Public School Chic: How Saving American Education Became Cool
Paramount Vantage
Mayor Bloomberg's surprise appointment last week of Cathie Black, Chairman of Hearst Magazines, as the new chancellor of New York City's schools highlighted a striking trend in our national panorama. Black replaced Joel Klein, who had served for eight years, the longest run of any school leader in the city's history. Klein took a job in the office of the chairman of News Corporation (think Rupert Murdoch) to develop educational initiatives that Murdoch has now made a personal priority. So there you have it: Black moves from the Hearst Tower to the Department of Education, and Klein shifts to the inner sanctum of News Corporation.
Sometime in the past decade or so, saving public education moved into the stratosphere of social status. Bloomberg says he has known Black for 20 years or so, mainly as a friend on the classy side of the media scene. After she was elevated out of operational control at Hearst last summer