By Joe Williams, DFER Executive Director
(UPDATE: The Chalkboard weighs in here.)
OMG! Dick Ianuzzi, boss of New York State United Teachers, sounded like he was trying to break up with the State Education Department yesterday – right before prom even!
Between the vote yesterday by the Board of Regents to de-mushify a set of proposed new teacher evaluations for Empire State teachers, and the same-day selection of John King to serve as the state’s new Education Commissioner, Ianuzzi sounded like a guy looking to “just be friends,” if you know what we mean.
On the new teacher evaluation criteria, Ianuzzi told the NY Times, “N.Y.S.U.T. will suspend its collaboration with the State Education Department through the remainder of the school year if these pass today, so we can re-evaluate this relationship.”
Oh snap! He’s totally going to “re-evaluate this relationship.” Did NYSED look too fat in its prom dress?
(We haven’t heard a breakup line this smooth since Lebron James told Cleveland he was taking his talents to South Beach.)
Then on King’s selection as Commissioner, Ianuzzi outlined what it would take to have the honor of wearing his letterman jacket in the NY Times, “My hope will be that he remembers that in his new role, he represents all of public education and not exclusively an interest that he’s been aligned to in the past.”
Oh no he didn’t!
Which “interest that he’s been aligned to in the past” is Ianuzzi so nervous about?
– The John King whose father was a longtime public school educator and the first black public school principal in Brooklyn???
– The John King whose mother was a longtime guidance counselor and who was working in a middle school when she died???
– The John King who says public schools “quite literally saved my life”???
– The John King who was essentially orphaned at the age of 12???
– The John King who got kicked out of Phillips Andover because he had a problem with authority figures there?
– The John King who got his academic act together and earned an undergraduate degree at Harvard, a Law degree from Yale, and a doctorate in Education at Columbia???
– The John King who spent three years as a classroom teacher – two of them at a public charter school in Boston???
– The John King who helped found the uber-impressive Roxbury Prep, and then who later led the equally impressive Uncommon Schools???
Our best guess, since NYSUT supports charter schools and even represents many charter school teachers in New York State, is that Ianuzzi is most worried about King’s outrageous support for privitzation in education. Harvard, Yale, and Columbia are private schools, afterall.
Note to NYSED: It will get better. You can do better than him. There are other fish in the sea, etc.