and a talent for penning a memorable phrase — and he often is the smartest guy in the room. (more…)