Cathie Black made a joke that proved she understands she’s had a rough start.
What does this, or the Daily News piece it links to, reveal about NYC's Schools Chancellor? That she has a keen perception of the obvious? Or not even that? Actually, it reflects only a single instance of such perception. Had Ms. Black the remotest awareness of what this job entailed, she'd have declined it on the basis of utter lack of qualification. Nonetheless, something, perhaps her experience firing people, perhaps her bubbling presence at cocktail parties and gala luncheons, persuaded Mayor4Life Bloomberg to select her.
You'd think it would behoove someone in that position to find out what works and replicate it, or find out what doesn't work and reject it. Ms. Black opts not to trouble herself with such mundane tasks, preferring to rubber-stamp the failed policies of her predecessor, Joel Klein (who's sold whatever remained of his soul to Rupert Murdoch to seek ways to replace teachers with computers).
There is room for far more in the way of investigative journalism. Doubtless Michelle Rhee's Erase to the Top is simply the tip of the iceberg. If journalists weren't tripping all over themselves to pay homage to billionaire-sponsored shills who accomplish little or nothing we, the people, would know precisely what Gates, Broad, Bloomberg and their ilk were doing to us and our children. In fact these men have an easily discernible agenda. Our incurious and complacent press has largely failed to share it with us, preferring to bask in their glory and lazily report their so-called accomplishments.
How can it be that Diane Ravitch was reporting the unbelievable nature of NY test scores in 2007, but it took the NY Times a full three years to catch up? How, then, can we rely on the nonsense corporate media feeds us now?
I'm just a lowly teacher, and thus precluded from doing the sort of investigative reporting we need. But I've no doubt there is a veritable mountain of scandal out there, and a major factor in keeping reporters from it a trained unwillingness to open their eyes.
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