Panel on Pick for Schools Has Close Ties to Bloomberg
By DAVID W. CHEN and SHARON OTTERMAN
Published: November 19, 2010
New York State’s top education official on Friday named an advisory panel of eight experts, at least half of them with strong connections to the Bloomberg administration, to help him decide whether to approve Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s controversial choice to run the city’s school system.
Education Commissioner David M. Steiner
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Andrés A. Alonso, the Baltimore schools’ chief executive.
Three panelists selected by David M. Steiner, the state education commissioner, worked as senior officials at the city’s Department of Education.
One of those three now works at a foundation that was, for many years, the vehicle for Mr. Bloomberg’s personal charitable donations.
A fourth panelist is the head of a museum that has received almost half a million dollars from Mr. Bloomberg in donations since he took office.
The eight panelists share deep experience in the education field as academics and administrators. It is precisely the kind of experience that Mr. Bloomberg’s choice for chancellor, Cathleen P. Black, the chairwoman of Hearst Magazines, lacks.
Mr. Steiner must decide whether to grant Ms. Black a waiver from state law requiring leaders of school districts to have substantial education credentials and experience.
Citing the prerogative of mayoral control over the schools, the Bloomberg administration has argued that she is