Alvarez & Marsal LLC

A round table discussion with reporters planned by Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, scheduled for noon today at the Tweed Courthouse, was just cancelled. A spokeswoman for the DOE didn't have an explanation.

I'm not sure if this has anything to do with it, but Betsy Gotbaum's people were really looking forward to the event, and had even sent reporters a press release suggesting few questions.

Here they are:

1. "Isn't it true that the majority of the gains in 4th grade reading and math scores, so widely touted by this Administration, happened between 2002 and 2003, before the DOE instituted its changes?

2. "Isn't it true that the DOE awarded corporate restructuring firm Alvarez & Marsal (A&M) a $15.8 million no-bid contract after A&M "restructured" St. Louis' schools and left the city struggling to pay off $30 million A&M borrowed for operating costs?

3. "Isn't it true that ten different deputy chancellors have come and gone through the DOE over the past five years, including three deputy chancellors for teaching and learning?

4. "Isn't it true that DOE has hired the former head of Edison to oversee the privatization of New York City schools, despite the fact that two independent studies have shown that the privatization by Edison and other companies in Philadelphia produced no significant gains in student achievement to justify the additional $100 million cost?"

-- Azi Paybarah

City Comptroller Bill Thompson isn't finished whacking the city's Department of Education.

He released a letter earlier today essentially accusing one of the department's high-priced private consultants, Alvarez and Marsal, of professional laziness for creating a plan for city schools that looks eerily similar to the one they created for hurricane-ravaged New Orleans.

That's problematic because, as Thompson notes:

"The glaring dissimilarity, however, is that the New Orleans public school system has a student population of 26,000 as opposed to the 1.1 million New York children in public schools.

"Whether the New Orleans plan is scalable to work in New York and whether it is appropriate to implement the plan without public recognition of its origin is questionable. If A&M is profiting from marketing as its own the plan of others, then that also leaves much to be desired."

The full letter is here [pdf].

-- Azi Paybarah

The good news: the city's Department of Education has achieved $89 million in cost-cutting measures, thanks to some advice from an outside consultant.

The bad news: the consultants, Alvarez and Marsal, cost the department $15.8 million.

That's pretty expensive advice.

So in an attempt, perhaps, to wring every last cent of value out of the firm's work, City Council Education Committee Chairman Robert Jackson said at a hearing this morning that he wanted copies of every recommendation made by Alvarez and Marsal -- even the ones that weren't put into practice The DOE refused.

The recommendations that were accepted by the DOE, they said, have already been made public. And turning over the full list of proposals from A&M would breach the confidential communication the DOE has with consultants and would make it harder to get candid information from outside advisers in the future, they said.

Jackson's attempt to get copies of those recommendations is here.

-- Azi Paybarah