Cathie Black's Departure: Totally Predictable. Plus: Meet Dennis Walcott
I don't know why the front page of the New York Times is calling NYC schools chancellor Cathie Black's departure "surprising." Was anything more predicatable? Over the past year, in cities from Newark toWashington, D.C. to Denver to New York, neighborhood protest movements arose to push back against the same few controversial policies being pursued by reform-minded mayors: charter school co-locations within public school buildings, neighborhood school closings, and more test-driven instruction.
Without getting into the merits and drawbacks of this agenda, the politics here have been clear for some time: There is absolutely no conensus among public school parents either in favor or against such changes. Neighborhoods are attached to the institutions that have served them for generations, regardless of