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Who We Are »
Betsy Combier

Help Us to Continue to Help Others »
Email: betsy.combier@gmail.com

 
The E-Accountability Foundation announces the

'A for Accountability' Award

to those who are willing to whistleblow unjust, misleading, or false actions and claims of the politico-educational complex in order to bring about educational reform in favor of children of all races, intellectual ability and economic status. They ask questions that need to be asked, such as "where is the money?" and "Why does it have to be this way?" and they never give up. These people have withstood adversity and have held those who seem not to believe in honesty, integrity and compassion accountable for their actions. The winners of our "A" work to expose wrong-doing not for themselves, but for others - total strangers - for the "Greater Good"of the community and, by their actions, exemplify courage and self-less passion. They are parent advocates. We salute you.

Winners of the "A":

Johnnie Mae Allen
David Possner
Dee Alpert
Aaron Carr
Harris Lirtzman
Hipolito Colon
Larry Fisher
The Giraffe Project and Giraffe Heroes' Program
Jimmy Kilpatrick and George Scott
Zach Kopplin
Matthew LaClair
Wangari Maathai
Erich Martel
Steve Orel, in memoriam, Interversity, and The World of Opportunity
Marla Ruzicka, in Memoriam
Nancy Swan
Bob Witanek
Peyton Wolcott
[ More Details » ]
 
New York Senator Reuben Diaz Calls For the Resignation of BOE Chancellor Joel Klein and Deputy Mayor Dennis Walcott
We agree. After approving the building of new public schools on toxic wasteland, creating more seats in sports stadiums than classrooms that are dangerously overcrowded, throwing African-American and Hispanic children out of their schools on false charges as fast as possible and turning their backs on the special needs of children with IEPs and...oh yes, lying to the public about everything...Joel Klein and Dennis Walcott must go.
          
Open Letter to NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg
From Senator Ruben Diaz
Thursday, February 8, 2007

Honorable Michael Bloomberg
New York City Mayor
City Hall
New York, New York 10007

Dear Mr. Mayor:

I write this letter to ask for the resignation of Deputy Mayor Dennis Walcott and School Chancellor Joel Klein.

As I told you in Albany, in 2000 I was one of the only two Democratic elected officials who supported you for Mayor. I did that based upon your promise to me that you will be "The Education Mayor" and that the suffering, disadvantage, neglect, overcrowding, lack of material, lack of equipment – and that the discrimination toward Black and Hispanic children by the New York City Department of Education when it comes to assigning resources will end.

As a Member of the New York City council, I pushed and supported when you asked for the abolition of the School Board and requested Mayoral control. You said, "Give me control of the system and the excuses will end - - if I fail, you can blame me."

Yesterday, Wednesday, February 7, your response to the anger, frustration, concerned and desperation of parents was, "If any one of you thinks that you can do better, apply for a job as consultant in the Department of Education."

Mr. Mayor, that showed frustration – if not arrogance and disrespect on your part.

Deputy Mayor Dennis Walcott and Chancellor Joel Klein were chosen by you to help you achieve your goal to be "The Education Mayor". They are supposed to advise you and clean the mess; instead, it is sad to see that the Department of Education you created in place of the School Board is a mess. You created School Districts to fix the problem and that was a mess that now you are dismantling to create something new. You created the idea of smaller children sharing the same school with teenage students. Big mistake. You are building schools in contaminated soil filled with chemicals only in Black and Hispanic areas. Another big mistake. You are killing our children!!

Our schools are still over-crowded. The dropout rate among minority students continues to grow. Our students continue without materials and without the necessary resources compared to other areas. Now another mess has been created with the bus transportation for our children and a sixteen million dollar ($16,000,000.00) not bid contract awarded to a company with a history of creating a mess in another state. If we in the New York State Legislature were to do something like that, The Daily News, The New York Post, The Times Union, The New York Times, and every other news media will be calling us corrupt, dysfunctional, and will be calling for a criminal investigation. But I don’t see or hear any one of them doing the same for the New York City Department of Education or the people responsible for that mess.

Mr. Mayor, you are far away from being "The Education Mayor". I am afraid that if you continue to listen to the advice of Deputy Mayor Dennis Walcott and Chancellor Klein, your legacy will be the "The Education Mess, Confusion and Chaos Mayor" instead of "The Education Mayor".

In order to protect our children’s education, stop parents’ anguish, fix the chaos in the system, and for you to avoid further embarrassment, Dennis Walcott and Chancellor Klein should resign or your should fire them.

Respectfully,
Senator Reverend Ruben Diaz
32nd Senatorial District

February 05, 2007
NY 1

Mayor Michael Bloomberg was in Albany Monday for his annual lobbying trip, and he seized the opportunity to ask the governor to give the city more state funding.

The mayor testified before the state legislature about Governor Eliot Spitzer's plan to eliminate the Aid and Incentives for Municipalities program.

"I want to make sure that you don't kill the golden goose," said Bloomberg.

He says without this revenue sharing program, the city will be out about $660 million, half of which will be lost in the current fiscal year.

"In government, when an agency or in this case, a locality is doing pretty well, policy makers often commit the error of cutting its funding," said Bloomberg.

The mayor says the city sends far more to Albany than it gets back – about 50 cents to every dollar. Bloomberg said Spitzer is making that imbalance even worse in his rookie budget, by slashing what he estimates as $660 million over two years.

"We already send 11 or so billion dollars to the state than we get back,” said Bloomberg. “If you cut things like AIM funds, you're just having us send more compared to what we get back and that's not in anybody's interest."

In his own budget address, Bloomberg called for a 10 percent increase in the revenue sharing program, giving 17 economically-struggling upstate communities the maximum nine percent increase in aid.

In Albany Monday, Bloomberg found some receptive legislators, but his argument could be a hard sell in a year where the city is seeing a multi-billion dollar surplus.

Spitzer says the reduced spending is more than made up with boosted education funds, changes in health payments and the closure of tax loopholes that will pour money to the city.

"When you look at the net and when you look at the net, I think the New York City out extraordinarily well,” said Spitzer.

"New York City in this budget alone will benefit to the extent of almost $1.4 billion,” said State Budget Director Paul Francis.

Both the mayor and the governor are mostly on the same page when it comes to education, slated to add billions more to city schools in state and local aid. They're also in sync with calls for more charter schools.

Bloomberg makes an annual trip to lobby for city needs and he usually makes news on other topics, firing a city worker last year who had solitaire on his computer.

This year a former political supporter called for the mayor to fire two senior city employees. State Senator Ruben Diaz senior says Deputy Mayor Dennis Walcott and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein should be axed for school failure. And he had some sharp accusations apparently over mayoral support for school construction on a toxic site.

"They're killing our people,” said Senator Diaz. “Mayor, I'm telling you, I love you, I supported you, but I'm very disappointed. It's about time that you fired those people."

The mayor says children are safe in schools and Walcott and Klein are also safe in keeping their jobs.

Editor: Does the Mayor remember Mr. klein's disdain for public schools, as seen here:

NYC Public Schools Chancellor Joel Klein's Remarks to the NY Charter School Association's Conference

LINK

Editor's Note: In his remarks to the New York Charter School Association annual conference on March 27, 2004, Chancellor Klein lays out why he supports public charter schools and sees them as an important strategy to reinvigorate urban education. His remarks, and his call to action, are applicable far beyond New York City, which is why we are reproducing them here.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I am an unalloyed supporter of charter schools. From the day I arrived as Chancellor I made clear that charters are a critical leveraging force in public school reform.

We are taking numerous actions to create a hospitable environment for charter schools. We have increased funding for special education and school start-up expenses. We will continue to house charter schools in Department of Education buildings. We have quite a few in our spaces already, and we'll have more in a few months. And we also included more than $250 million in our five-year capital plan to support facilities development for charter schools.

The culmination of our support was the creation of the Center for Charter Excellence. I view the Center as one of our landmark initiatives. We had a sense that we needed to stimulate interest in charters. We needed to make sure that the policy environment is such that charter operators feel supported, and we also needed to create additional funding sources to support new charter schools. We also need to create some back office solutions so that we can offer services on a scaleable basis to charters -- but I note the word "offer" not "impose." The Center will be instrumental in seeing all these things happen. Obviously what we are looking for is good schools, and we will support charters to a level and quality that we support all of our public schools.

So why is it, that I -- the public schools Chancellor -- am an unalloyed supporter of charter schools? Frankly it's simple: educators, families, and children want good schools. Charters are one way to create them.

Charters bring in new blood. These are leaders and entrepreneurs who are not otherwise part of the system. They are people with ideas, with creativity, and who are willing to give their all for their students. On that central basis, when we have a city where there are thousands of kids not getting the education that they need and deserve, I don't see why we would in any way shut down more options and new opportunities.

In the end, I want to see every kid in New York City in a school that each and every one of you will be proud of. If those schools come from the traditional public sector or the charter sector, that's fine with me.

I think we should support charters for another reason. Public education in large urban areas in the United States has failed. This is a somewhat heretical thing for a schools Chancellor to say. But if we are not going to be candid, I don't think we can take the kind of steps we need to make the necessary changes. New York City is actually one of the best urban school systems in the United States, but by any measure, I guarantee you that at least half, probably more than half, of our students are not remotely getting the education they deserve.

What I find shocking is that this has been going on for so very long. School reform has been part of the discussion for as far back as anyone can remember. Over 20 years ago, the "Nation At Risk" report found nothing new -- that we were having a crisis in urban education. All the data indicate that children in poverty and children of minority and immigrant children -- those who need a good education the most -- are simply not getting what they need.

So why have we had so many decades of reform and so little change? I think it is because people continue to focus on program-based reform. They are unwilling to get their heads around the fact that in large urban areas the culture of public education is broken. If you don't fix this culture, then you are not going to be able to make the kind of changes that are needed. Programmatic reform is important: curricula, class size, after-school programs, summer school -- those things are very important. But unless we are prepared to deal with the culture in public education, I don't think we can get the kinds of results that we need for our kids.

Let me explain what I mean by this. Over the past decades we have tried to regulate ourselves into success. The thinking was that more rules, requirements and prescriptions would do the job. But it hasn't happened, and more rules and regulations aren't going to do it. In addition, we have contractual rules permeating the system trying to figure out how to run a school. These kinds of vectors are not going to get us to success.

The best schools are very sensitive communities in which people have a shared vision and mutual commitment. They respect each other and are passionate about educating kids. They are willing to run the extra mile, to take some risks and be entrepreneurial. That's what creates a school culture that will work. Sadly, public school education is exactly on the opposite end of the spectrum.

The best school systems in our nation are those that pay a great deal of respect to excellence and meritocracy. Yet sadly, our system doesn't put a premium on those things that matter. We treat our people as fungible, and everyone knows that people are not. We under-invest in leadership. We downplay differentiation. And as a result, the fundamental problem with our system is that it has misaligned incentives.

The charter model offers a solution to this problem. At their core, charter schools embody the three ingredients that are necessary for any successful school -- leadership, autonomy, and accountability.

Leadership is absolutely critical. Leaders bring people together. They understand how to inspire. They respect people, create a system of shared values, build a team, and make sure that the sum of the people is much greater than the individuals who are involved. We must focus on leadership, and one of the first things I did as Chancellor was to create one of the most powerful leadership academies in public education today. Our Leadership Academy is training of a new generation of leaders -- leaders who will take advantage of opportunities and autonomy to stimulate innovation, and who will create different kinds of schools with different kinds of environments. And these leaders will be accountable for their results.

I want charter schools as part of our system because they embody a different culture. Charters recognize the need for strong leadership, and charters are willing to be accountable for their students' achievement. I want charters as part of our efforts so that they can influence the things that are going on in our system. I also want charters to benefit from some of the system-wide changes that can be beneficial and helpful. One charter school leader came up to me today and said that one of our regional superintendents has been enormously supportive in terms of professional development. I want that kind of cross-fertilization. By the same token, I've got people in my school system now who are writing me and asking how they can make their school into a charter school. I think that's a strength. I don't think that's an addition -- I think that's a multiplication.

Charter schools present a tremendous opportunity. I want them at the forefront of our reform movement here in New York City because our reform is about values; it's about culture. It's about bringing change to a system that has for far too long disserved our children and especially our children who most need an outstanding education.

Let me leave you with a final thought. Our school planning for next September has begun. Think about ways that you can participate. Take this seriously. Get involved. Found an outstanding charter school. In this small kernel of a charter movement there is a great deal of hope for what we can do in education for our children and I am proud that New York will be at the forefront of that movement. Thank you very much.

 
© 2003 The E-Accountability Foundation