The NYC Department of Education has finally hired a new Chief Financial Officer, a position that has been vacant for two years.

So who gets the job? Only George Raab, a "former managing director" for Bear Stearns -- you know, that company that did so well they don't exist any more.

NY1 is reporting the news without comment. Other places aren't so blasé about it.

The New York Post quotes Lisa Donlan, president of the Community Education Council in District 1 in Manhattan -- she is, to say the least, skeptical. They also quote David Yassky, who apparently supports this hire.  read more »

Board of Education Chancellor Joel Klein spoke last night at the Citizens Union annual meeting. It was a great speech. Unfortunately, his actions over the past six years have been diametrically opposed to last night’s words.

I’ll list three examples:

He started by talking about the landmark 1954 Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education. Later, he returned to that decision. His words seemed to indicate that he felt it was a great decision. But recently, his new zoning and variance regulations and have led to more segregation in our schools, not less.

That’s right – this past year’s kindergarten classes were more segregated, thanks to Joel Klein. One prime example is P.S. 199 in Manhattan, a school where the older grades have a mix of minority students. The five kindergarten classes, however, contained not one African-American child among them, and few, if any, Hispanics.  read more »