Editorial & Opinion, NY SUN, March 10, 2004
The Sun Sheds Light on Education
Betsy Combier Founder, ParentAdvocates.org Manhattan

Whenever a person in a public office criticizes a journalist as Chancellor Klein did Andrew Wolf, readers take note ["The Winter of Discontent," Opinion, January 23, 2004].
Parents and teachers in New York City have watched as the unravelling of public school reform by the Bloomberg/Klein coalition gradually speeds up, and our information on this very important topic can be attributed in part to the excellent work of Mr. Wolf.
Education reform was, and is, desperately needed by our public school children, who have been pawns in a deadly game of political chess for more than three decades.
Current indicators show that a lack of accountability and transparency have permitted our legislators and "educrats" to pursue unethical and illegal activities directly opposed to the principles for which they were hired, and Mr. Wolf has been there to tell us about it.
Mr. Wolf has rightfully asked questions about the secrecy surrounding the Bloomberg/Klein/Lam policy-implementation process, in particular the hiring of paid "experts" and "consultants" from Australia, California, and elsewhere - none of them parents or teachers in New York City public schools - to decide on and teach the math and reading programs chosen during secret meetings closed to the general public.
The federal government said "no thank you" to the chosen reading program, and I say thank you, Mr. Wolf.
Mr. Wolf has asked for all of us, "Where is the 'parent involvement'?" as we sit in huge auditoriums, hand in notecards with questions that are never answered, and pick up the flyer as we leave.Thank you for pointing out that there isn't any.
Mr. Wolf has questioned the fiscal waste of spending millions on parent coordinators and their cell phones. That money could, indeed, be used in a much more appropriate way for the pupils, instead of for the principals.
Mr. Wolf's questions about fiscal waste are important for every taxpayer, whether or not he or she has a child in public school.
Mr. Wolf's consistently insightful writing about the inappropriate hiring of Diana Lam as deputy chancellor for teaching and learning may be his finest moment and his calling card for the future.
Mr. Wolf voiced our outrage at Ms. Lam's suggestion that the Gifted and Talented Programs be changed or ended altogether.
Anyone who knows anything about New York knows how highly charged this issue is, and for Mr. Klein and Ms. Lam to be vague about what they plan to do in this area is a disservice that New York City parents will not allow.
Ms. Lam has a track record of jumping ship - I mean state - when her implementation of a tightly controlled top-down school reform policy is justly criticized (look at San Antonio, Texas, and Providence, R.I.).
Mr. Wolf asked, as he should have, why she was hired at a cost to the New York City taxpayers of thousands of dollars, which, again, could have been given to the students in public school classrooms.
Are we heading toward another buyout of $780,000?
In at least San Antonio and in Providence, Ms. Lam has left a trail of destroyed hopes, financial ruin, and academic disarray that is inexcusable on the résumé of someone hired to be one of the leaders of the nation's largest public school system, that of New York City.

The UFT Report:
March 9, 2004

DEPUTY CHANCELLOR RESIGNS OVER CONFLICT OF INTEREST CHARGES

At the urging of Chancellor Klein, Diana Lam, the Department of Education's deputy chancellor for teaching and learning, resigned on Monday, March 8.

A report released on Friday, March 5, from the office of the Special Commissioner of Investigation for the New York City Schools alleged that Lam had used her influence to assist her husband in gaining employment with the DOE without seeking the appropriate waiver from the New York City Conflicts of Interest Board.

UFT President Randi Weingarten released the following statement on the resignation:

"Given the serious nature of the findings in the report by the Special Commissioner of Investigation, Diana Lam had little choice but to resign.

"The issue here is not whether Diana Lam recommended her husband for a job. It is that she did not go through the regular process of checks and balances for such a potential conflict of interest, and that other administrators, fearing for their jobs, did not insist that proper procedures be followed. Finally, when the issue threatened to become public, the administration disposed of the paperwork and tried to delete the records of the process.

"We cannot ask students to meet high standards for behavior unless those standards apply to all adults in the system, regardless of their rank or connections. That argument helped bring about the reform of the old community school districts, which in too many cases had become centers of favoritism and patronage. It applies just as much to the new mayoral agency at Tweed.

"Perhaps Ms. Lam's departure will represent a turning point for the system, and we can start making educational decisions based on what works for children rather than on one administrator's personal ideology."

Diana Lam history
- 1980s: Teacher, principal and zone superintendent in Boston public schools
- 1989: Superintendent of Chelsea public schools in Massachusetts
- 1991: Named Massachusetts Superintendent of the Year
- 1992: Superintendent of Dubuque, Iowa, School District
- July 1994: 15th San Antonio School District Superintendent.
- October 1995: Battles among trustees apparently divided by her leadership threaten to derail effort to win $27 million grant
- November 1996: Becomes highest-paid school chief in district history at $132,000 a year for five years
- May 1997: Honored at San Antonio chapter of 'I Have a Dream' Foundation for her dedication to a better education for all children
- September 1997: Voters approve $483 million bond issue, largest in Texas history
- December 1997: Convinces trustees to require all 60,000 students in district to wear uniforms
- January 1998: Sends letter to Jefferson community on decision to remove and replace the administrative staff, require all teachers to reapply for their jobs, and reconfigure the 2,100-student school into four learning academies. Jefferson High School was considered the gem of San Antonio, with average SAT scores above any other district school.
- February: Parents of Jefferson students demand she be fired
- May: School board votes against 4-3 initiative to restructure Jefferson High School
-Board votes to remove Lam, give her a buyout of $781,000 even though local law does not allow it and the district goes into debt. Lam wants the money anyway.