If you want to see our Acting Secretary of Education John King deflecting any responsibility or accountability for the ethical lapses of senior officials in the Department, here is a link to the full hearing.
King finds a variety of ways to shift responsibility. He insists he is not accountable. Not me. Someone else said it was okay to have outside income and not report it to the IRS. Does the ED still give ethics briefings to political appointees? Apparently not.
To be fair to King, he has only worked at the Department for a year, understudying the role of Secretary. Who appointed Danny Harris as chief information officer? Who supervised him? Who reviewed his disclosure forms? Call them to testify too.
Who is accountable in this Department that has made “accountability” its watchword?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
As I watch this I keep thinking, along with Marco Rubio, that “President Obama knows exactly what he is doing.” (Repeat three or four times). The President’s definition of “success” is apparently the same as Eva’s. Why else would he befriend and appoint the likes of money-grubbing, unethical creeps like King and Harris who only got into education for reasons that the vast majority of us never thought were possible – status and money. Next time you hear the reformers in and out of the administration claim that their attacks on us teachers and our unions is “all about the kids”, just tell yourself it’s not about the kids, it’s really all about success.
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“The Blame Game”
Everyone’s to blame
Except the ones who are
The finger-pointing game
Will really get you far
“Passing Bucks”
I guess I wasn’t clear
The buck stops there!
Not here!
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I watched the video and concluded that the difference between right and wrong, is a language not spoken, nor understood, in the U.,S. Dept. of Ed.
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I watched it and have come to the conclusion that King is weinybutt of a man with zero intergrity. So, nothing new.
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To answer your question Diane: No one!
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No one is accountable these days.Look at what Libor did, the lies that brought down the world economy .
While we call for an improved culture in the bureaucracies that control education, New York Fed Chief Calls for Improved Wall Street Culture
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/06/business/dealbook/new-york-fed-chief-calls-for-improved-wall-street-culture.html “Banks have been involved in many forms of misconduct in recent years, from selling shoddy mortgages to evading sanctions to rigging interest rates and foreign exchange trades. On Thursday, for instance, a jury in Manhattan found two former traders from a Dutch bank guilty of manipulating interest rates.”
“Such wrongdoing has left the financial industry diminished in the eyes of the public.”
Diminished/ Ya think?
Another piece in the NY Times, decries the fact that no PENALTIES for their criminal behavior fell on the people that did the deed, and it discusses how the CEO’s of the banks think they are entitled to 50 times the compensation that a firefighter gets. WHAT ABOUT A TEACHER.
How is this different that what goes on in schools, where there is not a shred of accountability for the lies and mandates that hurt the teachers… and why is this..
.OH, now there is a question. The answer to that is one that powerful people do not wish to hear. http://www.perdaily.com/2011/01/lausd-et-al-a-national-scandal-of-enormous-proportions-by-susan-lee-schwartz-part-1.html
To me it is simple, because I WAS THERE and a successful teacher, when education worked and the administration’s JOB was to support the classroom PROFESSIONAL PRACTITIONER aka TEACHER.
I had a contract (which sits on my desk as I write) which outlines MY first amendment RIGHTS which my union declares it will defend.
HMMM. What in bloody hell happened? In 1988, Lorna Stremcah discovered that something had changed. http://www.amazon.com/Bravery-Bullies-Blowhards-Lessons-Classroom/dp/0991309936/ref=cm_sw_em_r_dptop_dn1Avb040EW4Q_tt
Lorna observed that
“Things were changing in the schools as well. The team teaching approach was phased out. Good teachers strive for excellence. When we worked as a team we were all able to use our strengths to help achieve those blue ribbon results. The loss of the team approach also killed the team spirit. From the team concept, the administration moved to a top-down approach. Teachers were no longer consulted. The administration made changes and told the teachers about them.”
Almost 20 years later, the top in NY State is a sleaze ball like King. Imagine how the teachers at the bottom, the actual grunt on the line, will fare here.
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I recall at our opening day meeting in the late ’80s hearing that “we are no longer going fight off charter schools; we are going to work with them.” I can remember where I was seated in the auditorium. It was almost like where were you when Kennedy was shot moment. I recall feeling flushed and having a pain in the pit of my stomach. My gut was telling me that this was the wrong move. Work with them, indeed! Now they want to annihilate public education!
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