September 15, 2003

Joel Klein, New York City Schools Chancellor

TFK Kid Reporter Wilfred Gomez talks to the man in charge of the nation's largest school district

By Wilfred Gomez

On September 10, the leader of our nation's largest school district gave about 200 fourth graders a lesson on the Declaration of Independence. I had the opportunity to listen in on New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein's explanation of what the Declaration means to Americans. I also had the chance to interview the Chancellor about the Declaration and the New York City schools.

Chancellor Klein explains some of the Declaration's most important points.

TFK: How did you feel when you were asked to be the New York City Schools Chancellor?
Joel Klein: I was both very excited and a little overwhelmed. I was excited because I think it's such an important job and I care so much about the education of youngsters. I was overwhelmed because there are 1.1 million kids in our school system, and I know that they can get a better education than they've been getting.

TFK: What made you decide to make such a huge career change from law to education?
Joel Klein: Well, because so many of our students are just not getting the education that I think they deserve, and if you don't change it than it's going to be the same. We have students who are failing out, students who are not learning to read, so I thought we have to make some very significant changes.

TFK: What do you enjoy most about working in education?
Joel Klein: I enjoy the kids. I enjoy spending time with them, I enjoy seeing them learn, and I enjoy seeing them excited about learning. That's my favorite part of the job.

TFK: What do you think is the biggest problem facing New York City's schools and how do you plan to address it?
Joel Klein: I think the biggest problem is that we have a lot of schools that we're not happy with or our families are not happy with. I plan to address it by changing each one of those schools to make them schools that our families and our kids will be proud of.

After Chancellor Klein's lesson, kids wrote down ideas for their own declarations.

TFK: Why is the Declaration of Independence, a document written over 200 years ago, so important for fourth graders to learn about? What can it teach us kids?
Joel Klein: It's important because it's the foundation of liberty and freedom in our country. If you don't learn about the history of your country, the struggles your country has had for freedom and liberty, then you may not feel the same way about freedom and liberty. If you are informed, then I think that you will carry on the fight for freedom and liberty. And unless we are always prepared to fight for freedom, liberty and equality then our country will not be as strong as it could be.

TFK: How important is the Declaration of Independence to a lawyer? To a School's Chancellor?
Joel Klein: It's very important to a lawyer, to a School's Chancellor, to fourth grade students, and to every freedom-loving human being in the entire world. It is one of the greatest documents written in history. It goes down with the Magna Carta, the Constitution - these are documents that really transformed the world. So this is very, very important to all of us.

TFK: I know the Department of Education wants to pay parents and people in the community to help the schools. How will paying parents to talk with teachers more often help our schools?

TFK Kid Reporter Wilfred Gomez listens to Chancellor Klein.

Joel Klein: We want parents to get more involved with our schools because we want them to feel that the schools support them and their children. And then we want them to make sure that their children do their homework, get to school on time, all the things that are so important. Right now a lot of our parents don't feel so good about our schools, so we want to make them feel much more welcome and involved.

TFK: How important is it to visit schools and how often do you plan to do that?
Joel Klein: It is very important to visit schools. Last year I tried to visit at least one school every week, but I did more than that. This year I've visited six schools in the first three days. By the end of this week I'll probably be in nine or ten schools.

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