And If You Choose Not To Receive An Education, 75 Cents Will Be Credited To Your Hotel Bill

First, I’m kind of disturbed that the mayor doesn’t write stuff down:

Mayor Michael Bloomberg defended the confidential search for New York City’s new schools chancellor, saying an open search would have been untenable. The mayor also said Friday that he keeps a list of potential candidates in his head for high-level jobs in his administration.

“We spent a lot of time looking around the world for the best people and we have a list of people in my mind,” he said. “Always trying to think if any of our commissioners or deputy mayors, you know, the way I phrase it got hit by a truck — just as a euphemism — I know pretty much who I would make my first call to to see if we could get somebody to fill in right away.”

Aren’t there a lot of really awesome things — or candidates, even — that kind of slip out of your mind about five minutes later? Doesn’t he own an iPad or something?

Second, you would also think that with a position as important — even it’s only “first and foremost” a “managerial post” — as schools chancellor, that at least one other person would be interviewed or contacted. That’s not the case, and as it turns out, the mayor’s candidate wasn’t even interviewed, either.

This is one of those stories you talk about as you’re getting ready to go work — one of those things you see or read or hear and kind of say “for reals?” It makes me wonder if this is what people who voted for his third term were hoping for. It makes me want to read a snarky Adam Lisberg column.

Now you could argue, as some have, that the chancellor position is a figurehead position that doesn’t require extensive education background, that there are people below the figurehead who do the policy and heavy lifting. Fair enough, but then you see that two top Board of Education officials just resigned and that argument suddenly seems weaker.

And while it’s not unusual to have an “outsider” run a school system, in those cases there is usually a more transparent recruiting process. That makes sense — it’s a leap of faith to allow a business leader or a military sergeant run a school system. But ask yourself this — even if it’s OK to have, say, a school superintendent run Hearst Magazines, wouldn’t the board of directors (and its stockholders) want to make sure that the selection process was as thorough and un-capricious as possible? Or is that how you “run a business”?

Cool. Awesome. Third term.

Maybe She Really Will Shake Up The Schools? After All, She Does Come From An Industry Where They Seem To Excel At Laying Off People

Either that, or they’ll just get by with a bunch of freelancers:

Asked when she last set foot in a public school, [Cathie Black] told the Daily News she was in Harlem Village Academy last year — a charter school where she’s on the advisory board.

Bloomberg said Black is a world-class manager who can rely on city Education Department staffers to fill any gaps in her knowledge.

She’s also a choice from inside the mayor’s social circles.

Black’s two children attended the Kent School, a posh, private boarding school in Connecticut where tuition is $45,000 a year.

She also has a house in tony Southampton, L.I., is a registered Republican and made $500,000 last year just from serving on the boards of IBM and Coca-Cola.

“I did have a public search, and I picked the best person,” Bloomberg said, although New Yorkers never knew he was looking for a new schools leader.

“I thought of Cathie Black . . . somebody I’ve known for a long time,” Bloomberg said. “I could check in terms of what she’s really done, what people have thought about her during her whole career. The check was relatively easy because they happen to be people that I know.”

And then there’s this:

Her departure apparently came as a surprise to colleagues at Hearst, as her appointment did to senior officials in the Department of Education. One senior education official, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to talk to reporters, said many of the department’s leaders learned of Ms. Black’s selection right before it was announced, and few of them seemed to know anything about her.

Who knows — maybe it some sort of Harriet Miers Feint, and what he really wants is Michelle Rhee or something . . .

Get Your History Straight!

Wow, people really have no idea where they are, what they’re seeing or who they’re urinating next to:

“Get away from me, f—. I don’t like gay people,” Matthew Francis, 21, of Holgate Street in Willowbrook, is accused of telling his alleged 34-year-old victim, just before he and Christopher Orlando, 17, of the 400-block of Doane Avenue in Great Kills, attacked the man.

The confrontation happened at about 1:55 a.m. in the Christopher Street bar.

Prosecutors allege that the victim was at a urinal, when one of the men asked if he was “gay.” He laughed and responded that they were in the Stonewall, a gay bar.

It’s unclear if either Francis or Orlando knew the history of the Stonewall, or if they were in a gay bar.

Francis responded with the “get away from me,” remark, prosecutors allege, adding, “I don’t want you (urinating) next to me…. Give me a dollar. Give me a 20.”

Not just idiocy — romantic comedy levels of idiocy.

Don’t Believe The Gripe/Why Tenure Is Awesome

It’s all part of the mayor’s plan to ease or even eliminate tenure rules:

A sex-worker-turned-teacher blabbed about her exploits on a popular website the same day she was granted tenure, officials said yesterday.

. . .

“I said, ‘Well, you know, call her, tell her that she is being removed from the classroom,’ ” [Mayor Bloomberg] said yesterday.

You Would Think They Would Be Satisfied With Getting Away With One

But no, they have to want more:

While the idea of imposing a two-term limit for city officials will be on the ballot this November, those elected before the 2013 election would not be affected. That would give sitting City Council members the opportunity to run for a third term, regardless of how New Yorkers vote this fall.

. . .

. . . [T]he speaker of the City Council, Christine C. Quinn, has argued that sitting Council members should be given the chance to run for a third term, out of fairness, since they were elected under the existing law.

. . .

The decision by the commission effectively means that a two-term limit would not be uniformly enforced on the entire Council until 2021.