Joel Klein, ex NYC schools chancellor, seated right behind James Murdoch.

I thought that was interesting. He left his post as CEO with Mayor Bloomberg's NYC schools to join Murdoch's empire. Now he is the go to guy for the Murdochs during the investigation.

He is right behind James Murdoch in this picture.


Picture from BBC News

Murdoch's lieutenants will report directly to former NYC schools CEO Joel Klein for clean-up



More from the New York Daily News.

Waiting on Joel Klein to hear truth about News of the World hacking scandal



Just as soon as he left the NYC schools post, a no-bid contract was awarded to Murdoch's company by the NY Department of Education. That is public taxpayer money going to Murdoch.

New York State Department of Education awards News Corp. company $27M no-bid contract



From running NYC schools with an iron hand and much contempt for public school teachers straight to the Murdochs. That could possibly tell us something about what's behind the scenes in education reform.

It really does.

:shrug:

Somebody--pls post a picture of Mr Burns!!!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Burns

:rofl: What a lineup

That's funny. :hi:

From the First Post:

http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/81916,people,news,real-star-of-the-murdoch-show-is-joel-dobby-klein

"As the world grappled with James Murdoch's jargon-packed and verbose responses to the Commons culture select committee, it seems there was one question on the minds of Twitter account holders: who was that man sitting behind him with the long face and the green tie?

The answer is Joel Klein, former head of New York City's Education Department, who joined News Corp as executive vice-president in November 2010.

A week ago, he was chosen to replace Rebekah Brooks - the former head of the News International who was arrested on Sunday - as head of the internal NI investigation into the escalating phone hacking scandal.

Although some have suggested that Rupert Murdoch made the appointment as a PR move, those close to Klein say that it is unlikely that he would allow himself to be used in such a way."

Read more: http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/81916,people,news,real-star-of-the-murdoch-show-is-joel-dobby-klein#ixzz1Sa4Jymxd

http://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2011/06/another-super-mugging-ny-state.html


Already, the state’s intention to grant this contract to Klein et. al. has been criticized by Susan Lerner of Common Cause: "It just smacks of an old-boys club, where large amounts of public money are spent based not on 'is this the best product?' E.D. Kain of Forbes writes that the decision “reeks of cronyism.”

In support of their request, SED claims that Wireless has received “national recognition from Arne Duncan.” Of course, Duncan has also called Joel Klein, who stands to benefit financially from the deal, “a good, good friend of mine.”

The letter also reveals that the Gates Foundation, which pushed data systems and testing as part of "Race to the Top", has also selected Wireless to “build its national Shared Learning Infrastructure,” in what is likely to prove a generous windfall for Joel Klein and Rupert Murdoch.

The SED letter requesting the waiver claims that Wireless has invested “significant time and resources in end-user research with NYC DOE educators to determine the ideal ways to display information for educators to engage in data-driven instruction… focus groups of educators and administrators.”





http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SM-tTrM4r_o/TfEsIJ9hTxI/AAAAAAAACPI/qrIjjDS2WV8/s1600/gates+on+wireless.JPG




http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2AM1vkhX68g/TfEu_6wfMII/AAAAAAAACPQ/LryHrHLHfCU/s1600/duncan+on+wireless.JPG

And they have the power and money. Public educators don't have that advantage.

I don't think he is being used, I think he is more than willing to be a part of this global attack on democracy. And what better way than to run one of the New World Order's propaganda machines.

n/t

From WSJ(!):

Before Mr. Klein became Chancellor, he was chairman and chief executive officer of Bertelsmann, Inc., and chief U.S. liaison officer to Bertelsmann AG from January 2001 to July 2002. Bertelsmann, one of the world’s largest media companies, has annual revenues exceeding $20 billion and employs more than 76,000 people in 54 countries.

SOURCE: http://topics.wsj.com/person/K/joel-klein/6284

Thank you for the heads-up on one of Mayor Bloomberg's Rupert Murdoch's main men, madfloridian.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303795304576454174252540488.html

"Perhaps nobody has risen more quickly in the News Corp. hierarchy than Mr. Klein. The 64-year-old joined News Corp. six months ago to help Mr. Murdoch carve out a role in the education business. Two weeks ago, he was huddled with Mr. Murdoch and a few close advisers in Sun Valley, Idaho, at the Allen & Co. media conference, helping craft the company's response to events in real time, people familiar with the matter say.

Mr. Murdoch subsequently formalized Mr. Klein's role at the center of the response to the crisis, announcing that he had selected the former education reformer to "provide important oversight and guidance" and that Mr. Klein, along with News Corp. board member Viet Dinh, would keep the board apprised. By last Wednesdayevening, Mr. Klein was on a plane to London to help manage the crisis from its core.

Mr. Klein's new responsibilities have raised questions about whether an executive is best suited to oversee anything resembling an investigation into his company's conduct.

On Monday, News Corp. announced it had named Lord Grabiner, a commercial lawyer, to head an independent management and standards committee to help investigate the phone-hacking allegations. The committee will report to Mr. Klein, who in turn will report to Mr. Dinh."

extent and I hope hearings are called for, as someone suggested today, in the Senate, rather than Congress, to finally rid this country of the poisonous influences of these Global Corporate entities and their Propaganda Machines.

I hope Klein is investigated also. And Ailes and the rest of the suspects.

Murdoch may have been involved in our educational system also, I read recently.

He was at the G8 meetings last month speaking about education to World Leaders. I wonder what caused his rapid fall? Lots we do not know at this point.

I think you are right. I believe Murdoch has been involved in all this reform all along.

The reformers are merciless and ruthless, and they do not want to hear what educators have to say.

just one month ago. The brutality of the attacks on Teachers and teachers unions, are unbelievable and I would not be surprised to learn that his minions have been a part of it all. I haven't had time to research it, but his interest in education was a red flag and bears looking into, imho.

It is ruthless and ugly.

Seems odd. Also that the camera had him in full view throughout the hearing. At one point he took his glasses off and used his tie to clean them. :rofl: I kept thinking "who is that creepy man?" but, assumed he was one of Murdoch's lawyer.

EDIT:

I didn't realize that Klein has the job of defending Murdoch against the investigation...and so that's why he was sitting there.

I checked Wiki to get my self up to speed on Joel Klein.

--------

In the 1990s Klein served in the White House Counsel's office under President Bill Clinton before being appointed to the United States Department of Justice. There he served as United States Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Antitrust Division. In this capacity, he was the lead prosecutor in the antitrust case United States v. Microsoft. Prior to his appointment to Chancellor in 2002<2> by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Klein was Counsel to Bertelsmann, an international media group.

Klein was rumored to be one of Barack Obama's candidates for Secretary of Education.<3> Ultimately, the position went to the Chief Executive Officer of the Chicago Public Schools, Arne Duncan.



---------------------

Klein is married to Nicole Seligman, General Counsel to Howard Stringer of Sony Corp. Seligman represented former President Bill Clinton during impeachment proceedings in the United States Senate.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joel_Klein

http://www.democracynow.org/2011/7/19/nyc_schools_approve_27_million_deal


Well, actually Joel Klein, when he announced he was resigning from being chancellor of the Department of Education in New York City, immediately announced that he would head Rupert Murdoch’s new online learning division of News Corp., and in January he left to become head of this division. Right after he announced he was resigning, Murdoch bought Wireless Generation, which had contracts with the New York City Department of Education. And when there was a controversy about that, Murdoch’s spokesperson said that he had not consulted with Joel Klein before buying this company, which is very unconvincing, because if you hire someone to head your new online learning division, it’s somehow unrealistic to expect that you didn’t discuss it with the person who’s heading that division.

But in any case, a few weeks ago, it was announced by the New York State Education Department that they plan to give a $27 million no-bid contract to Wireless Generation to produce a statewide data system that would gather all the information, the academic information and personal information, of students throughout the state in order to track their academic progress. And obviously there are a number of concerns that we have with this contract. Number one, with all the allegations about phone hacking, etc., we really have concerns about the privacy of New York state and students, because anyone who has access to that information will have to guard it very closely. And secondly, the whole issue of no-bid contracts is one that we have concerns about, because obviously we want to have taxpayers get their money’s worth. We don’t want to open up the public coffers wide for the Murdoch companies to make money off of our kids.


And we also have concerns because we have this product in New York City that Wireless created, a data system called ARIS, which cost us already $80 million and is widely believed and discussed openly as an inferior product. There are many other data systems that are much better, and principals and teachers have said that this is a very inferior product, it’s not useful, and it was a really big waste of money. It’s widely conceded to have been a big waste of money when New York City acquired it. So now for it to go statewide really brings up yet another issue, which is conflict of interest. Why was this contract awarded Wireless Generation, when in New York City the data system is so widely regarded as being a failure?

It's a good thing these people never conspire together to cheat the schools out of money.

However, it does seem quite the coinkydink that a database that would involve all the school kids in NY for just 27M is being given to a corp now known to conspire to ruin people's lives.

But I'm sure it's just business.....

for WGen to build its national Shared Learning Infrastructure - which should cover the rest of the nation's kids.

so they can learn how to be real teachers in the classroom?

And not have to worry about years of learning about how kids learn, and the best methods?

Conceivably, the technology could allow even more exciting (and controversial) applications. For instance, Indian PhDs could one day be remote coaching calculus teachers, especially in cash-strapped schools forced to fill classes with unprepared teachers.



Note: "especially in cash strapped schools"....you know, those schools that the 'reformers' cash strapped.