Posted on 03/12/2004 1:35:19 PM PST by Davis
Diana Lam, New York City's Deputy Chancellor fir Reading and Learning, was canned on Monday last, forced by her boss, Chancellor Joel Klein, to resign her $250,000 job.
Faithful Conning Tower readers could not have been surprised because I had written these prophetic words in this space a mere three months ago.
Diana Lam will get her walking papers soon, and the lamentable Mr. Klein will follow her.
True, I hadn't figured she would be busted for having commanded that her husband be hired ASAP as a supervisor at a neat $100K salary while ignoring his lack of certification for the job and failing to clear his appointment with the Conflict of Interest Board. Oh, did I mention that her minions bungled their task of deleting the computer evidence? Well, it's true, as a special commissioner of investigations reported last Friday after having been on the job since last August.
Soul-satisfying it is to see justice triumph. No one should shed tears at Lam's departure. Those who intimate that it is unfortunate she should be dismissed for action on the periphery, unethical conduct concerning hiring her husband's hiring, are missing the point. This business of taking the system for a ride, conning it, is the essence of Lam's activities. She conned school systems in San Antonio, Providence, Portland, Oregon, and finally New York City.
Yes, that's the truth of it. You can read all about the absurdity of her reading program in Ignorance, a Conversation with Trentino. City Journal's Sol Stern has covered it effectively, too.
According to an eminent gent of my acquaintance, Joel Klein is a brilliant lawyer. Maybe he is, but brilliant lawyers are supposed to be skeptical, caca-resistant. They are supposed to be able to bone up on an unfamiliar subject and be able to tackle its experts. Clearly, Klein didn't do his bonework here. He was unable to recognize that Diana Lam's reading program was preposterous mumbo-jumbo, vintage educrap. He was conned, gulled, bamboozled, reduced to declaring that all that New York City's schoolkids need is "motivation." He is utterly ignorant of the scientific evidence concerning how kids learn to read and fail to learn to read, and about "no excuses" education.
It's time for us to get serious about education, time to put grownups in charge. It's time for Joel Klein to move on
"fir Reading and Learning?
What's 'fir'?
Down here in Tejas they use the word 'fer', instead of 'fir' as it seems they do in NYCity; like in "ferinstance" (bad choice - that's all one word) or "it's fer yer own good" ('yer' is another one - rather than the more formal 'your', it's also universal - 'yer' can also suffice for the oft misued "you're" contraction as in "yer right") ...
Talk about liars and crooks.....that was Lam and her husband and those who facilitated the lies they perpetrated.
Not to mention the failed education plan she put in place.
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