I've taken the trouble to transcribe part of a video clip of one of our state senators aiming some strong remarks at our chancellor of NYC schools, Joel Klein.Senator Carl Kruger — thank you, but really:
What took you so long?
A half a generation of school children have been handicapped for life, and teaching, once a dignified, intensely rewarding profession, has been downgraded to a grad school job you can pick up on the way to doing something "more important" with your life.
The whole clip of Kruger's remarks at the Feb. 2nd session of the Joint Budget Hearing on Elementary and Secondary Education up in Albany can be found here.
Scroll down to see my favorite paragraph, in larger print. He's picked up some steam by then, but the question remains:
What took them so long?
Kruger's record discussed here and here.
Wikipedia: "On December 2, 2009, Kruger voted against marriage equality legislation,
which failed to pass the Senate."
Wikipedia: "On December 2, 2009, Kruger voted against marriage equality legislation,
which failed to pass the Senate."
There has been a lot of acrimony concerning school closings in the city.
We seem to find a disconnect whenever we talk about the Dept of Education between the communities and Tweed, and it doesn't get any better, it just keeps on getting worse and worse.
[He mentions the renewal of school governance, putting the control of the schools once again into the mayor's hands . . .]
But we built in certain safeguards into that new legislation. The question of bringing closures into the communities that are affected, impact reports, the opportunity to hold individualized public hearings at those schools that are slated for closure, bringing the entire package along with a LEGITIMATE impact report to the puppet Council for Education Equality, which in its last vote the 5 borough presidents voted against and the other members weigh in as we knew they would be, and ultimately it passes.
I guess my question to you is: What is going to be the wake-up call, when we as the partner are making the parents part of the process in developing the educational policies for our schools?
When are we going to be able to say that we have accomplished our goal and that the parents are not sort of put on the back burner and treated as, as an annoyance rather than a partner?
When are we going to be able to say that the Legislature and the elected officials are partners in the effort?
You know, you come to us for money, but you don't come to us for direction.
You come to us for money, but you don't come to us for involvement.
You come to us for money, but at the same time, you know, we're sort of like the orphaned children that are never really around the table at the day of the family dinner.
So, I'm not asking a question, I'm making a statement. I brought a lawsuit . . .
Today we find ourselves once again being asked — by you — being asked to undo the executive budget, to be able to funnel more money into the NYC school system.
At the same time, you haven't come to us today, or ever, and said how can we become a partner with you in how we're going to use that money and how we're going to educate our children — except in some kind of a mock, distorted fashion that the Dept. of Education knows best and we know least. . .
Before we go ahead and we cut health care or we cut something else out of the budget in order to try to bring the gap between what the Executive proposed and what we're prepared to offer up, then you should be able to offer up to us some kind of a public statement and some kind of real meaningful input in the way NYC school systems are run.
Not that you're annoyed because the NAACP has to join a lawsuit with the UFT on the issue of closure, because I think at the end of the day, they may very well win that suit.
I know at 5 o'clock tonight I have a meeting in my office with members of the Senate, that we are going to have our first meeting under the new School Governance Law, that allows us oversight to weigh in on a lot of these issues, and we're going to do it. We'll do it either nicely or we'll do it by subpoena.
But at the end of the day, we want to find out, we want to find out where after NINE YEARS of TORTURE, nine years of ACRIMONY, nine years of nail-biting and hand-twisting, to this day, whether it's trailers in the school yard, or whether it's parents standing in the door, or whether it's teachers that are trying to do battle, or whether it's just plain folks who live in the community wanting to know where their tax dollars are, and WE CAN'T ANSWER THEM!!
We can't answer them because you've disconnected us from the process.
Thank you for putting this in words. My attention span for along video does not hold.
ReplyDeleteIs this the year of any elections for their positions? Or is it next year?
ReplyDeleteRemember legislators do not get involved until they are close to running again for their positions.
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ReplyDeleteBravo to Senator Carl Kruger
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Finally A Politician With The Guts To Stand Up To A Detestable Bully:
Faux Chancellor Joel Klein, Esq.
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An Education Expert in Chicago, has written widely about what the courageous Senator Carl Kruger recently stated during a Public Hearing.
( See my Review at Amazon.com of: WHITE CHALK CRIME: The REAL Reason Schools Fail, Karen Horwitz, M.Ed )
Senator Kruger seems to be among the very first who has finally been willing to state for the Record: "Enough is Enough"
Faux Chancellor Klein and his confederates may have finally come up against a Senator who has the backbone and integrity to put those who hijacked the NYC schools system, in their place.
Will they care? Probably not- at least for now. Klein and his willing lackeys and followers have gotten away with so much for so long, that they are clearly under the impression that they are above the Law. The proverbial State within a State.
"Absolute power corrupts absolutely" and having near Dictatorial control over a 23 (Twenty Three) Billion dollar entity for eight years, must certainly have an effect on the human brain- especially if that brain was ethically challenged to begin with before it was ever handed the Reigns of power of America's largest urban schools system.
No doubt, displayed on the wall over Klein's bedpost, carefully protected from the elements, in a 14 K Gold frame, is Klein's favorite historical quote:
"L' Etat- C ' est Moi"
And it would not at all surprise this writer if those words appeared also above the shaving mirror in Klein's bathroom, in his Dining Room and in all the other rooms in Klein's luxury Duplex located at 565 Park Ave.
He likely has even had the quote embroidered into all his bath towels and linen napkins so that when guests dine at his home, they can never forget, where they are and remain aware exactly just what is their place in the Universe.
CONTINUED BELOW
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ReplyDeleteCONTINUED FROM ABOVE
What a Senator spoke to Mr. Klein's face likely did not extract any change in Klein's expression which always seems to consist of something between a frozen pained grin, a look of inordinate Hubris and a sense of Superiority not supported by empirical fact or deeds accomplished, by any stretch of the imagination.
But the Senator's words, spoken it must be conceded with an air of confidence that can only arise when one has his facts straight, may have unnerved Mr. "Legend in his own Mind", just ever so slightly.
And that night, as the Faux Chancellor said his bed-time prayers and before he laid his follicle challenged cranium upon his pillow, (the one into which is sewn, no doubt, the words: "L' Etat, C'est Moi", perhaps Joel Klein, Esq. realized for the very first time in all his Life, that the tide may be turning against him and all his fellow cronies who reside in that famous den of inequity, the infamous Tweed Courthouse.
The former Courthouse, from the last Century, from which the notorious "Boss" Tweed, police handcuffs obscuring his jewel encrusted cufflinks, was carted off to the City Jail for all his dirty and despicable and nasty deeds.
They say that every dog has its Day. And that a dog that will fetch a bone, will carry a bone.
Mr.Klein has surely obediantly carried the "bone" someone gave him, eight years ago, for a very long time. Through thick and thin and throughout all the Seasons of the year.
But I wonder if Joel Klein, Esq. can now sniff that the "Winds of Change" have altered and changed their direction. Abraham Lincoln said it best when he penned those immortal words: "You cannot Fool All the People All the Time".
They say old horses get sent to the glue factory. But where do they send old dogs ? My guess is they are probably sent to the same place as deposed former Tyrants, petty or large scale and ruthless Dictators, political charlatans and all of Society's countless parasites who exploit and feed off the work and Life blood of others.
Including, of couse, all those suited "Barbarians at the School House Gates" who would turn all of New York City's schools, if they had their way, and could get away with such an obscenity, into "for profit" entities.
No doubt they all end up being relegated and consigned,(and most deservedly it must be added), to the scrap heap of History.
David Pakter
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