Sir Michael Barber
Rick Karlin of Capitol Confidential reports:
". . . the state Board of Regents is hiring a former advisor to former British Prime Minister Tony Blair to help whip the state Education Department into shape . . . Sir Michael Barber, who has written a book on improving public sector performance will play a role with McKinsey & Co. in its efforts to 'strengthen the Department as a state-of-the-art school improvement and service organization'. . . Barber’s work is part of a $6.2 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates and Wallace foundations to help SED improve what it does."
Let me see if I have this straight. In the 13th year of Commissioner Richard Mills's tenure a private citizen billionaire, who lives in Washington state, provides a grant to the state Education Department. A foreign citizen and author who worked as a senior education official in his country's government is subsequently hired to help transform New York's public school system. This is what it takes to break the failure-is-an-option mentality of the Education Department?
It's not as desperate as it sounds (I think). Last August Sir Michael told The New York Times:
"How do I get these children a good education as fast as possible? Once you have the answer to that question, you just do it. If it’s close the school, you close it and move the children into a better one. If there are no better schools nearby, close it and replace it with another on the same site. But you do whatever it takes.”
Do whatever it takes to close failing schools? Have children move to a better school? The vetting process at the state Department of Education must have had a Bernard Kerik-style breakdown. Someone there is going to get the ax.
Sir Michael could be a true reformer. And he should have a brilliant time encountering the sclerotic state education bureaucracy and it's excuse-a-minute defenders.
