[Britiobby]

The biggest joke of the year so far makes an early exit.

April 8, 2011, 2:03 pm

Reflections on the Relevance of Schools Chancellors
By MICHAEL WINERIP

Poor Cathleen P. Black. She was so overmatched: 1.1 million children, 75,000 teachers, almost 1,700 schools. It’s a lot.

If anyone has disproved Woody Allen’s adage that 90 percent of life is showing up — it is Ms. Black.

At times, it was painful to watch. The 95-day reign of Ms. Black, the former chairman of the Hearst Corporation’s magazine division, makes another important point: Just because you’ve run something big, that doesn’t mean you can run the schools.

Which raises the question: How important is a chancellor under mayoral control of the schools?

For five of the last 10 years, I’ve covered education. I’ve been in hundreds of schools, interviewed more children, teachers and principals than I can count. In that time, I spoke one sentence to Joel I. Klein; not one to Ms. Black; and one to Dennis M. Walcott, the man picked to be the next chancellor.

The closest I got to Ms. Black was about 50 feet. It was Feb. 3 and the Panel for Educational Policy was deciding which low-performing schools would be closed.

Sitting on stage, she looked like a deer caught in the headlights. When a panel member asked her a question, an assistant would answer. When a panel member said he wanted to hear the chancellor answer, she didn’t.

Her management philosophy appeared to be: “Even a fish wouldn’t get caught if it kept its mouth shut.”

The one time I spoke to Dennis Walcott was at the only other educational panel meeting I ever attended, in 2004. The mayor wanted to enact a policy of mandatory retention for children who scored poorly on state tests.

This should have been easy. Under mayoral control, Mr. Bloomberg picks a majority of the panel members; they stay busy all night rubber-stamping his mandates.

Not this time. Defying the mayor, a majority of members said they would vote against the retention plan. Fortunately, the mayor had another plan. Hours before the vote, he kicked three members off the panel and replaced them with people who agreed with him on everything.

It was a wild meeting, and after it was over, the deputy mayor who served as the liaison to the Education Department, Mr. Walcott, was left to face the bloodthirsty mob. I asked him where the checks and balances were if the mayor could kick anyone off the panel who disagreed with him. “The mayor has said when he runs for re-election that he should be held accountable,” Mr. Walcott answered. In other words, every four years there’s a day of democracy; then it’s back to work.

Until Thursday, Mr. Walcott’s job was to make sure the Education Department stayed on the mayor’s course. At the February panel meeting, he stood on stage behind the curtain checking his BlackBerry, and when needed, he’d come out, whisper in the chancellor’s ear, then disappear behind the curtain again. By naming Mr. Walcott, the mayor is getting rid of the middle man — or middle woman.

There are a few things you actually need to know to cover education in New York City: The mayor is considered to be a national leader in what’s called the reform movement; he believes in the educational market place, standardized tests and charter schools; and it’s almost always the union’s fault.

The one thing the last two chancellors and the presumptive chancellor have in common: They believe the very same things the mayor believes.

I don’t feel I’ve missed much by not talking to chancellors. At the moment Ms. Black resigned, I was in Harlem, touring Public School 241, whose students have been moved into the basement to make room for a charter school.

The thing I love about education — after the politicians have finished micromanaging; after the think-tank scholars have massaged the latest studies; after the scientists in the Education Department have produced data to justify almost anything — good teachers can still go into their rooms, close their doors and teach.

When the children of New York City grow up, they will not remember who the chancellor was when they were in school. They will not remember the name of the secretary of education. But until the day they die, they will remember their kindergarten teachers.

Michael Winerip writes the On Education column. E-mail: oneducation@nytimes.com.

© 2011 The New York Times Company