The Cathie Black Fiasco: Lessons for Confronting Entrenched Power
Nearly 3 years have passed since that quiet afternoon in November 2010 when I glanced at my phone to see the newsflash:
SCHOOLS CHANCELLOR JOEL KLEIN STEPPING DOWN. BLOOMBERG TO APPOINT CATHLEEN P. BLACK, HEARST MAGAZINE, AS REPLACEMENT
The news is always presented so matter-of-factly, so unemotionally. The effect is predictable and comforting to so many in a hectic, unpredictable world like the one we inhabit. The news usually makes sense of it for us.
Usually, but this news didn’t make sense. Not to me.
I called my teacher friends, then a principal, then a parent advocate. Nothing but confusion. Nothing but disbelief. And shoulder-shrugging acquiescence. There’s enough crisis fatigue going around the public school system to slide this next unbelievable fact into the shoebox of unbelievable, but inevitable, administrative moves. Mayoral control means mayoral control, and if