NYCivic - 110 Livingston St. Captured

110 Livingston Street Captured,
But What are the Kids Learning

By Henry J. Stern
September 5, 2003

Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein spoke this morning at New York Law School, starting the eighth year of a series sponsored by Ross Sandler's Center for New York City Law. At noon, in the presence of the Mayor and Governor Pataki, he opened a new school, the Millennium High School, three floors of converted office space at 75 Broad Street. A good day.

This Chancellor is the latest hope for improving the city school system. I have seen the last fifteen chancellors (including acting) and only one is generally considered as having been successful: Dr. Frank Macchiarola, now president of St. Francis College. Klein is the first to be chosen directly by the Mayor, although Macchiarola was in fact proposed by Mayor Koch in 1978, and then met strong objections by the powerful Albert Shanker, at the time president of the United Federation of Teachers, and later president of the national union. Shanker told Koch that Macchiarola would never be approved by the Board of Education, which he usually controlled. But with the support of the Mayor and some bridge and tunnel guys, Mac won, and stayed for over four years, a modern record. Macchiarola was eventually succeeded by Anthony Alvarado (now in San Diego) after a pigheaded State education official, Gordon Ambach, blocked the candidacy of Robert F. Wagner, Jr.

Two columns were published this week which are powerful indictments of the school system. The first, by Anthony Coles, Deputy Mayor under Mayor Giuliani, appeared Tuesday in the Post, part of two full pages which the paper devoted to the school system. Entitled "The Bullies of the NYC Schools," Coles' column takes on five institutional enemies of reform. No one is named personally, but a putative target, Randi Weingarten, head of the UFT, replied in a letter Thursday, which we send to you along with Coles' column.

The second assault comes from Andrew Wolf, editor of a weekly Bronx newspaper. Wolf wrote a column which appears in today's New York Sun. Its title, which discloses his point, is "Progressive Miseducation 101". I could not do it justice by summarizing it. I think it is worth printing out, although I do not know how much of it I agree with. If you have opinions on the subject, I would like to get them by e-mail, and your letters will be posted on our website, with your consent. Not being an expert on education (my formal training in the subject came in an Ed. 20 class at City College, which I took while John Dewey was still alive), it would be presumptuous for me to make a judgment on the merits of Wolf's article, but I do not believe his claims are ludicrous.

The rule most relevant here is 30-T: "The truth lies somewhere in between". Whether or not this is the case, it would be helpful for one of Mr. Klein's staff, possibly Deputy Chancellor Diana Lam, to explain to the public how and why Mr. Wolf misconceives the educational situation.

We have one national authority on education who is a real New Yorker: Diane Ravitch, an author and historian who served as Assistant Secretary of Education from 1991 to 1993. She was responsible for the Office of Educational Research and Improvement in Washington. She should be consulted more often, and taken more seriously than is currently the case. The Center for Educational Innovation has done valuable work on local education; they too should not be beyond the pale of involvement and consultation, even if they are deemed politically incorrect.

There are two separate, major issues for us to consider. The first is structural: the legislative approval of Mayor Bloomberg's taking control of education in 2002, the appointment of Joel Klein, the reorganization that abolished the Board of Education, elected local school boards and the 32 large district offices. This was a great achievement, with credit due to the Mayor, the Governor, the Speaker of the Assembly and the leader of the State Senate. It terminated a self-serving system, corrupted by favoritism, patronage, in some cases outright bribery and extortion, and the subordination of education to local politics. The system was also costly, drawing resources away from the schools to district fiefdoms subject to varying degrees of political, ethnic and religious influence. The reforms ended the farce of local elections, in which as few as 3% of the voters cast ballots.

The second issue is substantive: how do you teach the kids once you have won control of the system. That issue is now arising. It may turn out that, like Iraq, it was easier to conquer the organization than to manage it. On this issue, there are substantial differences of opinion, which are discussed by Wolf and alluded to by Coles. But no pedagogical dispute should obscure the enormous victory of removing the hapless crew that lived off the bureaucracy as it failed to serve the children. Still, it would be a great pity to have won the battle of 110 Livingston Street, captured the enemy's historic stronghold and sold it off for condos (more prudent fiscally than the suggestion by Bobby Wagner, former president of the Board of Education, later endorsed by Mayor Giuliani, that the building should be blown up), and then to lose the war by not significantly improving children's ability to learn to read, write, add and subtract.

We should remember that there were many honest, competent and dedicated people who worked years for the Board of Education. Unfortunately, they were not in power.

One problem in politics is that, often, the so-called 'good guys' are on one side, and the 'bad guys' are on the other. It is an enormous temptation to go with people you know and respect, and substitute their judgment for your own. Nor in many public issues, which rely on disputed technical claims, can anyone be really certain which side is right. These are not moral issues like abortion and capital punishment, where you can take either side and feel superior to those who think differently. The question here is: what is the best way to teach our children to read, write and cipher.

Chancellor Klein is committed, dedicated and brilliant. He was the assistant attorney general for anti-trust who pursued Microsoft, and had that giant company on the run during the Clinton years (it later recouped). He was for a time president of a major publisher's United States operations. He is a graduate of Bryant High School in Queens, Columbia College and Harvard Law School, class of 1971, magna cum laude. The New York City school system worked for Joel Klein. In his heartfelt remarks today at New York Law School, Klein quoted his father: "If you don't want to live in public housing when you grow up, you better pay attention to your education as a young man." Mr. Klein was right.

When I asked the Chancellor today 'how do you teach children to read', he answered: "You have to get children to want to learn to read, and not just teach to the test." That certainly sounds right, too. If I knew the best way to teach children to read, I would probably not be writing for New York Civic, and if you knew, you probably wouldn't have time to read these articles, because you would be teaching the world something that would compare in importance to the conquest of a communicable disease.

Again, your comments on local public education are invited. This is an issue on which the answers are uncertain. The disclosure of facts and expression of ideas may result in suggestions that could help in rescuing the next generation from the sea of ignorance and sloth from which so many youngsters are unable to escape.