Indefatigable parent activist Leonie Haimson reviews the fiasco of Mayor deBlasio’s public announcement that he had wooed Alberto Carvalho from Miami, only to have Carvalho change his mind. Leonie argues that the public should have so,e role in the process. To have such a weight decision made secretively by one man leads to serious errors, like former Mayor Bloomberg’s impetuous decision to hire publisher Cathie Black, who lasted 90 days.
Leonie also posts the latest round of school closings (several of which were paired with charter school co-locations or expansions.) Bloomberg started the practice of closing schools, and de Blasio asserted he would stop it. He has not. He said he would stop charter co-locations. He has not. He has fallen into Bloomberg’s methods.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
He hired Carvahlo, an AX man. Now we know his true intentions.
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I admire Leonie’s work a lot but sometimes I don’t understand her POV.
Is Leonie saying that Betty Rosa, Chancellor of the Board of Regents and Regent Kathy Cashin would have both participated as part of an open process where they were named as “possibilities” or “finalists” but agreed to sit for public interviews before the decision is made? And then the “winner” would be announced publicly while the loser went home?
Aren’t searches at this level generally kept very close to the vest? For all we know there were overtures to those women and they declined or after they and Carvalho had meetings, the Mayor’s first choice was Carvalho. Usually it is common courtesy so that the candidates who lose out to the #1 choice aren’t embarrassed and the people at whatever jobs they are currently in don’t know they will leave as soon as they get a better offer. This “secrecy” (as critics call it) is ALSO done for exactly the same reason that de Blaiso is being attacked now — because you want whoever ultimately is offered the job not to think he or she is the 4th or 10th choice after a lot of other people turned you down.
When I read Leonie comparing this to Mayor Bloomberg choosing Cathy Black, I reminded of other times when Leonie seems to be mischaracterizing de Blasio’s actions because she has some kind of personal dislike of him. Bloomberg’s choice of Cathy Black was ridiculous and she had no experience and it was apparently made over some dinner with his rich friends where he met her.
I wasn’t certain of the Carvalho choice, but he is obviously a very experienced school leader with many years of experience running an urban school system. Leonie loses a lot of credibility, in my opinion, when her obvious personal dislike of de Blasio makes her mischaracterize actions she doesn’t like as somehow beyond the norm.
I also doubt very much that Mayor de Blasio and his wife single handedly made this choice. I am sure he had advice from many seasoned educators. For all we know Betty Rosa and Kathy Cashin were asked for some recommendations and Carvalho’s name came up.
In any event, there were obviously months of meetings. It’s not as if this guy wasn’t vetted. He turned out to be flaky and changed his mind but that had nothing to do with whether or not he was an appropriate candidate. Maybe Carvalho was too pro-charter, but despite everyone screaming for 3 years that de Blasio has completely sold out to charters, he has not. He is not making it easy for them but he also has limited power because of Albany and he is trying to figure out some middle ground because he basically has no choice, period.
And when I read people who should be fighting for public education instead acting as if there is almost no difference between Mayor de Blasio and Mayor Bloomberg, I can’t help remember the same anger and vehemence from similar types who insisted that there was no difference between Hillary and Trump. We now know it was one of the most idiotic and ridiculous things to say. And yes, I am admit I believe that Hillary would not have just been “better than Trump” but that she could have done a great deal of good for this country, the way she did a great deal of good by establishing the Child Health Program. Sometimes compromising when you can’t get what you want is not just selling out when you get something good.
And Mayor de Blasio is making concerted efforts to deal with some very hard issues in public education, including segregation. Some might complain it isn’t fast enough, but it also isn’t nothing and lots of meaningless talk. if you look at District 15 middle schools, you will see new pilot efforts to make schools more integrated that are working.
It would have been the easiest thing in the world for de Blasio to just close schools down. The Renewal program directed a lot of resources to the schools that needed them most because he didn’t just want to close them down. I wish Leonie would do more than just say “some of those schools kept very large class sizes”. I wish she would give us some insight as to WHY those schools kept very large class sizes? Was it a corrupt principal stealing the money? Does she think Carmen Farina, under orders from de Blasio, said “let’s just pretend we want this renewal school to work but let’s force the kids into large class sizes guaranteed to make them fail”? Were people just stupid? Did teachers keep quitting and no one wanted to work there and they had to double up? I don’t think de Blasio wanted those schools to fail, but he also had to make some tough choices. Maybe he made the wrong ones, but I don’t think it is as simple as Leonie seems to believe.
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^^I meant to add this:
I also thought it was very odd that Leoonie complained that de Blasio did not HIRE A SEARCH FIRM! Really? Those firms are overpriced and charge ridiculous amounts of money. This is not about finding some needle in the haystack unknown. It just felt like Leonie looking for something she could fault Mayor de Blasio for once again showing he is a complete and utter failure. And certainly that is what the right wing is pushing.
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Deblasio is a complete and utter failure. Who cares if the right wing agrees with that or not.
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What makes him “a complete and utter failure”?
You speak only for yourself. He was elected by a huge margin and re-elected by an even larger margin. No one else wanted to run against him in the primary because they were afraid that despite there being excessive amounts of money available to support anyone willing to run against the guy the billionaire hedge funders hate more than anyone else, they couldn’t win.
The Mayor has flaws just like every other politician I have known has them. Perhaps you know someone who doesn’t? And he has done some good things and tried to do others.
But reading posters like “Jane Myers” (who I suspect is a troll) reducing someone to “a complete and utter failure” simply makes it clear that Jane Myers is a racist who believes that anyone who doesn’t demand that police target African-Americans for stop and frisk is a complete and utter failure.
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More proof that Jane Myers is a troll: universal pre-k. Which “Jane Myers” includes in the “complete and utter failure” category. Tens of thousands of NYC school children and their parents disagree.
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This is the problem with mayoral control. Good education is accomplished through collaboration with all stakeholders. Mayor de Blasio is a political animal; not an educator. His decisions are based on political appearance and how it will favor his political advancement. Normally, a board which is democratically appointed would balance a mayor’s political ambitions. It really is time to do away with mayoral control.
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so well said: political animals care about political advancement
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What I’ve been saying for years. There’s no checks and balances in the NYC public schools. Too much politics. No one there to do what’s best for kids.
Why does any school system need a politician to make its decisions?
Answer: for political gain and self-serving reasons.
How does this help kids learn?
Answer: it doesn’t.
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