Fwd: [eddra] RE: Competition for EDDRA?

[Susan Harman <susanharman@igc.org>]

  Chris is an exceptionally talented and versatile manager

Didnt Edison nearly go broke and have to be bailed out?

Susan

Begin forwarded message:

  From: "Zwerling, Harris [PA]" <hzwerling@psea.org>

  Date: Thu Jul 10, 2008 5:04:48 PM US/Eastern

  To: eddra@yahoogroups.com

  Subject: [eddra] RE: Competition for EDDRA?

  http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/22/nyregion/22cerf.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&pagewanted=print
  
  
  
  December 22, 2006

  School Entrepreneur Named to Be a Deputy Chancellor

  By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN

  Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein yesterday appointed the former president of
  Edison Schools Inc., the world’s largest for-profit operator of public
  schools, as a deputy chancellor, perhaps the boldest move yet in the
  Bloomberg administration’s effort to increase the role of the private sector
  in managing city public schools.

  The former Edison president, Chris Cerf, is a longtime friend of Mr. Klein
  and has been a consultant to the city’s Education Department since early this
  year, paid with private donations. He is part of a team that has been
  re-evaluating virtually every aspect of the overhaul of the school system in
  Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s first term.

  The consulting deal ends Dec. 31, after which Mr. Cerf will be deputy
  chancellor for operational strategy, human capital and external affairs — a
  $196,571-a-year post that will formalize his role in Mr. Klein’s inner circle
  and make him the system’s top official for labor relations and negotiations,
  principal and teacher recruitment and training, media relations and political
  affairs.

  The chancellor, who is 60, and his new deputy, who is 52, have much in
  common. Both clerked at the United States Supreme Court — Mr. Cerf for
  Justice Sandra Day O’Connor — and both worked as lawyers in the Clinton White
  House. Both spent time in private law practice in Washington. They even share
  the astrological sign Scorpio.

  But it is their shared view that the private sector should play a major role
  in public education that may be most significant to their work in the
  nation’s largest school system. Mr. Cerf has been deeply involved in the
  “empowerment initiative,” the recent effort to free principals from the
  oversight of superintendents provided that they sign an agreement to meet
  performance targets.

  Some officials believe the logical next step in that process would be to hire
  private groups to manage networks of schools run by such principals. The
  private groups, which officials said might be nonprofit groups or for-profit
  companies like Edison, would oversee schools, would be responsible for
  results and could be fired if test scores lagged.

  In a statement, Mr. Klein said, “Chris is an exceptionally talented and
  versatile manager whose insight and advice were invaluable to me as we
  reformed the system this year.”

  Mr. Cerf said he was “honored.”

  In his new post, Mr. Cerf will not be directly responsible for the effort to
  free up principals but will rather assume the wider portfolio of deputy
  chancellor.

  Mr. Cerf is not the first consultant, initially paid with private donations,
  to take on a larger role at taxpayer expense. The consulting firm, Alvarez &
  Marsal, which was also part of the re-evaluation of the mayor’s overhaul
  earlier this year, was given a $15.8 million contract to continue its work
  reorganizing the school system’s financial operations.

  Mr. Cerf has most recently been a partner in the Public-Private Strategy
  Group, a consulting firm based in Montclair, N.J. As president of chief
  operating officer at Edison, he helped the company’s founder, H. Christopher
  Whittle, navigate numerous troubles, including an outcry over its handling of
  schools in Philadelphia.

  Before attending law school at Columbia, he worked for four years as a high
  school history teacher in Cincinnati.

  "PSEA E-mail Firewall" annotation on Thu Jul 10 2008 17:04:54
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