Education Chief Raises Doubts
on Pick by Bloomberg
By JAVIER C. HERNANDEZ and SHARON OTTERMAN
November 23, 2010
The candidacy of Cathleen P. Black, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s choice to be chancellor of the New York City schools, was in jeopardy on Tuesday as both a panel weighing her credentials and the state official who will determine her fate expressed deep doubts about her readiness for the job.
The official, David M. Steiner, the state education commissioner, said he would consider granting Ms. Black, a publishing executive, the waiver she needed to take office only if Mr. Bloomberg appointed an educator to help her run the system. But even then, Dr. Steiner did not rule out rejecting her request for a waiver, saying he was skeptical about her ability to master the intricacies of the nation’s largest school system. Ms. Black lacks the education credentials required by state law to be schools chief.
Her cause was further undermined on Tuesday when only two of the eight members of an advisory panel Dr. Steiner appointed to evaluate Ms. Black’s background unconditionally endorsed her bid for a waiver.
The erosion of support for Ms. Black, the chairwoman of Hearst Magazines, was a rebuke to Mr. Bloomberg, who had enlisted powerful business and political allies to lobby Dr. Steiner.
Mr. Bloomberg’s advisers huddled on Tuesday night to map out the mayor’s next step. A spokesman for the mayor, Stu Loeser, declined to comment.
Mr. Bloomberg has said that transforming the school system would be his legacy, and a rejection of his candidate would be an embarrassing and public defeat for a mayor accustomed to getting his way.
Since Mr. Bloomberg appointed Ms. Black two weeks ago, his political machine has been in high gear, enlisting powerful chief executives, academics and former mayors to urge Dr. Steiner to grant the waiver. Mr. Bloomberg personally wrote a six-page letter to Dr. Steiner last week that cited Ms. Black’s extensive management experience as a reason she deserved an exemption.
But despite the considerable pressure, Dr. Steiner, a former dean of the Hunter College School of Education, remained unconvinced. From the start, he was troubled by Mr. Bloomberg’s choice, and he worried that Ms. Black would be unable to get up to speed on fundamental issues like curriculum, student testing and the overhaul of failing schools.
Mr. Bloomberg argued that Ms. Black was a “superstar manager” whose expertise in cost-cutting would be a boon to a school system facing significant cutbacks. He said her experience dealing with customers would help mend relations with alienated teachers and parents.
At the meeting of the advisory panel on Tuesday, Dr. Steiner offered three options: vote yes on the waiver, vote no or vote “not at this time,” meaning the panel would reconsider the application if it were resubmitted with a change like the addition of a chief academic officer to oversee teaching, learning and accountability.
Four members voted “no” outright, two voted “yes” and two voted “not at this time.” Dr. Steiner had been criticized for his choice of panelists: four of them had personal or professional ties to the mayor.
Dr. Steiner proposed the compromise as a way of satisfying Mr. Bloomberg while also helping to allay the concerns of parents, teachers and students, who have expressed reservations about Ms. Black and the highly secretive process leading to her appointment.
Dr. Steiner said he might be more inclined to approve a waiver if Mr. Bloomberg appointed a chief academic officer with requisite education credentials to serve as the No. 2 person to Ms. Black.
But should Ms. Black receive a waiver, she would still retain the ultimate decision-making authority in the Department of Education and would, presumably, be free to determine how much latitude to give a chief academic officer.
Harold O. Levy, a former city schools chancellor, said he was skeptical of any arrangement that would give anyone in the Department of Education besides the chancellor leverage and autonomy.
“I don’t know that structure works,” Mr. Levy said. “There has to be one person in charge for there to be accountability.”
It is possible that Mr. Bloomberg may be able to satisfy Dr. Steiner’s request by simply promoting someone within the Department of Education. But the mayor has typically resisted outside efforts to meddle in his decisions.
The department already has a deputy chancellor responsible for school instruction and support, Eric Nadelstern, a 39-year veteran of the system who some thought might one day succeed Joel I. Klein, the current chancellor. And Santiago Taveras, the deputy chancellor for community engagement, attended city schools and has spent his career as an educator.
Mr. Klein plans to step down on Dec. 31. Mr. Bloomberg has said that if Ms. Black is not approved, he is not certain any other qualified candidate would want the job.
“You know, we had a great pitcher for the first seven innings,” Mr. Bloomberg told reporters on Tuesday before the panel voted. “We bring in the closer for the last couple of innings, and this was the right closer to bring in.”
The mayor has argued that under the 2002 law that gave him control of the city schools, he should be able to appoint whomever he pleased. On Tuesday, he said the law requiring chancellors to hold education credentials should be abolished because the city needed a schools chief with a broader set of skills.
Ms. Black, who helped oversee the early success of USA Today in the 1980s, has faced criticism because she attended Roman Catholic schools and sent her own children to boarding school. She holds a bachelor’s degree in English but does not have any professional degrees.
A poll released by Quinnipiac University on Tuesday found that 51 percent of New Yorkers did not believe that Ms. Black had the qualifications to be chancellor, while 26 percent said she did.
Ms. Black has avoided speaking publicly since she was named, but in her few appearances, she has defended her record and vowed that she would become the next chancellor. She has even established a Department of Education e-mail address.
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