Rudy Crew, former chancellor of the New York City public schools, former superintendent of the Miami Dade schools, currently chief education officer of the state of Oregon, will return to New York City to assume the presidency of Medger Evers College in Brooklyn, which is part of the City University of New York system.

Categories Administrators, superintendents, New York City

32 Comments Post your own or leave a trackback: Trackback URL

timmcfarland says:

June 24, 2013 at 9:29 pm

Yeah, it’s pretty funny.

http://statesmanjournal.com/topstories/article?a=2013306240055&f=1087

As I posted in response: “This is just a little too funny to me, for several reasons.

I don’t suppose a lesson learned would be to hire an Oregonian, someone with more of an investment in this state than just a paycheck?

I would recommend one of our many laid-off teachers, or one who kept her job and has the laid-off teacher’s students in her room, in addition to her own.

Heck, you could get five or six of those for Rudy’s salary.

LikeLike

Reply
- yertle says:
  
  June 24, 2013 at 9:53 pm
  
  Good Riddance! Did he last 18 months before bolting for greener pastures? I have taught for 21 years in Oregon and I have never seen so much animosity directed towards teachers! The OEA and the Democratic party are AWOL!
  
  Those of us in Oregon who care about education are truly alone.
  
  LikeLike
  
  Reply
timmcfarland says:

June 24, 2013 at 9:30 pm

Mobile:
http://m.statesmanjournal.com/topstories/article?a=2013130624019&f=1087

LikeLike

Reply
Lydia Kirkland says:

June 24, 2013 at 9:37 pm

At least we didn’t have to pay him a huge sum to leave. PPS had to pay for golden parachutes for Ben Canada and Steve Goldschmidt. That was painful.

I don’t think an Oregonian would want the job. Who can increase funding without taking more from the teachers? The latest cut in PERS will cost me $1 million (if I and my survivor each lives to be 85).

LikeLike

Reply
- schoolgal says:
  
  June 24, 2013 at 9:53 pm
  
  I believe NYC did pay him quite a bit because he was entitled to a big pension.
  
  LikeLike
  
  Reply
Harlan Underhill says:

June 24, 2013 at 9:52 pm

Defined benefit pension plans MUST be replaced with defined contribution pension plans in order to restore balance to the budgets of public school systems.

LikeLike

Reply
- Duane Swacker says:
  
  June 24, 2013 at 10:06 pm
  
  Considering that the defined benefit system that is Missouri’s is in fine shape and considering that it is fully funded for the foreseeable future (and even was during the height of the recession, which is ongoing anyway), I see no need to replace it with a defined contribution pension plan (even though we already have that because we and the districts have to pay in X amount).
  
  Nope, don’t need to give my money to the banksters and their fanciers.
  
  LikeLike
  
  Reply
  - teachingeconomisot says:
    
    June 24, 2013 at 10:13 pm
    
    Duene,
    
    Want to guess where your pension funds are invested?
    
    LikeLike
  - 2old2tch says:
    
    June 25, 2013 at 1:48 am
    
    TE,
    No matter where they are invested, they are apparently invested by people who know what they are doing. Who do you think is able to invest the teachers’ money wisely? We all know how well 401K plans did. Businesses did not switch their retirement plans for the benefit of their employees. If you have some skin in the pension game, you make sure your investment strategy doe not take unnecessary risk. I much prefer my money in a plan where “oops” is not going to fly as an explanation for playing poker with the funds.
    
    LikeLike
  - Harlan Underhill says:
    
    June 25, 2013 at 8:06 am
    
    Then I hope you are not in Illinois, where “Ooops” is epidemic, and not just with the teachers, but with all public employees. Your faith in the wisdom and prudence of professional fund managers as opposed to your own is sadly touching.
    
    LikeLike
  - 2old2tch says:
    
    June 25, 2013 at 12:35 pm
    
    Unfortunately, Harlan, I am in Illinois. The current pension battle has nothing to do with the performance of the pension fund investments. Our fund managers have done a pasable job in recent years. It has everything to do with the politicians who have been using the state obligations as a piggybank for several decades. They have been using that money to fund government services so that they wouldn’t have to raise taxes. Now, they want public service employees to pay for their misuse of pension funds.
    
    LikeLike
  - teachingeconomisot says:
    
    June 25, 2013 at 12:42 pm
    
    This is why I think paying up front in a defined contribution plan might make sense. The politicians can’t play these games with money they have already spent.
    
    LikeLike
  - Harlan Underhill says:
    
    June 26, 2013 at 12:34 am
    
    Thank you for the supplementary information. About par.
    
    LikeLike
  - teachingeconomisot says:
    
    June 25, 2013 at 9:25 am
    
    My point is that Duane’s money is in the hands of the “banksters and their fanciers”. He can find out the broad outlines of how it is invested here: https://www.psrsmo.org/Investments/PastIssues-CAFR/2011-CAFR/CAFR2011-INVEST.pdf
    
    LikeLike
  - Duane Swacker says:
    
    June 25, 2013 at 1:34 pm
    
    TE,
    
    Thanks for the info!
    
    LikeLike
- Jon Awbrey says:
  
  June 24, 2013 at 11:16 pm
  
  You could read HU & TE a story about “Lucky” Luciano and “Murder, Inc.” and they’d torture some tangent about defined contribution pension plans out of it.
  
  LikeLike
  
  Reply
  - teachingeconomisot says:
    
    June 24, 2013 at 11:21 pm
    
    Who should assume the risk of a pension promise? Do you want to depend on politicians promises?
    
    LikeLike
  - Duane Swacker says:
    
    June 25, 2013 at 5:01 am
    
    TE,
    
    We don’t rely on some “politicians promise” as the governing structure is set up so that it is outside the pervue of the politicians. It has a democratically elected board/commission that oversees the operations of the fund. And, as much as I loathe politicians, I’d rather my funds be under democratic control (just as my electrical coop is) rather than some bankster.
    
    Missouri has had good luck (wisdom) in setting up commissions in such a fashion. For example the Department of Conservation is set up in a similar fashion, with the funding being a dedicated conservation tax and the commission has to have a certain mix of “political” leanings, that is, X number of Dems, X number of Reps, etc. . . . One is not considered for the commission unless one has a strong background in conservation work. And the Department of Conservation has been a world wide leader in conservation since it was started in 1936. Its work has been emulated/instituted around the world ever since then.
    
    LikeLike
  - Harlan Underhill says:
    
    June 25, 2013 at 8:09 am
    
    Thank you, Jon Awbrey. Remember a “tangent” touches the circle. There are many ways to say your acquaintance is wrong. I’ve been trying to make the connection somehow, but can’t. You over estimate my ability to connect the dots.
    
    LikeLike
- duckmonkeyman says:
  
  June 24, 2013 at 11:35 pm
  
  Defined contribution plans are the biggest fraud perpetuated on the American worker in the history of this country. Not only does it shift the risk from a collective group to woefully inexperienced individuals, it is often drained in an emergency leaving the worker with nothing. Employers then cut pay which further stresses the contributions and ability of the plans to provide retirement. Funds charge increasing fees wiping out any gains. These plans are a boon to Wall Street and a good reason for the scourge of income inequality now crumbling the U.S. middle class. Many states DO offer defined contribution plans with defined benefit plans.
  
  LikeLike
  
  Reply
  - teachingeconomisot says:
    
    June 24, 2013 at 11:39 pm
    
    There are some benefits, especially to those teachers that leave the profession early. Some who have posted here argue that teachers are dismissed just before they get eligibility for pensions would be relieved by a system that removes any incentive to fire teachers.
    
    LikeLike
  - jb2 says:
    
    June 25, 2013 at 12:09 am
    
    Right on, duckmonkeyman. Defined Benefit Plans are far superior to Defined
    Contribution Plans. Teachers need to stay informed – stay
    politically active.
    
    LikeLike
  - teachingeconomisot says:
    
    June 25, 2013 at 12:27 am
    
    It is always best to transfer the risk to other people. It is often harder to et the other people to agree to bare the risk.
    
    LikeLike
  - Harlan Underhill says:
    
    June 25, 2013 at 8:12 am
    
    I am assuming that a 401k is under the control of the employee, not the company. When you vest, the company should not be able to take anything back for any reason. At least then, you will be protected by the law of contracts, rather than the whim of the employers, or political considerations with defined benefit state pension funds. Your own inexperience about investments is not excuse for bankrupting school districts.
    
    LikeLike
  - Mary Dooms says:
    
    June 25, 2013 at 9:21 am
    
    Yes, duckmonkeyman. Defined contributions resulted in the explosive growth of the mutual fund industry where inexperienced investors find their principal eroding due to exorbitant fees. The everyday investor is also wooed by past performance of riskier mutual funds. But what do those highly paid, mutual fund managers invest in? Index funds!
    
    Frontline’s program on the mutual fund industry was an eye opener.
    
    Perhaps we should all take the advice of John Bogle.
    
    http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/business-economy-financial-crisis/retirement-gamble/john-bogle-the-train-wreck-awaiting-american-retirement/
    
    LikeLike
Concerned Citizen says:

June 24, 2013 at 9:58 pm

When Rudy Crew was superintendent of schools in Sacramento in the early 1990’s, my daughter happened to be in the same middle school Spanish class as Rudy’s son. Reportedly the son had a bad attitude and complained that his family had moved from Boston to Sacramento only because his father wanted the pay raise that came with the new job. The young Mr. Crew also complained that he had to attend public school for the sake of appearances, to benefit of his father’s career.

It made me very uncomfortable that Rudy Crew, charged with leading a school system full of vulnerable children, had made it clear to his son that maximizing his own earning potential, and not the well-being of his own children, was his number-one priority.

Long story short, I bet he’s getting a pay raise in his new position.

LikeLike

Reply
Jennifer Leuck says:

June 24, 2013 at 11:12 pm

Andres Alonso, one of the participants of Common Core Standards and “Investing the Recovery Funds for Student Success” that you posted a while back, is leaving. Is it due to cheating and financial scandals? I thought you may find this interesting. As I was just researching those participants, I came across this…
baltimoresun.com/2013-05-06/news/bs-md-ci-alonso-resigns-20130506_1_tisha-edwards-school-construction-money-school-board

LikeLike

Reply
Jon Awbrey says:

June 24, 2013 at 11:40 pm

The usual suspects are having their usual difficulties with that favorite exercise from Grade School English, I mean of course, “What’s the Gist of this Story?”

So here’s some hints …

The gist of this story is that hired guns will keep on getting golden parachutes — I know, that verges on “anachronism”, depending on your genre, but never mind that now — just so long as they keep on doing the dirty deeds they were hired by the crooked lawmen and the pre-paid judges to do. And all the law-abiding town-folk will continue to suffer until they rise up and ride the law-buying bankers and oilmen out of town on a rail.

Hope that helps …

LikeLike

Reply
Suzanne Pyrch says:

June 25, 2013 at 11:07 am

Rudy Crew was a good guy. Naturally, he was someone they could not keep in NYC public education.

LikeLike

Reply
schoolgal says:

June 25, 2013 at 12:02 pm

The NYC pension plan was so solid that in the 80s, NYC actually borrowed money from our pension. Teachers have always paid into their pension since Tier III. Now new teachers must pay a higher rate. (Same for police and firefighters). So the pension is not fully financed by taxpayers. We also have an annuity that we decide how much to contribute and how it should be invested–Variable, Fixed or a combination. This method can be changed yearly. The individual has control, and unlike other pensions, ours is probably the most conservative compared with those that invested with people like Madoff. However, if you chose to invest 100% in the stock market, then there were years you lost most of your annuity–as did most of America.

There are many other unions that pay into their pensions and health coverage, so we are NOT bilking the taxpayer. It took me 15 years to reach $50,000. For many teachers, that’s their average pay. Our health coverage is still based on a 1970s schedule. So, for those who think we have extraordinary benefits, we do not. Our union dues helps offset dental and other coverages not provided for by the city. But we now have to apply larger co-pays as well.

LikeLike

Reply
- retiredbutmissthekids says:
  
  June 25, 2013 at 4:17 pm
  
  schoolgal, in Illinois, the legislators “borrowed” money–time and again–from our Teachers Retirement System, but did not pay it back. Then, the state took a “pension holiday,” whereby the legislation voted that NOTHING be paid into the pension fund. One senator actually told two constituents (of course, he insisted on anonymity), “The truth is, we stole your money.” Finally, for all of you readers, we also found it interesting that the state was able to grant the UNO (you know that chain–under investigation) Charter Schools $98 million dollars to build ONE “soccer” high school!
  From whence did this money come?!
  
  LikeLike
  
  Reply
  - Schoolgal says:
    
    June 25, 2013 at 9:20 pm
    
    That’s horrible. Did u guys sue????
    
    LikeLike