New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who made billions in business, is absolutely consistent about whom he thinks should run the city’s public school system: Business people.
Bloomberg proved that again Tuesday when he chose former Hearst magazines Chairwoman Cathleen P. Black to succeed Chancellor Joel Klein, who is leaving New York City schools for a job as executive vice president at News Corporation, the media goliath owned by Rupert Murdoch.
New York City is the nation’s largest school system. It has a $23 billion annual budget, 135,000 employees and some 1 million students. That $23 billion annual budget is more than three times greater than the Georgia Department of Education’s $7.4 billion operating budget this fiscal year.
Klein instituted a more performance-driven education system and he was considered an advocate for charter schools. Here is a Wednesday morning New York Times article about Black replacing Klein:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/10/nyregion/10klein.html?_r=1