New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said former publishing executive Cathie Black was the perfect choice to head the city’s 1.1 million-student school system, because she was “a superstar manager.”
But her resignation April 7 after three contentious months on the job was the latest in a series of third-term setbacks for Bloomberg—and a defeat of his high-profile school reform bid to hire a business-minded outsider like himself to run the city’s schools.
“I will take full responsibility for the fact that this has not worked out as either of us had hoped or expected,” Bloomberg said at a hastily called City Hall news conference to announce Black’s resignation. She did not attend.
Bloomberg surprised even some officials within his administration when he plucked Black from the business world and installed her as head of the nation’s largest public school system. Critics, including many parents of public-school students, assailed her lack of experience as an educator. She had no background as an educator, had never attended public schools, and had not sent her own children to them.
On the job, Black failed to convince the critics they were wrong. Her few unscripted public appearances were marked by gaffes. Meeting with parents concerned about crowded schools, she joked that birth control was the solution. Faced with hecklers at a meeting about closing schools, she heckled back. Two polls put her approval rating at 17 percent.
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Teachers at some schools erupted in cheers when the news of Black’s resignation broke.
And now, Bloomberg has chosen a new schools chancellor who is Black’s opposite in many ways.
Deputy Mayor Dennis Walcott, 59, is a graduate of New York City public schools and hold’s master’s degrees in education and social work. A former kindergarten teacher, Walcott founded the Frederick Douglass Brother-to-Brother program, a mentoring program for boys.
As deputy mayor for education and community development, Walcott has been the highest-ranking black person in Bloomberg’s administration. In that job, he oversaw the city’s Department of Education, with its 1.1 million students in almost 1,700 schools, as well as the New York City Housing Authority, the Department of Youth and Community Development, and the Mayor’s Office of Adult Education.
Soon after Walcott was named as the new chancellor, more than a dozen public officials dashed off statements praising him for his education experience. Speaking to city Department of Education staff members April 7, Walcott alluded to his status as a role model for students.
He said that he visited a high school recently and the principal noted that when Walcott greeted a student, “he pulled up his pants and straightened up and stood a little taller.”
Walcott said he would continue with the reforms introduced under Bloomberg.
“To me, the great equalizer in society is ensuring that every child receives a quality education, especially a quality public education,” said Walcott, himself a graduate of the city’s public schools.
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Bloomberg has a reputation as a fierce defender of his administration’s top appointments, with the exception of Patricia Lancaster, whose abrupt departure as Buildings Department commissioner three years ago followed a string of 13 construction-accident deaths in only a few months’ time.
On April 7, the mayor stood behind Black’s performance, saying, “I have nothing but respect and admiration for her and for the work she has done.”
Speaking outside her home, Black told the TV station NY1 that she felt “fine” about the transition.
“It’s been a great privilege to serve the city of New York and the mayor for three months,” she said. “I have loved the principals and the teachers and the kids. Dennis Walcott is a great guy. We have a wonderful relationship, and I wish everybody the best.”
After she became chancellor in January, several department officials left. One of them, former deputy chancellor Eric Nadelstern, said that a lack of media access to Black led to relentless coverage of her slip-ups. Over time, it became clear that she had become a liability, he said.
“It is a very formidable … learning curve, and I think she was still in that learning curve when City Hall determined that her time was up,” he said.
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Bloomberg’s own approval numbers have been declining in recent months, as he has dealt with the aftermath of a flawed city response to a major blizzard and with public dissatisfaction with his handling of a city budget hampered by state and federal cutbacks. Dissatisfaction with the city’s schools has figured in as well, although the majority of parents with children in the public schools say the schools are good or excellent.
Community Board 1 Chairwoman Julie Menin, whose question regarding school crowding prompted Black’s birth control quip, said the resignation wasn’t a surprise.
“She was simply not qualified for the position,” Menin said in a statement. “Her resignation is a good thing for our school children; hopefully, it’s also a sign that the mayor has finally recognized that you cannot run the nation’s largest education system without qualified and experienced leadership.”
Norman Siegel, an attorney for parents who had sued to block Black’s appointment, said: “This confirms what the parents have said from Day 1, that Ms. Black did not have the educational credentials to become chancellor.”
With no credentials as an educator, Black needed the waiver from state education Commissioner David Steiner, and an advisory panel recommended that he deny it. But Steiner indicated he would give the green light if Bloomberg elevated a deputy chancellor with an education background. The mayor eventually agreed to create the position of chief academic officer as a No. 2.
Walcott, too, will need a waiver, and Bloomberg said he believed one would be issued quickly. Wolcott will report directly to the mayor, who no longer will have an education deputy at City Hall. The chief academic officer position will remain.
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