If You're a Teacher and You Dare Challenge

anything your principal asks or tries to force you to do, you can lose your job, but if you're the Chancellor of the New York City public school system, you are a law unto yourself, and you can even defy a court order:

On Friday, Judge Joan Lobis of the New York State Supreme Court nullified Chancellor Klein's decisions to close 19 middle and high schools in New York City, ruling that his actions were illegal.

This court's judgement was an important step forward for the rule of law. It was also a confirmation of the necessity for a genuine public process to inform and improve arbitrary and rash decision-making at the NYC Department of Education.

Klein's proposals to close these schools has been met with tremendous protest from thousands of parents and teachers alike, because of the devastating effect on their children, their communities, and the public school system as a whole.

...

Predictably, the Chancellor disagreed. As quoted in the NY Times, he said, "I think the process was robust...We literally met with thousands of people who expressed their views. We heard them, and in the end, we disagreed."

Despite the court decision, Klein said that none of the schools originally slated for closure would accept students, and he would send out high school admissions letters over the weekend, with none of these schools included.

Even those 8500 students who had listed these schools as one of their top choices would be assigned other schools, and would instead receive a letter, "stating that, should the schools remain open, they may select one of them."

By this action, the Chancellor signalled that he intends to close these schools down regardless, by starving them of students.


I'm sure "Democrats" Duncan and Obama are cheering this on.

No comments:

Featured Post

Cathedral Hills Hike

 After about three years, I returned to the Cathedral Hills network of hiking trails, located just outside of Grants Pass, Oregon.  I was in...