Thursday, June 25, 2009

L.A.'s Cortines wants to be Supreme Leader

"It doesn't have to be me..."
What the system needs now, it doesn't have to be me, is a benevolent dictator, and it needs it for a period of time, probably 3 to 5 years and then you need to turn it back to the community.” (LA Magazine)
Latest from inside Chicago's school "Renaissance"
In Chicago, elementary schools and high schools are suspending and expelling students at alarming rates and African American male students are bearing the brunt of these punishments. (Catalyst)
No cigar for Russo

Russo thinks he found Duncan's exact "ton of bricks" quote. But he gets no cigar. The one he found is from March. I'm looking for the bricks he threw at last weekend's charter school conference in D.C. Anybody? Anybody?

3 comments:

  1. This is an interesting view, because Cortines was superintendent of my school district, San Francisco Unified, before I had kids or was involved in school or otherwise paying attention. But I've talked to many veterans about him, and blogged about their views when he became LAUSD supe (this time around). So I can tell you that in SFUSD, he was viewed as self-effacing, humble, accessible and generally the opposite of someone who would want to be "supreme leader."

    ReplyDelete
  2. What a lesson to students--when things are tough, turn to dictatorship!

    That's what the Ayatollah thinks too.

    Deb

    ReplyDelete
  3. Maybe there's something in that L.A. drinking water. Or maybe he's still self-effacing and humble in his own dictatorial way. He does say that the new dictator "doesn't have to be me." And the dictatorship he's calling for is a "benevolent" one. Bush's "compassionate conservatism" comes to mind.

    ReplyDelete

Agree? Disagree? Let me hear from you.