Merryl Tisch: Turnaround plan “has nothing to do with the kids” | GothamSchools

Merryl Tisch: Turnaround plan “has nothing to do with the kids” | GothamSchools:

Merryl Tisch: Turnaround plan “has nothing to do with the kids”

by Geoff Decker

Tisch spoke on a GothamSchools panel in 2011.

Breaking her silence on the city’s plan to overhaul 33 struggling schools, Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch said late Wednesday that she believes “turnaround” is a political strategy, not an educational one.
“There’s a fight going on here that has nothing to do with what’s going on at the school,” she said. “It’s a labor dispute between labor and management and has nothing to do with the kids.”
Tisch was referring to the stalemate between the Bloomberg administration and the teachers union that gave rise to the city’s turnaround plans. Bloomberg announced the plans in January as a way to get federal funds for the schools even though the city and union had not been able to agree on new teacher evaluations, a requirement of