Tilson's And Klein's Slips Are Starting To Show

Are we finally starting to see behind the curtain? Is the proverbial slip starting to show? Is the shine off the apple? Are the wheels coming off the cart?Why am I asking all these questions? Because....................

It seems the Bloom/Klein ship be sinking. Or at the very least taking on water. Not surprising. Usually this is what happens when one overplays their hand as Bloomberg did getting a third term. This is what happens when one can't see the forest through the trees as Klein does. Sooner or later the autocratic style comes back and bites you. People are being bitten right now.

But before I go on, let's not forget karma. When you bully, cajole, intimidate, manage from the top down, to get your way, you soon radicalize those you want to change and it backfires. It is backfiring.

Yesterday's revelation from Leonie Haimson shows, at least in my opinion, the desperation that Klein knows he is in now. The smoke and mirrors won't cut it anymore.

Let's examine Klein's email to Whitney Tilson;

From: Klein Joel I. [mailto:JKlein@schools.nyc.gov]
Sent: Friday, July 30, 2010 4:43 PM
To: Whitney Tilson
Subject: RE: YPO dinner on March 8, 9 or 10th?

Btw, thanks for the shout out today. NYT is outrageous. There will be pushback (in addition to today’s DN edit) ahead but the oppos are trying to move their agenda with this. If you ever want details regarding the results, including strong results in 3 or 4 naeps, i can get to you. Enjoy the weekend.

What is outrageous about what the Times wrote? But push back? Exactly what does this mean? By whom? The DOE, or the parrots of the Daily News and the Post? Me thinks the latter, as seen by the sycophantic editorial in Friday's Daily News. But why is Klein only sharing the results of the NAEP's with Whitney? Why not share it with the world? Dang, share the results with me. But what sickens me the most is Klein starting the email off with urban slang, "shout out." So, so lame Joel.

So Whitney blabbered back to fourteen minutes later;

From: Whitney Tilson [mailto:wtilson@t2partnersllc.com]
Sent: Friday, July 30, 2010 4:57 PM
To: Klein Joel I.
Subject: RE: test data

Thx for the heads up on the Daily News editorial – I’ll include it in my next email.

Please send me whatever you have on the results.

Thx!

What is surprising to me is that Whitney did not know about the Daily News editorial until Klein mentioned it? Of course not. You think that Whitney would dare be caught reading the Daily News? But shouldn't he read it? I have always thought of the Daily News, besides having the best sports section in town, a working class, blue collar paper. Whitney somewhat is there for the working class, blue collar type, no? I mean he says so. From his latest email;

2) The major civil rights organizations, with few exceptions, have been gutless weasels and completely disgraced themselves in siding with the unions against meaningful reforms of a public school system that systematically, all over the country, gives black and Latino students the very worst teachers and schools, thereby trapping black and Latino communities in multi-generational cycles of poverty, violence and despair. In light of this sorry history, this week’s press release criticizing Obama’s education reform initiatives isn’t a surprise…but it sure is pathetic… It’s one thing for unions to throw poor and minority kids under the bus – heck, it’s their fiduciary obligation to look out for the best interests of their members – but for civil rights organizations to do so?!?!

So basically Whitney you know more than the NAACP? Let me ask you this. Would you go stand up in front of an NAACP meeting and say "gutless weasels?" Would you tell this same meeting they are disgraceful? Yeah, I didn't think so. Perhaps you are the gutless weasel?

But thank you so much for painting with the broadest of brushes all teachers that aren't in some charter school or school of your approval. So any other teacher in your mind is the worst? DO you have some type of proof? I mean cold hard facts, and please don't use test scores since the scores have been discredited.

The NAACP, to the best of my recollection, teamed up with the UFT, not to save union jobs, but to save their community. To have a VOICE in the affairs of their community. This is what you are missing Whitney. I have been in the South Bronx for fifteen years. I am but a guest in the community. I will never suppose that I know what is best for the community. You aren't even a guest, at best you, and all your type, are interlopers.

But Whitney, since you decided to claim with that same broad brush in regard to the poor education and schools that, "thereby trapping black and Latino communities in multi-generational cycles of poverty, violence and despair."

It has nothing to do with the home? Nothing to do with what is around them? And you know this how? Have you ever been in the 'hood? I mean alone, without a posse? Not inside a car or limo, but out on the street? Do you know what the challenges are inside a school that teachers face each and every day? And I am not saying challenges as an excuse, but a fact. A fact that I know each and every teacher relishes.

You said it yourself in your July 21 email, and which I blogged about on July 26. You said in regard to the home environment concerning technology of which is not in a vacuum, but across the whole learning specter, "Where such environments are conducive to student learning (as a result, for example, of strong parental direction and support).

Point, set, match. Both Whitney and Klein deserve one another. Two peas in a pod.