To hear The New York Times tell it, minor or spurious allegations, often anonymous, are derailing the careers of some of the city public schools’ most effective reformers. But the facts the Times didn’t share make the story a lot more complicated.
We don’t doubt that such “assassination” efforts exist: Entrenched forces determined to preserve the public-school system’s status quo will use any means necessary.Indeed, Mayor Bill de Blasio — defending City Hall’s inability to substantiate most sexual-harassment complaints filed by city workers — cited the “hyper-complaint dynamic” at the Department of Education.
But there’s more to the specific cases cited in the Times’ front-page exposé Monday — facts The Post laid out in extensive detail.
The most glaring example is the case of Kathleen Elvin, removed as principal of Brooklyn’s John Dewey HS in 2015 — only, as the Times puts it, to be “exonerated by arbitrators of all or most of the charges.”
That’s true in a small sense — but false in the bigger picture.
Elvin was fired in 2015 after The Post exposed a massive diploma giveaway that awarded bogus credits to hundreds of failing Dewey students through a program the kids called “Easy Pass.”
DOE confirmed that the students were listed on class rosters and given “packets” of work but no actual instruction time by certified teachers. Elvin and others reportedly orchestrated the scheme in order to boost the school’s graduation rate.
Yes, a hearing officer dismissed the charges against her — not because they weren’t true. Rather, she claimed the central office had approved of her actions — and DOE refused to turn over the relevant records.
In short, it seems then-Chancellor Carmen Fariña was a de facto accomplice, rubber-stamping the sham credits — and DOE let Elvin skate rather than reveal the truth.
After all, a state audit this March substantiated the original allegations, finding that 75 percent of students were wrongly awarded diplomas after taking the phony “credit recovery” courses. The audit also slammed DOE for shrugging off the findings.
Phony allegations may well be used as weapons. But that hardly means every target is a reformer.