Joel Klein

During his weekly appearance on John Gambling’s radio show this morning, Michael Bloomberg defended the amount of money going to education in the budget the City Council just passed, saying, “It isn’t like we’re cutting the schools' [funding].”

He added, “I’m in a business where if they ask for 10 percent, and you give them a 6 percent raise, they say, 'You cut us 4 percent.' In government speak, you talk about cutting, but cutting from the budgets.”

Referring to the overall budget, Bloomberg went on, “The truth is, in absolute dollars, we are spending this coming year, assuming it holds together, virtually exactly the same.  read more »

Here’s Bill Thompson at yesterday’s rally against the city’s proposed cuts to education funding, coming up with an unsolicited math lesson for Joel Klein.

“The state just sent the city $600 million more for education, and the chancellor is talking about making cuts,” Thompson says. “Something doesn’t add up. One and one usually makes two. Not three. Not four. Not five. Not minus one.”

Here’s about more about Joel Klein and Al Sharpton’s newly formed, unusual alliance to combat racial inequality in public education.

They’re taking it to the radio (move over, the Michael Bloomberg and John Gambling hour?), according to an advisory that just went out:  read more »

A few weeks ago, Assemblyman Mark Weprin made some enemies in City Hall when he criticized high-stakes testing in public schools. Schools Chancellor Joel Klein disagreed. Michael Bloomberg went a bit further, blasting Weprin during his weekly radio show. (The two sort of buried the hatchet later).

Then the New York Post wrote this unflattering editorial about him.

Now, the United Federation of Teachers is getting into the mix.  read more »

Here's a clip of United Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten at last night's candlelight vigil outside the Tweed Courthouse. In the clip she criticizes the Department of Education's new improvement plan, which includes the "Teacher Performance Unit," a committee of lawyers to help school principles deal with sub-par teachers, particularly those with tenure.
 read more »

In the clip, Weingarten references a letter Schools Chancellor Joel Klein sent to teachers yesterday. After the rally, a spokeswoman for the education department emailed that letter to reporters.

Excerpts from the letter after the jump.

Schools Chancellor Joel Klein was on the Colbert Report last night talking about the city's plan to pay public school students for academic success. The controversial issue was put through the critical analysis that only Comedy Central can offer. You can watch the video over here.

Colbert: You can invest that money in nerds to do your term paper in eighth grade.

Klein: I have a better idea. You can actually, if you do well in seventh grade, you can actually do your own term papers in the eighth grade. That’s what this is all about.

Colbert: Mmm hmmm.

Klein: You’re not interested in that? No? But our kids will be.

Colbert: I think money is a labor-saving device for me.

Klein: It is, but for our kids, I’m trying to enable them to raise money when they get out of school.

And later, this exchange:

Colbert: I’m going to drive up the price right now. I will pay $600 a year for seventh graders to come to my house to smoke cigarettes and play violent video games. Will you match my offer? Will you match my offer, or don’t you care about New York’s kids, Joel Klein, if that is your name?

Klein: I’m willing to play this game. Just remember one thing. I got Michael Bloomberg on my side. 

 

This week marks the fifth-year anniversary of Joel Klein's becoming chancellor for the city's public schools, a job that's been a revolving door for most of his predecessors.

Asked in an interview about his level of satisfaction about what's been accomplished, he gave himself a mixed report card.

“If you mean satisfied in terms of where I think we need to get to, the answer is no,” he said. “There is a lot more that we need to do. If you mean satisfied looking back over five years, the answer is yes.”

Feel free to weigh in here with your own assessments.

After five years, Bloomberg’s schools chancellor says he has a lot left to do.  read more »

Joel Klein and his wife Nicole Seligman, a Sony executive vice president (and an ex-lawyer for both Oliver North and Bill Clinton) have paid $1.7 million for their second apartment at 95-year-old 565 Park Avenue.  read more »

Yesterday, Azi departed this fair city for a few of rest. "Rest," in Azi's case, is a relative term. During his daylong bus ride to Maine, he sent me roughly 237 emails from his Blackberry. This morning, he was back at it, apparently tracking down a wireless connection in order to listen to New York schools Chancellor Joel Klein's interview on the Brian Lehrer show. He sent along the following observations:

During the interview, Klein was asked about the major restructuring that public schools will undergo next school year. Namely, the 10 regional school districts Klein created when Bloomberg came into office will be replaced with another set of local school regions which'll provide principals with institutional support.

Klein denied it was a sign that his earlier reforms didn't work, and said, in fact, it was all part of the plan. He pointed to a speech he gave at NYU in which he called his first set of reforms "temporary."

He then said all the changes really are more akin to a parent giving kids more freedom as they get older.

Does anybody else remember the public school reform discussion being framed like this at the time?

Well, does anybody? Commenters?

A round table discussion with reporters planned by Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, scheduled for noon today at the Tweed Courthouse, was just cancelled. A spokeswoman for the DOE didn't have an explanation.

I'm not sure if this has anything to do with it, but Betsy Gotbaum's people were really looking forward to the event, and had even sent reporters a press release suggesting few questions.

Here they are:

1. "Isn't it true that the majority of the gains in 4th grade reading and math scores, so widely touted by this Administration, happened between 2002 and 2003, before the DOE instituted its changes?

2. "Isn't it true that the DOE awarded corporate restructuring firm Alvarez & Marsal (A&M) a $15.8 million no-bid contract after A&M "restructured" St. Louis' schools and left the city struggling to pay off $30 million A&M borrowed for operating costs?

3. "Isn't it true that ten different deputy chancellors have come and gone through the DOE over the past five years, including three deputy chancellors for teaching and learning?

4. "Isn't it true that DOE has hired the former head of Edison to oversee the privatization of New York City schools, despite the fact that two independent studies have shown that the privatization by Edison and other companies in Philadelphia produced no significant gains in student achievement to justify the additional $100 million cost?"

-- Azi Paybarah

In discussing educational reforms at a press conference at Tweed moments ago, Mayor Bloomberg said that if school improvements are done right in the city, they could be a model for the nation and "the rest of the world."

Schools chancellor Joel Klein then said that Bloomberg has indeed created "a national model."

-- Azi Paybarah

Rarely has such a diverse and passionate coalition come together in opposition to a less imposing fi  read more »

Saturday

10:50 a.m. Schools Chancellor Joel Klein speaks on a "Tough Choices or Tough Times" panel at Pier 92, Room 92C.  read more »

John McCain has a fund-raiser in New Hamsphire

Education historian/activist Diane Ravitch is taking the New York Post, claiming the paper doesn't appreciate parents criticism of public schools. Which sort of mirrors parent's complaints about Joel Klein.

In an item she posted at 6 a.m., Ravitch wrote:

Did the editorial writers of the New York Post read the latest Qunnipiac poll? Do they know that 58% of the voters in New York City want an end to mayoral control and a return to an independent Board of Education?

[skip]

Since the New York Post did not bother to report the poll to their readers, perhaps they don't know about it. And that's why their editorial writers think that anyone who questions the latest reorganization of the reorganization is a shill from New Jersey, not a real public school parent.

-- Azi Paybarah

In the paper this week, I take a look at the broad coalition of critics that has made Schools Chancellor Joel Klein a lightning rod for frustrations with city schools and the Bloomberg administration.

Deputy Mayor Dennis Walcott acknowledges the fiasco of the school bus mix-up that triggered the continuing barrage of criticism, but matter-of-factly brushes aside much of the other complaints, telling me, "Criticism is always in cycles."

UPDATE: Relatedly, a new audit of city-funded universal Pre-K programs from city Comptroller Bill Thompson found $785,000 in "overpayments, inappropriate payments or questionable expenses."

According to Thompson, questionable expenses went towards things like "karate uniforms, an air conditioner, and playground tiles." Also, one group running a universal pre-k program made a $20,000 withdrawal "to repay its Educational Director (who also owned the building) for a loan and for rent."

-- Azi Paybarah

It's a mash-up mash-up! Barack Obama is now the subject of a 1984-style video too.

Police Commission Ray Kelly briefly discussed the Sean Bell shooting in an interview with Lx.tv.

The city's new transportation commissioner is Michael Horodniceanu, according to Streetsblog.

The folks who disrupted Joel Klein's meeting last night got a thumbs up from the blogger at Pissed Off Mom.

There's a write-in Assembly candidate on Staten Island.

The head of the state's lobbying commission stepped down.

The Nassau County Comptroller's audit of Maureen O'Connell was finally released.

MoveOn.Org is coming under fire from other anti-war activists for supporting an insufficiently aggressive plan for ending the Iraq War.

And above is Mr. Met at a ribbon-cutting ceremony in Queens.

-- Azi Paybarah

While Eliot Sptizer, Joel Klein and other officials are conducting public efforts to win over their critics, one office-holder you'd think would be rushing into the spotlight is keeping a low profile.

75 days into Andrew Cuomo's tenure as Sherrif of Wall Street Attorney General, he's among the least attention-seeking officials. Just like his campaign, the strategy in office seems to be to keep a low profile, and do whatever reformers and editorial boards say.

And it's working.

"Maybe the guy's better suited for the job than I thought," said Republican strategist Rob Ryan. "That's how you get things done."

Ryan, who laughed when I asked if he voted for Cuomo, said Cuomo "isn't rushing into things. He reacts more judiciously than he has in the past which is a great improvement."

-- Azi Paybarah

Saturday

8:30 a.m. Food warehouse workers assert wage violations at Sunrise Plus/E-Z Supply, 48-01 Metropolitan Avenue in Queens.

10 a.m. Children's book author and Sesame Street actress Sonia "Maria" Manzano will be the keynote speaker at the 3rd Annual Family Literacy Conference at the Williamsburg Beacon Center, 850 Grand Street, in Brooklyn.

10 a.m. Tibetans, students and supporters commemorate the 1959 Tibetan uprising against China by meeting at Cadman Plaza in Brooklyn, marching across the Brooklyn Bridge, and rallying at Dag Hammerskjold Plaza, at 47th Street and First Avenue, and then gathering at Union Square, 14th Street and Broadway.

Noon. Citizenship Fair will be offering free legal advice for immigrants at the Brighton Heights Reformed Church, 320 St. Marks Place, in Staten Island.

1 p.m. Darfur activists, including actress Mia Farrow, will hold a rally and form a human chain between the Sudanese and Chinese missions. The event kicks off at Dag Hammerskjold Plaza in front of the Sudanese Mission, at 305 East 47th Street and First Avenue.

1:30 p.m. Spence-Chapin Adoption Agency celebrates Korean Heritage Day at 6 East 94th Street.

3 p.m. Homeowners and residents of Sunnyside Gardens will make a public announcement to protest actions by the Landmarks Preservation Commission at Sunnyside Reform Church, 48-03 Skillman Avenue at 48th Street.

6 p.m. Rep. Nydia Velazquez and others attend a fund-raiser for the YearlyKos Convention at 279 Church Street [added].

11 p.m. "Axis of Evil Comedy Tour Special," the first-ever stand up special on American television which stars all Middle Eastern-American comedians, will air on Comedy Central.

Sen. Hillary Clinton will be the keynote speaker at the Democratic party's "100 Club" fundraising dinner in Nashua, New Hampshire.

Rudy Giuliani fundraises in Reno, Nevada.  read more »

-- Gillian Reagan

The governor's proposed budget would cost New York City up to $20 million in pre-kindergarten funding and the city would "struggle" to use other funds it will receive, according to a prepared copy of Joel Klein's testimony up in Albany.

"We certainly support this move and welcome the increase of $63 million slated for New York City. Our preliminary analysis of the budget, however, indicates that we would actually have a reduction in per student funding from $3,300 to approximately $3,172. This might seem small, but considering the actual cost of $4,400 per student for a half-day program, this could add up to a $20 million increase in our expenditures for PreK. This plan would also not provide any additional full day slots for the children and families who desperately need full-day programs.

[skip]

It's sad that the State insists that we spend PreK money on half-day programs when we know the families of new York City demand full-day programs. There is so little demand for half-day programs that we sill struggle to actually use the money you are allocating to preK."

-- Azi Paybarah

Here's city Schools Chancellor Joel Klein working away on his blackberry while he waits to testify about school aid in Albany.

The audience might be thinning out by the time he speaks: apparently there's a noon get-together for some Senators at the Fort Orange Club, where visiting City Council members already attended a legislative breakfast this morning.

-- Azi Paybarah

The city school bus fiasco continues to be a boon for critics of the Bloomberg administration and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein.

Elected officials like Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum, City Council Education Committee Chairman Robert Jackson and state Senator Ruben Diaz, Sr., never managed to gain much public traction when they've criticized the mayor on his educational policy in the past, when the arguments often focused on incremental philosophical differences and varying interpretations of statistical trends.

But the bus issue has provided a way in -- and will doubtless continue to do so for as long as there's snow on the ground -- for officials skeptical about the administration's ambitious but little-understood plans for the city's public education system.

Little kids, bad weather, missing school buses. Nice and simple.

How long before this story dies down and the administration gets the bus issue behind them? And how much damage has it done to their ability to implement an education agenda between now and 2009?

-- Azi Paybarah

Here are a couple of City Council candidate Wellington Sharpe's mailers, which someone familiar with the campaign told me are going out to about 10,000 households.

Beating up on the Brooklyn Democratic Party was certainly effective when the organization was led by the scandal-plagued Clarence Norman. Exactly how much traction that message gets in the Vito Lopez era is unclear, although it never seems to hurt anyone's appeal to voters when they rail against the machine.

Meanwhile, criticizing Schools Chancellor Joel Klein and the botched bus program, as things currently stand, is a no-brainer.

UPDATE: Citizens Union just announced a "joint endorsement" of two candidates in Brooklyn's special election: Zenobia McNally and Wellington Sharpe.

-- Azi Paybarah

State Senator Ruben Diaz, Sr. is having a big day.

Earlier today, he became the first state lawmaker to call for the firing of city Schools Chancellor Joel Klein and Deputy Mayor Dennis Walcott for their handling of the public school system.

And just now, in brief interview, he mocked the idea that Eliot Spitzer could have achieved a mandate without help from Democrats in the "dysfunctional" legislature.

"We Democrats, we elected Eliot Spitzer. People talking about his mandate. His mandate. Oh, he got a mandate. And people calling us dysfunctional and good for nothing. But it is us, the elected officials throughout the state, that go out campaigning and make it possible for Eliot Spitzer to get his mandate.

"We were not dysfunctional when were going around asking people all around to vote for him."

-- Azi Paybarah

Five Years Later    read more »

Reporters today, this one included, got a press release about what looks like a fairly extreme educational mess: a kid, Ashanny Williams, who has been out of school for 150 days in a dispute with the Department of Education, and whose mother is demanding that Joel Klein show up at a hearing tomorrow.

Interesting on its face, but there's a backstory as well. The press release went out from Gur Tsabar, the Times's favorite unsuccessful Council candidate, who has been pushing the case for the family and on a new blog, Mister Pink. It's an unusual, interesting project, basically a constituent services blog for a guy who, technically speaking, has no constituents.

The site includes email correspondence between Klein and the kid's mother:

Klein: "I received the mail and asked my staff to look into thematter and they have done so."

Williams: "With all due respect, I cannot believe what I just read. Are you 100% satisfied with how your staff looked into the matter of my child, Ashanny Williams? Because my son is still sitting at home without a proper education, and has been for over 150 days."

Brave new world.

Posting may be a bit slow today, because I'm up in Albany, where I spotted Joel Klein making his way up the hill a little while ago.

But it gives me an excuse to recommend (sorry if this is a repeat) the Times Union's excellent statehouse blog.

My successor in the New York Sun's City Hall bureau, Julia Levy, confirms that she's leaving the paper to become a special assistant to education chief Joel Klein. What will Sol Stern think?  read more »

Thank God for broadcast television.

With the Observer's cable down today, we've dragged our 11-inch Samsung TV and raggedy antenna over to the window, tuned in to WNBC, and we're ready to go.

7:01 -- Ben -- Mike forced to watch cartoon.

Jess -- Minus the gropy part.

7:03 -- Ben -- Mike: "The Republican Party gave me an opportunity the Democratic Party would not give me." Freddy -- "Aw, c'mon." Plus some Spanish. Mike is gripping that podium awful tight.

7:06 -- Ben -- Gabe finds a good way into the Iraq question: Should the Mayoralty be a bully pulpit?

Jess -- "Do you agree with him that the war should be brought to an end as soon as possible?" Gabe asks Mike. What kind of a question is that? It's the "possible" part that gets folks heated....

7:09 -- Ben -- And Mike finally gets an Iraq policy: "Walking away at this point would make all of them having died in vain. It would be an outrage...." Instead, we should "stay there until the generals say Iraq's government can maintain peace and maintain a democracy."

7:11 -- Jess -- Bloomberg: Defend first, spend later. Doesn't this take some pressure off Washington? Extra money "would be nice"?

7:13 -- Ben -- Mutate! Mike is kind of a public health nut.

7:16 -- Ben -- That 50% dropout rate has got to be the single least solid stat of this race. And there is, as usual, quite a bit of competition.

7:17 -- Jess -- Though the $7 million to Bush actually seems a little dodgy, as well.

7:18 -- Ben -- Corrected! Mike: "Joel was wrong." How hard was that, now? Kind of a trap, but probably worth walking into.

7:19 -- Ben -- Freddy sticks with the stat, as he has to. "Joel Klein was right."

7:20 -- Ben -- A little bit of disdain there from Mike, quickly withdrawn. "Or maybe he just doesn't understand..."

7:25 -- Ben -- Russo really opens Mike's empathy gap here. When she notes that the woman they've interviewed already has a job and is still struggling, he responds with a non sequitur: "We've got to keep making this government as efficient as we possibly can."

Jess -- Mike is wagging his finger now. It's not quite dancing, but it beats the white knuckles-on-podium routine. Bloomberg: "This is an expensive city, probably always has been, probably always will be....the best answer is a job for everyone." Is this a re-emergence of the NYC as luxury product idea?

Jess -- Mike says that the immigrants come here "with a not great command of the English language." Sigh!

7:28 -- Horowitz -- As Mike lists endorsements: "What about the fucking Observer!?"

7:29 -- Ben -- Don't get Freddy started on the Post. He told me on Primary Day that Post cartoonist Sean Delonas was "a disease."

7:37 -- Ben -- "Second in size and mass only to the president of the United States." This is a venerable old line...but really...it's not that important.

7:41 -- Jess -- Ah, the Bloomberg billions. "Look, what I'm trying to do is to get my message out to everybody...no matter where they live." This actually sounds like he's trying to spin the spending as.... egalitarian.

7:42 -- Ben -- Freddy's winning on style. A bit canned, but Mike's stiff. And has a slight lead in the smirking department. But as in the last debate, Mike's mastery of the content is evident, a bit dulling but effective.

7:45 -- Ben -- A glimpse inside Mike's head: "Don't look at your watch. Don't look at your watch...."

Horowitz -- Um. Defeatism watch. Did Ferrer just talk about Mike Bloomberg's "next budget"?

7:50 -- Ben -- Ouch. Is that the best Mike can do? "I think my opponent is a great family man and he speaks Spanish better than I do."  read more »

7:53 -- Ben -- Freddy to end overpopulation.

Well, that was the debate Freddy wanted. He was lively, and despite the occasional hairy moment, on top of the material. Mike was bored and wonky. Though very wonky.

In yesterday's Daily News, Randi Weingarten laments the eager embrace of Joel Klein, who has been uncorking big, metaphorical bottles of champagne over a teachers' contract that is still pending approval by...drumroll...the teachers.

Randi also complains that Klein further inflamed a sensitive issue when he "gloated" about the contract provisions on a blog.  read more »

As our friends at The Wonkster point out, Randi's reaction is rooted in a Politicker post from last week, in which Klein asserted that he hadn't lost out in the deal, as one of our sources had suggested.

All of which underscores an oft-posted sentiment in the comments section: Yes, Virginia, this really is a small and circular world.

Mayor Bloomberg and United Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten will announce a contract settlement later today, and my early impression of this is that Randi winds up looking pretty smart for holding out until a month before Mike's reelection bid.

The outline of the deal: Teachers get a 15% raise over a 52-month period, compared to (corrected) the arbitrators recommendation of 11% over 3 years.

There's no sweeping overhaul of work rules, though schools chief Joel Klein gets some of what he wants, notably an end to "seniority transfers," by which good teachers abandon struggling schools. There's also a compromise version of a proposal to add ten minutes of class time, and a bit more cafeteria duty for teachers.

Absent from the deal are two top items from Klein's wish list: merit pay and an end to tenure.  read more »

One insider's take: "It's win-win for the Mayor and Randi -- the one who didn't get what he really wanted was Joel."

Et tu, Frank?Until this spring, Maurice (Hank) Greenberg was chairman and chief executive of America  read more »

And so it turns out that Mike Bloomberg's most effective political surrogate is his schools chancellor, Joel Klein.

Here's what Klein has to say about Anthony and Freddy, hot off the NY1 wire:

"[T]he other night you had Anthony Weiner on here. He doesn't know what he's talking about but he's going on and on. He says we've got a leadership academy, he says, for principals - one of the best things we're doing - he says it's funded with public money. He says it's got all the wrong money. It's all funded with private money....They don't care what the facts are. I mean Weiner said publicly he said we only teach Spanish, no other languages in our schools. I had to crack up, you know. His own mother corrected him, said, 'Oh no that's not right'....

"Mr. Ferrer was in office for many, many years. Right? What did he do? What happened to those kids then? You know, when he was borough president, right, what was going on in this city? How long are we going to have to wait?"  read more »

We've heard Anthony's response to the first attack. He argues that money is fungible, and charity shouldn't go to pet projects, but to the general fund. Not sure what he says to his mom. As for the line on Freddy, we expect we'll be hearing just a bit more of that.

Fifty years ago, William F.  read more »

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When Rudolph Giuliani left City Hall, almost no one thought that crime would continue to go down.  read more »

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