Joel Klein Calls Out NYC Mayoral Candidates

I’m sorry to have missed it, but I hear that Joel Klein gave a great speech at the recent National Charter School Conf blasting the panderpalooza among the NYC Dem mayoral candidates:

Former New York City schools chancellor Joel Klein plans to insert himself into the mayoral race Tuesday in a speech that fiercely defends the Bloomberg administration's school policies while accusing most candidates of a "complete lack of courage" on education.

The decision marks a departure for Mr. Klein, who has remained largely out of the public discourse on New York City education after leaving the post nearly three years ago.

But as the mayoral campaign heats up, he appears to be responding to criticism from 

Democratic candidates of the policies he helped shape and execute during his eight years at the helm of the nation's largest school system. When he left the Bloomberg administration in 2010, 

Mr. Klein joined News Corp, FOXA -0.65% which owns The Wall Street Journal, to run its education technology company.

"It saddens me to see, as we approach the end of the Bloomberg administration, a complete lack of courage among most of the candidates running to replace him when it comes to choice in education," Mr. Klein plans to say at the annual meeting of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools in Washington, D.C., according to a copy of prepared remarks reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

He also takes aim at "entrenched, powerful and bureaucratic interests with much to lose from a change in the status quo."

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