Former Chancellor of the New York City schools Joel Klein visited Rye Free Reading Room January 13 to discuss the future of public education and his new book “Lessons of Hope.”

By Tom McDermott

Former Chancellor of the New York City schools Joel Klein visited Rye Free Reading Room January 13 to discuss the future of public education and his new book “Lessons of Hope.”

Klein, who brought charges against Microsoft when he was head of the Clinton Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, is now CEO of Amplify, the education division of News Corp.

He served in Mayor Bloomberg’s administration and was a controversial leader who tried to promote higher teacher-student standards and increased openings of charter schools. He told an attentive audience that he wrote the book partially because he thinks we have a crisis of inequality in education, and because he believes that most people have no clue about what life is really like inside a huge bureaucracy.

Given his equality theme, the paper asked Klein how communities near Rye, like Port Chester, Mount Vernon, New Rochelle, or Yonkers which score particularly low – around 20% – on state proficiency tests could ever catch up to Rye schools and students. Klein said he did not have an answer, that maybe it was better to just start all over again.

The former chancellor was proud to have moved New York City high school graduation rates from 45% to 68%, but feels that overall his team was able to move the education ball maybe a third of the way to an acceptable goal.

Afterwards, Klein signed copies of his book, ably assisted by Patrick Corcoran, owner of Arcade Books, where it is now available.