New NYC Schools Chancellor Cathy Black

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There has been much controversy around the appointment of Cathy Black, a former corporate CEO of a magazine publishing company, to the position of chancellor of New York City's public schools. Not only does she have no experience in the field of education, but she attended private schools and sends her children to private boarding schools. Her opponents say she can't possibly identify with the parents, students, and even teachers in NYC's inner-city schools. Yesterday, she proved her opponents right when she made an off-handed joke in a committee meeting that the way to solve the overcrowding in city schools would be birth control. Of course the "joke" fell flat on its face, because not only was it not funny, but condescending, racist, and inaccurate because the overcrowding of the district in question [lower Manhattan] is not due to too many children being born. Rather, it is due to the conversion of the financial district into a partially-residential zone, and the resulting conversion of many former office buildings into residential buildings. Also, in the Lower East Side and Chinatown, there has been a construction boom of high-rise luxury apartment houses, resulting in more families moving in with children. So what do you think? Is Cathy Black the right person to head NYC's public schools?