Protestors call on top state official to reject Black as chancellor
Justin Wedes, a former city teacher who started an online petition asking State Education Commissioner David Steiner not to grant Cathie Black the waiver she needs to become chancellor, spoke on the steps of Tweed Courthouse Sunday. On the left was Michael Meyers, director of the New York Civil Rights Coalition. To the right was civil rights attorney Normal Siegel.
Parents and civil rights advocates gathered on the steps of the Department of Education headquarters yesterday to protest Mayor Bloomberg’s appointment of publishing executive Cathie Black as the next schools chancellor.
Their objections to Black’s appointment were two-fold: firstly, that Black lacks the educational experience necessary to lead the nation’s largest public school system; and secondly, that the mayor that the mayor chose a friend and kept the selection process hidden from the public and much of his staff.
“This unlimited claim that Cathie Black is the best is unsupported and untested in any school setting, in any