For the Sake of the Children, Cathie Black Must Go The latest Freudian juxtapositions of school’s Chancellor Cathie Black — on the even of Martin Luther King Jr. anniversary celebrations –were “more fuel for the fire” in the growing effort to oust Ms. Black from her position, said Councilman Charles Barron in a press conference […]readmore
When he was elected in 2001, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg promised a new era of accountability and student achievement. Through direct mayoral control, Bloomberg sought to implement the core principals of the Federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act by restructuring the city’s schools on a massive scale. In New York City, NCLB […]readmore
New York City WikiLeaks I’d like to see… If Julian Assange ever gets out of jail, I would be the first journalist to invite him to work some magic on the Big Apple. Assange is the founder of WikiLeaks, which has obtained and released hundreds of thousands of international classified documents causing an uproar in […]readmore
Former Hearst Executive Cathie Black, Mayor Bloomberg’s selection as chancellor to run the 1.1 million children New York City school system, has begun her tenure despite the outrage expressed by parents and educators of the process and her lack of any experience or even any obvious prior interest in public education. What’s been called a […]readmore
by Amadi Ajamu The fight against Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor-designee Cathie Black will be waged in the streets and in the courts. Freedom Party leaders laid out their “plan of action” at Sistas’ Place Coffee House in Brooklyn on Monday evening. The standing-room only crowd of concerned parents, grandparents, educators, clergy, activists, lawyers and others […]readmore
How many times must we be inundated with the actions of political power brokers who we, the people – the majority – elect to office and then retreat into silence or the trivial preoccupation of competing with and degrading those who don’t agree with us. And while we are intensifying divisions, the power brokers are […]readmore
By Stephen Witt Mike Bloomberg and Rupert Murdoch would make great street hustlers. Especially with the three-card monte game these two media moguls are playing with the Department of Education’s chancellor job. The old “watch the green pea” trick comes after Joel Klein stepped down as chancellor two weeks ago and was replaced by Cathie […]readmore
By Andrew J. Hawkins Much like his predecessor, Comptroller John Liu has focused on contracts with the city’s school system as a way to check Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s wide-ranging power. The war began in early October, with news reports that the Department of Education was blaming the comptroller for delaying contract approval that would allow […]readmore