Superintendent Ackerman withdraws name from 'manifesto'
It turns out that Philadelphia Schools Superintendent Arlene Ackerman doesn’t really agree with the “reform manifesto” that appeared this week in The Washington Post and signed by16, scratch that, now 15, big-city school district chiefs. The manifesto was written by New York City Superintendent Joel Klein and then signed by D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee and 14 others. It blames teachers unions for the troubles of urban education, views charter schools as some sort of big answer to the same problem, and generally supports market-driven measures to “fix” what is the country’s most precious civic institution. But today we learn that Ackerman never approved the manifesto, according to David Wiener, associate superintendent of academics in the Philadelphia school system. Different versions had been circulated among school chiefs, and Ackerman did not see or approve the one that appeared in The Post last Sunday, he said.