Originally posted to NYC Moms Blog - April 28, 2010
Never in a million years did I think I'd find myself siding with NYC Schools Chancellor Joel Klein. For most of our overlapping tenure - mine as a parent, his as the "leader" of the NYC public schools I have whole-heartedly disagreed with him. His non-stance on class sizes astounds me, his celebration of standardized testing confounds me and his infatuation with charter schools dumbfounds me. Don't get me started on the simplest things like snow days. But a recent NY Times article has me agreeing, shockingly, with Mr. Klein.
It seems layoffs of some 8,500 public school teachers are planned for this year (see what I mean about class size reduction? - maybe Goldman Sachs could fund reduced class sizes - sorry - I digress). It seems Mr Klein has suggested eschewing the "last in, first out" method of deciding who gets laid off - meaning the most recent hires will be the first laid off, in favor of a performance based system of evaluation and lay off.
Frankly I could not agree more!
