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Who We Are »
Betsy Combier

Help Us to Continue to Help Others »
Email: betsy.combier@gmail.com

 
The E-Accountability Foundation announces the

'A for Accountability' Award

to those who are willing to whistleblow unjust, misleading, or false actions and claims of the politico-educational complex in order to bring about educational reform in favor of children of all races, intellectual ability and economic status. They ask questions that need to be asked, such as "where is the money?" and "Why does it have to be this way?" and they never give up. These people have withstood adversity and have held those who seem not to believe in honesty, integrity and compassion accountable for their actions. The winners of our "A" work to expose wrong-doing not for themselves, but for others - total strangers - for the "Greater Good"of the community and, by their actions, exemplify courage and self-less passion. They are parent advocates. We salute you.

Winners of the "A":

Johnnie Mae Allen
David Possner
Dee Alpert
Aaron Carr
Harris Lirtzman
Hipolito Colon
Larry Fisher
The Giraffe Project and Giraffe Heroes' Program
Jimmy Kilpatrick and George Scott
Zach Kopplin
Matthew LaClair
Wangari Maathai
Erich Martel
Steve Orel, in memoriam, Interversity, and The World of Opportunity
Marla Ruzicka, in Memoriam
Nancy Swan
Bob Witanek
Peyton Wolcott
[ More Details » ]
 
Despite Too Many Questions of Improprieties, Carmen Farina is Named Deputy Chancellor For the New York City DOE
E-Accountability OPINION
          
The E-Accountability Foundation has had the opportunity to have worked with Carmen Farina, the newly appointed Deputy Chancellor, and therefore can base our opinion that she should never have been hired for the position she has now been appointed to, Deputy Chancellor for Instruction and Learning.

We worked with Carmen when she was Principal of PS 6 in Manhattan's District 2, Tony Alvarado's "Miracle" that was supposed to prove that TERC math, constructivism, whole language, Bi-lingual education,budgetary secrecy and, above all, screaming at parents to keep them out of the school and school affairs, was what public school education needed and must have for "successful" reform. She:

* violated the law that set up School Leadership Teams by writing Bylaws for the SLT at PS 6 that had 4 people on the Team (the Law states that a minimum of 10 is required) and were closed to any participation of any parent who was not on the Team (untrue, and a violation of the Sunshine Laws, or Open Government); she stated that she had a waiver from Chancellor Crew, but the District 2 office said that the one copy that had been there was missing and could not be found;

*kept the accounting of the allocation of funds in the 3-year, $225,000 grant from the Annenberg Challenge For the Arts Program secret, and would not answer any questions as to the arts programs set up at the PS 6 sister school PS 198, required as part of the grant;

*sent in the troops to the District 15 President's Council to remove, defame, and verbally assault the Co-Presidents after one of the Co-Presidents complained to Chancellor Klein that Carmen would not speak with her about how to help the parents and children in the District.

A few weeks ago on May 11, 2004, Carmen gleefully told the assembled crowd at a forum on special education that she had gotten rid of 12,000 special Education evaluations during the month of March. This means that approximately 522 kids had their special education "evaluations" (which usually take 1 hour or more to complete, with services and data) probably thrown into the garbage every day during the month of March. Where is the NYC DOE watchdog? There is no such person. Randi Weingarten, to her credit, told the audience after Carmen spoke that these evaluations were seriously impaired in formational value, she heard from school psychologists. There simply are not enough people to do 522 evaluations every day in the system. Carmen has admitted this.

Mr. Williams, author of the NY Daily News article, knows the concerns that parents and DOE personnel have concerning Carmen's inability to genuinely listen to any concerns of anyone, or provide resolution to any problem that she did not bring up herself. But then again, these qualities are, most probably, and in our opinion, the criteria for working in the DOE in New York City. The article should have taken a more balanced approach to this new drawback for parental involvement in New York City. What has happened to objectivity, Mr. Zuckerman and Mr. Schwartz?

Betsy Combier

Fariña gets official nod as Klein's No. 2
by Joe Williams, NY Daily News, July 14, 2004

After four months as acting deputy schools chancellor, Carmen Fariña was officially named Chancellor Joel Klein's No. 2 yesterday.
"Carmen will be a major voice in the continued work of our Children First reforms where they count most - in the classroom," Klein said of his deputy chancellor for teaching and learning.

The well-respected Fariña, who went to New York public schools, was a teacher for more than 20 years, principal at the vaunted Public School 6 in Manhattan and superintendent of Brooklyn's District 15.

She was Region 8 superintendent in Brooklyn when she was tapped in March to replace Diana Lam, who was forced to resign in a nepotism scandal.

Joe Williams

Carmen Farina: Politics Wins With Her Appointment as Deputy Chancellor in New York City

 
© 2003 The E-Accountability Foundation