Obama's Secretary Of Education: Joel Klein?

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Joel Klein, Chancellor of New York City's Department of Education, the nation's largest public school system, has been rumored to be on Obama's list of Secretary of Education candidates.

Before Michael Bloomberg won his bid for the right to a third term, there were rumors that Klein would run for mayor himself. The point is now moot, of course, and Klein may have to turn elsewhere for his political ambitions.

Comments

[ejhilden]

Please, Obama, not Mr. Klein. I know you can do better than him. He is as responsible as anyone for proliferating the failed education policies of the Bush administration, and seems to have no idea how much damage that has done to the working class and racial minority students we have in this country. Obama needs someone who will dispose of these policies, reinvent the ways schools are funded, and change the course of education in America so that no child is truly left behind. Right now, the vast majority lose, and if we continue in this course, those numbers can only go up.

[dcampbell]

A petition opposing Joel Klein has been prepared. I am not a member of the NYC teaches union. that is a baseless accusation. I live in California.
The Petition to oppose the appointment of Joel Klein.

We, the undersigned, devoted thousands of hours of volunteer time to the election of Barack Obama as President. As Professional educators we were encouraged by the promise to have an open and respectful dialogue within the educational community about NCLB, its limits, and its failures.
The administration of Joel Klein as Chancellor of Schools in New York City is representative of a particular rigid approach to school change promoted by NCLB which we oppose. Rather than take the advice of educators, Chancellor Klein repeatedly championed and implemented policies that support corporate interests as opposed to children. The NY City Department of Education under Joel Klein has been run like a ruthless dictatorship " with no input from parents or educators. Teachers have not been respected, consulted, nor listened to. And little thought has been devoted to how the policies he has imposed on our schools have been destructive to the children and their futures.

Teachers, educators, and future teachers, read the entire petition and sign it at:

http://www.petitiononline.com/campd227/petition.html

[Datias]

A petition has been created to convince President-Elect Obama to nominate Dr. Linda Darling-Hammond as Secretary of Education. You can check it out at http://www.petitiononline.com/DHammond/petition.html.

Sign it and spread the word.

Thanks!

[phillywilly]

He is not an educator and has not done a great job leading the NYC schools. I hope that he is not picked. We need an educator just like we need a lawyer as Attorney General.

[Personalandpolitical]

President-Elect Obama has repeatedly pledged that as part of his administration's reform of NCLB, educators will not be forced to waste precious academic time on incessant test prep and preparing children how to fill in bubbles for standardized exams. Sadly, Joel Klein's administration in NYC has succeeded in creating a culture where educators and administrators are spending countless hours on such preparation, data mining and evaluations that are no longer administered by educators. Instead of educating, our administrators are applying corporate "six sigma" type methods and overseen by high paid consultants. Joel Klein is not a viable candidate for Secretary of Education. His track record evidences few real successes and the model that has been created in no way challenges the fundamental problems that the Obama-Biden team has already recognized. It's time for real change and a focus on education by someone with a significant track record. Perhaps the transition team should consider Andres Alonso, who leads the Baltimore school system, is a name that should be seriously considered. He's well respected and has years of experience, as deputy chancellor of NYC previoulsy and as a bilingual educator as well.

[balakay]

We voted for change... Appointing a neo-con as Sec of Education is hardly the kind of change we thought President Obama would bring. One can only hope this rumour was started by Klein himself and doesn't reflect the Obama camp's thinking. Klein has been a disaster for NYC and would be worse at USED than even the imbeciles Bush appointed!!!!

[DelRay]

Neo-Con? Are you mixing up Joe Klein and Joel Klein? Is this the same Joel Klein that worked in the Clinton administration and may run for Mayor as a Democrat. I'm not saying that he should be Sec. of Ed, but he's not a neo-con.

[BelkisMB]

Sorry i made a mistake while writting my comments. It should say: Have to exist more proffesionals,...
instead of Have to be. Thank you for your understanding...i got shock when i read the article. Please President Obama, look for someone who can fix the NYC Board of Education. Someone who really care about educating our children and preparing them for life, someone who respect our teachers and the parents. Thank you.

[BelkisMB]

Please!!! More common sense and love for the city, for the country and for all. What do you want for our children? and for our teachers? and for our society as a whole? It is not already too evident the low quality of our education, schools, and services? Do you want to send more of our children to the street, to jail, or to hell? Do you want more of our teachers to abandom the educational field, or moving to another cities? Do you stll want to keep our children overpacked in old buildings, and small rooms?
Are we looking for improvement or what? Have to be more professionals, well prepared, talented, realistic and with moral, love and compromise to take in charge the NYC Board of Education and put it to do what they are suppose to do: to work for the children, for the betterment of the children. The world economical and cultural city has the worst educational system. Are we in decadence? If what you said is going to be truth, then look for a change. No more Klein and people like him.

[vsan23]

Klein would be terrible! As a parent in the NYC school system, all he has done is more testing, expensive data collecting, "grading schools" in methods that make no sense etc ....while demoralizing teachers & principals and ignoring parents. He would totally suck!

[godrummer]

Joel Klein has singlehandedly--well, with Bloomberg's help--made a bad system much worse. His complete dependence on high stakes tests, his manipulation of school principals, his packing the schools with unprepared teachers, his Draconian approach to budget making, his consistent lies about serious matters like the NYC drop our rate (close to 70% for African Americans and Latino's according to the best respected expert--Gary Orfield), and his utter disrespect of parents by excluding them completely is a partial list of why making him Secretary of Education is the worst possible move for Obama on education. I suggest Linda Darling Hammond or almost any other talented educator--we don't need a lawyer!!!!

[patp]

Everyone posting here must be a member of the NYC Teachers Union.

[Gregglund]

Klein has destroyed more schools than he has improved! He has vilified the best and the brightest NYC educators. I know of no educator who believes that Klein has been beneficial to the schools. Obama is about altruism. Klein is about ego and power. Obama would regret appointing Joel Klein to the Department of Education just as NYC Mayor Bloomberg has secretly regretted Klein's tenure. Please President Elect Obama. Give Joel Klein an ambassadorship to Siberia.

[mrrice]

I am not a NYC Teacher; I haven't been in any labor union in more than 30 years.

I do have children in NYC public schools. I agree with the general tenor of the comments.

While Mr Klein has some engaging rhetoric, performance of NYC students on objective, national tests hasn't seen any statiscally significant improvement, despite vast resources directed at improving state test scores.

[Lala2]

Why in God's name can't we have someone heading the Department of Education who actually has verifiably successful experience in elementary education and truly understands child development and learning?
Please, no more policy wonks, attorneys, and certainly no businessmen!
Gerald Bracey could be one possible pick.

[ReginaRae]

Joel Klein is hated by parents and teachers alike and would be a terrible choice for the Obama administration. The so-called "results" the Bloomberg administration brags about regarding New York City's school system are mostly smoke and mirrors. For example, increased high school graduation rates arise purely from administration pressure on principals and teachers to pass failing students. You can't improve schools by treating educators like they are the enemy, which is classic Joel Klein.

[dramateacher513]

Mr. President-elect
I BEG YOU.....Klein is the worst thing to happen to education. The state tests are supposed to measure students' abilities meanwhile, my student (who received a 3 on the state test) wrote the word "knows" as "NOSE" last week. Yes, this child received a three. Great job there Klein. No child left behind is a joke. Impact Math is a joke. Conferencing is a waste of time.

Bottom line-teachers are no longer given time to teach any more. We are doing damage control all day to make sure we've covered all the requests of the city and the state (who refuse to work together). SAY NO TO KLEIN!

[greggie83]

Please, Mr. Obama. Please. He's an attorney. He hasn't turned around our schools. If anything, that goes to Bloomberg. He's not an awful person by any means but this comes from a viewpoint within the schools. There is a better choice.