Governor Cuomo is clearly not finished with his war on the people who work in public education in our state. The other day he made good on his inaugural promise to appoint an education commission to make recommendations on to how to improve the state’s schools. Here’s the list of appointees, with Dick Parsons, the former head of Citigroup as the chair:
Richard (Dick) Parsons, Retired Chairman, Citigroup, Chair of the New NY Education Reform Commission
Randi Weingarten, President, American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO
Geoffrey Canada, Founder & CEO, Harlem Children’s Zone
Irma Zardoya, President & CEO, NYC Leadership Academy
Elizabeth Dickey, President, Bank Street College of Education
Mary Anne Schmitt-Carey, President, Say Yes to Education
Lisa Belzberg, Founder & Chair Emeritus, PENCIL
Michael Rebell, Co-Founder & Executive Director, Campaign for Educational Equity
Karen Hawley Miles, President & Executive Director, Education Resource Strategies
José Luis Rodríguez, Founder & CEO, Hispanic Information and Telecommunications Network, Inc.
Sara Mead, Associate Partner, Bellwether Education Partners
Eduardo Martí, Vice Chancellor of Community Colleges, CUNY
Thomas Kane, Professor of Education & Economics, Harvard Graduate School of Education
Jean Desravines, CEO, New Leaders for New Schools
Michael Horn, Executive Director & Co-Founder, InnoSight Institute
Chancellor Nancy Zimpher, Chancellor, SUNY
Chancellor Matthew Goldstein, Chancellor, CUNY
John B. King, Jr., Commissioner, New York State Education Department
Senator John Flanagan, Chair, Senate Education Committee
Assembly Member Cathy Nolan, Chair, Assembly Education Committee
There isn’t even any pretense of the inclusion of the voices of teachers on this commission. If AFT President Randi Weingarten has any sense, she will decline the “opportunity” to be the token voice of teachers on the panel. We surely don’t need the appearance of her concurrance with some of the really bad stuff that’s bound to come from this group. There is not a soul there who has any real idea of what the teachers and students of this state are going through in the name of reform. Reform to them looks and is more like chaos. Doubt me? Google some of these people for yourself!
One comment
Comment by Steve Freeman on May 3, 2012 at 8:40 pm
Randi would never miss an opportunity for self-aggrandizement. She began our descent into hell while running the UFT and making back room deals with the likes of Bloomberg and Klein.