Join the the revolt! Public education belongs to the people of America.
Mamie Till Mobley
"There was an important mission for me, to shape so many...young minds as a teacher. God took away one child but...(gave) me thousands. And I have been grateful for the blessing." Mamie Till Mobley
Petitioners likely to appeal the case though Mayor Bloomberg said, "this decision should bring an end to the politicking and grandstanding...focus on what matters most: continuing to improve the quality of education we offer NYC public school children."
The Full Ruling from the NY Post .
An Albany County Acting Supreme Court Judge on Wednesday, December 29 issued a ruling upholding the waiver the State Education Commissioner David Steiner issued to Cathie Black in November. One of the lawyers and parent Eric Snyder appealing the ruling.
The ruling based on the "discretionary powers" of the State Education Commissioner to issue the waiver. The other attorneys considering their options. There may be a good chance ruling today overturned if appealed. If so, the earliest for another ruling would have to wait until May or June 2011.
"From 2002 to 2007, average scores on state exams rose from 52 to 74.1 for the state, and from 67.6 to 79.9 for the city. Inflated test scores drove up the positive progress “report card” grades given to schools, 60 percent of which were based on student test scores. In 2009, 84 percent of 1,058 elementary and middle schools received a grade of A, and only two schools received an F. Bloomberg used these figures to get re-elected."
The World Socialist Web Site interviewed a few NYC Murry Bergtraum high school students after an incident on Thursday December 9th when many of them left their classroom's in reaction to repressive school policies after a fight broke out between two students, the principal suspended the whole school from using the bathroom.
New York Times interview with outgoing NYC Schools Chancellor Joel Klein and his response to a question about his greatest success in education.
"Empowering poor people with choice has been a powerful stimulus to reform in this city, and no place more so than in Harlem, quite frankly, where 40 percent of our students now start school in a charter school. And that’s as robust a competitive environment as you’ll see in public education."
"City and state lawyers argued that the language allowing Dr. Steiner to waive the graduate course requirement meant he could waive the master’s degree requirement as well, and that he had the latitude to interpret education regulations as he saw fit."
Albany County Supreme Court judges heard the arguments regarding the case of Cathie Black whether or not the State Commissioner of Education David Steiner acted appropriately in his decision to grant the controversial waiver because she lacks a graduate degree and qualifications to be the NYC Chancellor. In the New York Post today Kelly Munkwitz of the state attorney general's office said, "The commissioner interprets the regulation’s requirement for a master’s degree to be waivable — and the commissioner must have the discretion to look at it in context." What about the procedures for asking for the waiver? The three lawsuits don't specifically address this issue whether the commissioner violated the steps set up in state education law to grant the waiver.
"...we're going to see a huge transformation in the field of education and it's going to be driven in terms of innovative solutions by private markets." Rupert Murdock poached Joel Klein to New Corp. for this reason.
Some of the best attorneys in Civil Rights and Education Law advising plaintiffs in State Supreme Court against the waiver issue granted to Cathie Black to serve as the NYC Schools Chancellor in hearings that commenced this week on Monday. In a Huffington Post column David Bloomfield, Esq., Chair of the Department of Education Staten Island, CUNY and Professor of Educational Leadership, Law and Policy, CUNY Graduate Centers to "... serve as an expert advisor to one team of attorneys challenging the certification waiver granted by State Education Commissioner David Steiner." Other attorneys: Norman Siegel, Roger Wareham, Ramon Jimenez and Eric J. Snyder.
"There are times when you hit a roadblock. There are times when you hit a wall. What I want to say is, all right, you really have two simple choices. You can sit there and be angry or be disappointed or become nasty if it's not going to work out for you, or you say, "You know what? I've hit a wall here. It's time for me to polish up my resume, it's time for me to start networking, it's time for me to really evaluate am I really unhappy here, and if so, are the problems mine or are the problems the company or the product," or whatever your responsibility is. So I always like to say pick yourself up by your bootstraps, and move on and find a new situation."
Cathie Black, December 2007
Chancellor to be Cathie Black has "hit a wall here."
New Chicago Public Schools (CPS) interim chief, Terry Mazany, the head of the Chicago Community Trust, recently appointed to the helm of the CPS denied the request of nine charter schools to open issuing the statement: "We simply do not have any budget flexibility to allocate dollars that will not lead directly to improved educational outcomes for all of our students."
East District School Board member Vivian O. Evans resigned yesterday amid allegations she doesn't live in Buffalo. The Telephone records the Buffalo News requested under FOIL showed she lived in another State since July 2010. Some folks still want to know why the other School Board members (Jacobs & Johnson), including Superintendent James A. Williams who knew about her whereabouts didn't offer much help as they attempted to investigate her residency issue? The telephone records show they were in touch with her eversince she left town.
The School Board has 30 days to fill the vacancy, otherwise, the Mayor to appoint. Evans won by 15 votes against Buffalo State College Professor Theresa A. Harris-Tigg who many believe the reason why the faction on the Board aligned with the Superintendent Williams kept silent about Evans' residency & new place of employment to stop her from filling the seat. If so, the people want to know what happened here, the Board members involved, and why?
Students at Francis Lewis High School in Queens attend classes in an overcrowded building designed for 2,800 students, the enrollement is 4,200 today. Overcrowding at the high school one of the issues on the agenda students wanted to discuss with the incoming Chancellor Cathie Black. But she never showed up to the press conferenceor meeting on Thursday, December 9th at 7 AM at the school. They are among the brightest and academically talented ethnically diverse students in the New York City Schools.
In a NY1 video student leaders said, "Students are lacking in inspiration at a time when they need it most."Others cited how"students...who live in ...bad neighborhoods who want to go to their zone schools...forced to leave because of violence." And they want to "...understand what it is (Cathie Black) plans to do about issues ...within...the school system." They just "want to know her plan." Still others like Khaair Morrison say, "Students are in the classrooms students see the budget cut first hand."
Violence in the schools, the school budget cuts, school closings, as well as disparities in the curriculum and college prep other issues and concerns they listed on the flyer.
Instead of meeting with the student leaders, the NYC Department of Education said the Chancellor could not attend their meeting. Meanwhile, she visited mostly elementary schools doing photo op with the pre-school and kindergarten children unlikely to ask her any critical questions.
The parents in June this year received a letter from Joel Klein, NYC Schools Chancellor about the up-coming budget cuts and the more "shared sacrifices" the students have to continue making. What would Francis Lewis (1713-1802) say to the students? He signed the Declaration of Independence active in the Revolutionary movement, a likely leader of the New York Sons of Liberty, and member of the NY Revolutionary committee that later had helped to set up the State government.
Or the great African-American abolitionist leader Frederick Douglass (1817-1895)words:
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation…want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightening. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters…. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will."
In this interview on Thursday, December 9, 2010, she had to guess at the make up of the student population in the NYC Schools because she didn't know when asked about the issue of diversity in the schools. NYC students, staff, teachers, administrators and all those involved with the schools deserve a highly educated well-prepared professional in the field of education not someone Mayor Bloomberg picked from his personal address book so others say of his appointment, "That's it!" The world is watching as Bloomberg and Mrs. Black have made a mockery of the New York City Schools.
"Let’s be honest: we need a lot more well-off, well-educated white folks with a personal stake in both charter schools and education reform in general if we’re going to take reform to the next level, both politically and operationally.Whitney Tilson, hedge fund manager and major funding angel for the school privatizing Democrats for Education Reform, thinks there’s not enough rich, educated white folks.( Preaprez) click photo to his blog.
