Earlier this week, a New York Magazine item by former New York Sun reporter Jacob Gershman asked whether Chancellor Joel Klein might lose his high perch in the contest for mayoral control, given Klein's bad reviews by parents and law-makers at a recent hearing. Insideschools highlighted questions on the Department of Education's contracts, covered by the Post and elsewhere -- and tabled by City Council. Next, Gail Robinson, Gotham Gazette's editor in chief, aka the Wonkster, gathered a passel of press clips in a post on the DOE's dubious contract machinations. And today in the Times, Elissa Gootman's front-page story asks whether Klein's position might be on the mayoral-control chopping block. With remarks pro and con from ex-council member turned charter school impresario Eva Moscowitz and UFT/AFT head Randi Weingarten, and quotes both attributed and anonymous from Albany pols, has the Chancellor's tenure become a political hot potato? (Even actor Alan Alda has something positive to say about his friend and pizza partner.)
An apparently unruffled chancellor posed for dramatic, sunlit photos as part of the Times interview -- and expressed confidence in his work and the DOE's vision of change. "There is no daylight" between the Klein and the mayor on education policy, he said. The feeling's mutual, according to the mayor, who said “Maybe the best thing I ever did was pick the best chancellor any school system has ever had.” (But see GothamSchools for questions on how closely aligned the mayor and the chancellor really are.)
Both the mayor and the chancellor hail from the "you've gotta break some eggs to make an omelet" school. As D.C. schools chief (and Time magazine cover girl) Michelle Rhee said: "...Sometimes a leader can see things that other people can’t see, and has to push things that they know are the right things to push, and it takes other folks a little longer to get there.”
Well, it seems the "other folks" are getting restless. And the unrest is likely to percolate all spring. Whether it will result in change -- and what that change might be -- remains entirely open to speculation. (Which is expected to continue all spring, as well.)
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