Dear Sen. Obama,
I am working very hard for your campaign in ways that I can, but mostly, I am working very hard for students and teachers in New York City.
In your third debate, when you called Michelle Rhee the "wonderful young chancellor" in Washington, DC, many of us were horrified. We are equally shocked to hear that you might be considering Chancellor Joel Klein for Secretary of Education should you be elected president.
Klein has no credentials in education. He had to be waivered in by the state commissioner, Richard Mills (who has just resigned), to take the job and has no understanding of how kids learn or the best environment for them to learn in. Through union-busting and some pretty heavy-handed, profoundly suspect legal techniques, he has been systematically depleting the system of senior teachers and replacing them with a stream of grad student trainees — cheap, manipulable, and often transient — who do not have the experience or all the skills to get the job done.
Children are not computer bytes, and they can't be fully defined or assessed by numbers. They must each find their way through a maze of information, social differences, and personalities, ingesting what they can under the particular circumstances they find themselves in. In New York City, politicians refuse to lower class size and do little to address the social issues of our poorest communities. The current chancellor knows this, and he doesn't much care. He's engaged in social engineering with the most powerful sector of our society, the corporations and the very rich.
Klein's original restructuring of the school system was a very expensive shake-up, and the two subsequent attempts no more than do-overs. He hasn't made schools in this city any better than they had been, because it's obvious students aren't doing so well and neither are the teachers. He excluded parents and the rank-and-file from the decision-making process, poured millions into machines to crunch data for no practical purpose, and he neither respects or defends truth. He has also hired an expensive PR machine to sell his malicious agenda to a disengaged public, and maybe even to you.
Below is an article written by a long-term educator and every bit of it is true.
If Joel Klein became Secretary of Education, what advice would he give?
Posted by A Voice in the Wilderness November 1, 2008
According to The Huffington Post, there is a rumor that NYC Schools Chancellor Joel Klein is a potential candidate to be Secretary of Education to Barack Obama.
Ok, ok, stop screaming.
As painful as it is to think about, I decided to project what advice Klein would give to school districts across the country if he ever found himself in this position. I based the advice on his past performance as chancellor in New York City. It would probably go something like this:
Numbers in the toilet? Fudge ‘Em!
Listen, you and I both know that all this data and accountability crap is a big old crock of you know what, but the public loves that kind of stuff. So, if you find that the numbers are down and the data is reflecting that you’re not doing a good job, bend the rules a bit.
Let me give you a great example. When I was chancellor in New York City, people were giving me crap about low graduation rates. Please. Anyway, I sent a memo to all principals and told them to create ‘credit recovery’ classes. It was genius! All over the city, schools stuck kids in a room for a few hours, did something simple like show a movie, and told kids to write a few sentences about it. A few scribbles later, and the kids got 2 high school credits.
Presto, chango, graduation rates went up!
Note: If any principals give you any lip about ‘not the best solution for children’ just fire their asses.
Violent Incidents in Schools Getting You Down? Bury ‘Em!
Every once in a while, you’ll get some uppity principal who tries to report every little violent incident, thinking they’ll get some help or something. This is what you do - punish ‘em. Put them on an Impact List and threaten to close them down. Pretty soon, the whiners get the message and stop reporting things like weapon possession and heart attacks.
Make Your Own Principals
Sick of those namsey, pamsey ‘collaborative’ types who keep going on and on about ‘what’s best for children’? Create your own school principals. That’s what me and Mikey did. We made our own ‘Leadership Academy’. Now, we get scores of principals who fudge those numbers when we tell them too.
Pack Kids in as Tightly as Possible
Don’t buy into this educational hoopla about children needing more attention and all that positive school climate crap. Pack in as many kids as you can into as small a space possible. Save you lots of money, and then you can give property away to make charter schools!
Change Educational Programs Frequently
Look, one reading program is as good as the next. Well, I wouldn’t really know about that since I’m not an educator, but who really cares in the long run? And stop buying into the b.s. about consistency. Change programs as often as you want. Here’s a secret - when you do that, you can make great deals for your friends. Owe Kenny a few grand? throw him an educational contract. We do it all the time.
Take What You Can, While You Still Can.
Let’s face it. Chancellors and superintendents don’t last very long. Well, in my case it’s different ’cause I’ve got a billionaire buying off term elections, but in general, the life expectancy of a chancellor is pretty short. That’s why you and your friends need to take as much as you can get while you’re there.
Me and my buddies did and it was great!
It seems that the launch of the Education Equality Project is upon us. You can check it out at www.educationequalityproject.org
There are some things on the Education Equality Project Principles that concern me. I guess my initial concern is the "Call on parents and students to demand more from their schools, but also to demand more from themselves"As we are questioning the achievement gap, it seems to me that harvesting the parent as part of the education process is a questionable strategy for equality.
I know in my child's public school classroom (Joel Klein district), field trips only happen when enough parents can volunteer as assistants. All parents participate in fundraising for teacher's development workshops, school sanitary needs and enrichment programs. Keynote learning activities demand the classroom presence of parents for talent, supplies and labor. In my area many parents have found ways to reorganize work schedules and have the ability to set aside or raise money- We are so fortunate (I am so grateful). But we are not the norm and I do not believe this is sustainable. Indeed many parents of all colors and economic levels are finding their jobs and resources threatened by current economic factors. Even without the money and time, I know that I have an immeasurable advantage having a prestigious college degree and a parent who was a credentialed child development expert. So I believe that it is counter-instinctive and short-sighted to suggest that parents can make the field level by demanding more from themselves in the school.
My public elementary school was fully funded by the community. The school's playground/field was open to the community. The classroom teachers were respected community leaders. Exhibits and performances were open to all. If there was concern about the classroom teacher or the pedagogy, community citizens were directed to the administration not invited into the classroom. As we seek to move public schooling into the next iteration, I would like to see thinking that goes beyond child+parent+teacher. Successes were achieved for all not demanded by/for the participants.
I am interested to get a deeper understanding of other viewpoints. I may be to inside this process to get the bird's eye. Please share.
