An Open Letter To NYC DOE Chancellor Joel Klein

January 20, 2006

Chancellor Joel Klein
NYC Department of Education
52 Chambers Street
New York, New York 10007

Dear Chancellor Klein:

I am glad to see that you are willing to slash $200 million dollars from the bureaucracy of the NYC’s Department of Education budget and pass it directly to be spent in the classrooms – as it should have been done. However, I am amazed that you needed to spend $5 million dollars of privately donated money in order to find out where the fat needs to be cut.

We in the community could form a committee to let you know free of charge where the waste lays – where administrative funds are wasted instead of spent on our children in the classroom, and where the bureaucrats hide. Mr. Chancellor, what are the tasks and responsibilities of the already employed members of the DOE who are hired to determine the DOE’s budget and determine where moneys should be spent – and to be sure that the money goes to help educate our children and not be wasted on patronage jobs?

When the NYC DOE has to hire a private company to show them where they need to cut the fat, I say to myself, "It’s no wonder why our children’s education is suffering and why they have such poor math skills and cannot read."

Every year, we in the State legislature fight for more money for education. Millions of dollars are assigned by us legislators to the NYC DOE with the belief that this money is spent directly in the children’s classrooms – for their education. To hear now that the DOE has not known how to find waste in its own budget is shocking and makes me very sad.

Sincerely,

SenatorRuben Diaz
32nd Senatorial District