Mayor Takes On School Critics

More kudos to ConnCAN for stirring up a hornet's nest -- and then not backing down from this unwarranted attack by the pathetic mayor (DeStephano) and school super (Reggie Mayo) of New Haven (where I was born, by the way).  Mayo is the worst kind of super (unfortunately, his type is all too common) -- a don't-rock-the-boat enemy of reform, yet politically savvy and barely competent enough to avoid getting fired.  He's also a thug, as I've highlighted in three previous emails: http://edreform.blogspot.com/2006/05/reggies-world.html, http://edreform.blogspot.com/2006/07/schools-showdown.html and http://edreform.blogspot.com/2006/07/education-discussion-turns-chaotic.html.

The exchange is the latest chapter in ongoing tensions growing out of criticism of the city's school system by a New Haven-based advocacy group called Connecticut Coalition for Achievement Now (ConnCAN). Mayor DeStefano accuses the group of being basically a front for charter schools. The group calls itself a constructive independent voice for closing the achievement gap through better-performing schools of all kinds.

For more on Mayo and New Haven, see this article in the Yale Daily News: http://www.yaledailynews.com/articles/view/21566


Mayor Takes On School Critics
by Paul Bass | September 24, 2007 2:22 PM
New Haven Register

www.newhavenindependent.org/archives/2007/09/mayor_takes_on.php <http://www.newhavenindependent.org/archives/2007/09/mayor_takes_on.php>

Who should meet with whom? That's one unresolved question in a testy exchange of letters between local education reformers and the mayor and schools superintendent.
The exchange is the latest chapter in ongoing tensions growing out of criticism of the city's school system by a New Haven-based advocacy group called Connecticut Coalition for Achievement Now.  Mayor DeStefano accuses the group of being basically a front for charter schools. The group calls itself a constructive independent voice for closing the achievement gap through better-performing schools of all kinds.