DFER Colorado
DFER Colorado Advisory Committee:
Elaine Berman - Member of the Colorado State Board of Education
Terrance Carroll - Speaker of the House for the Colorado General Assembly
Mike Johnston - Colorado State Senator
Courtney Messenbaugh
Karen Middleton - Colorado State Representative
Barbara O'Brien - Colorado Lt. Governor
Christine Scanlan - Colorado State Representative
Van Schoales
For all inquiries please contact:
Moira Cullen
Interim State Director
(303) 868-8452
moira@dfer.org
Joel Klein: Lessons Learned In NYC
(From In Denver Times, October 27, 2009)
By NANCY MITCHELL
Joel Klein led the government's antitrust prosecution of Microsoft before he took over the nation's largest school district. Fighting Bill Gates, he said in Denver on Monday, was easier than trying to move public education.
"The one thing we've got to understand if we're really going to transform public education is the education system, by and large, doesn't want to change," the New York City schools chancellor said at a gathering of the Colorado branch of Democrats for Education Reform.
"Sure it wants to get better, sure it wants to do a better job," he said. "But it doesn't want to do the tough transformative work. Because the system serves lots of needs quite effectively -- it just doesn't serve the needs of our children."
Seven years into running the district of more than 1 million students, Klein is "revered" by some and "reviled" by others for his reform efforts, according to a New York Times profile. Next week, on Election Day, he'll learn whether the mayor who appointed him, Michael Bloomberg, keeps his job.
But in his talk about lessons learned since his 2002 appointment, Klein seemed optimistic as he described the efforts undertaken in NYC's 1,400 schools and his belief that public education can transform children's lives.
Continue reading "Joel Klein: Lessons Learned In NYC"....
