Copyright 2008 The New York Sun Mon, 29 Sep 2008 09:11:41 -0400 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Andrew Wolf :: Stories from The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/authors/Andrew+Wolf istoll@nysun.com (Ira Stoll) webmaster@nysun.com en-us ANDREW WOLF http://www.nysun.com/opinion/school-change-we-can-believe/86764/ Mon, 29 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST For the past six-and-a-half years I have frequently occupied space on these pages sounding off on everything from nepotism in Bronx politics to politically induced fear of eating French fries or Frosted Flakes. Most often I have written about our schools. I came to this task with a point of view, influenced by the events of 1968 and 1969, turbulent years for society, but particularly for New York's schools. The city's power elite, centered around well-meaning philanthropists and non-profit... ANDREW WOLF http://www.nysun.com/opinion/for-love-of-a-ballpark/86310/ Mon, 22 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST The last game of Major League baseball has been played at Yankee Stadium, following an incredible outpouring of nostalgia and reminiscences. Now the vultures are swooping down to sell off the great coliseum, piece by piece. Seats will fetch about a $1,000 each, someone is ready to package the dirt from the field, holy ground to millions of baseball fans throughout the world, and even the urinals will be sold for their "historic" value. It wasn't supposed to be this way. When the announcement... ANDREW WOLF http://www.nysun.com/opinion/pass-the-frosted-flakes/85806/ Mon, 15 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST Michael Phelps, the Olympic champion, is understandably trying to capitalize on his remarkable athletic achievements. In reality, there is little money to be made from swimming. There are no pro swim teams, or other professional competition for which he could be compensated. So in time-honored tradition, Mr. Phelps is seeking his fortune through endorsements. Last month he delivered endorsements for Kellogg's Frosted Flakes and McDonalds Restaurants. He might as well have endorsed firearms for... ANDREW WOLF http://www.nysun.com/new-york/bronx-democrats-in-post-primary-disarray/85646/ Thu, 11 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST The defeat suffered by the Bronx County Democratic organization, which lost every race in which it supported a candidate in Tuesday's primary, may mean new leadership for the county party. The organization was opposed by a so-called rainbow coalition of legislators, which includes prominent black, white, and Hispanic lawmakers from throughout the borough. That coalition is expected by political observers and activists to move quickly to depose the current Democratic leader, Assemblyman Jose... ANDREW WOLF http://www.nysun.com/opinion/finding-a-flawed-structure/85235/ Fri, 5 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST A commission, appointed by Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum, has recommended a revision in the State Education law, putting restrictions on the power of the mayor to run the city's public schools. Lurking in the background is the 800-pound gorilla in the room, the issue of term limits. The two issues are intertwined, and indeed the mayor's inflexibility, rejecting any proposal for change in school governance, suggests that he will indeed move to end or modify term limits, to allow him to run for a... ANDREW WOLF http://www.nysun.com/opinion/panning-for-fools-gold/84885/ Fri, 29 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST It is now just 10 months before the expensive experiment that is mayoral control of Gotham's public schools is set to expire. And as parents ready their children for the start of classes Tuesday, the news has been released that the average S.A.T. scores have declined here once again. There was no press extravaganza. No Power Point presentations, no top officials, union leaders at their side, beaming as the results were outlined. No, troubling test results turn out to be an orphan. One could ask... ANDREW WOLF http://www.nysun.com/opinion/save-yankee-stadium-babes-granddaughter-says-yes/84425/ Fri, 22 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST Last month, I said that the "old" Yankee Stadium, slated to be demolished after the current baseball season, should be preserved. I suggested that there are ways that we can not only protect this unique piece of our American heritage, but make it profitable for the city and its residents as well. That column generated quite a bit of interest, with readers weighing in on both sides of the issue, but mostly in favor of halting the wrecking ball. I was flattered and excited by the support I... ANDREW WOLF http://www.nysun.com/opinion/hobsons-choice/83937/ Fri, 15 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST If you are dissatisfied with the political leadership in your community, I have a cure for you: come to the Bronx. Maybe your elected officials are skimming from the town treasury, or perhaps they are cheating on their spouses. Perhaps they have sold their vote so that the DigWeMust Development Company can do their digging on your block. Or maybe they can be found driving through the streets on any given night with a blood alcohol content well above the legal limit. In the Bronx we have a term... ANDREW WOLF http://www.nysun.com/opinion/how-much-mayoral-control/83592/ Mon, 11 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST A third group has begun public hearings on the future of mayoral control of the public schools, due to sunset in less than a year, on July 1, 2009. This panel, the "New York City School Governance Task Force," is sponsored by the New York State Senate Democratic minority. It may well be the Democratic majority come January, which would greatly diminish the mayor's clout in Albany. Although Mr. Bloomberg abandoned his membership in the Republican Party to become an independent, he left his... ANDREW WOLF http://www.nysun.com/opinion/waiting-for-the-regents/83115/ Mon, 4 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST Could it be that just a few short years ago, at the top of the list of news stories in our city and state were the machinations surrounding the lawsuit filed by the Campaign for Fiscal Equity to "adequately" fund New York's schools? I have written on this topic in this space perhaps a dozen times during the past six years, each time cautioning that the idea that merely spending more money will result in better outcomes. But for all our spending --and education expenditures have increased in the... ANDREW WOLF http://www.nysun.com/opinion/fasten-your-seatbelts/82614/ Fri, 25 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST If we were somehow travel ahead in time, say a decade from now, and land in New York City, one thing is for certain: we will be still be talking of the crisis in education, complaining about graduation rates, wringing our hands over the loss of our competitive position in the world marketplace. The Bloomberg reforms? They will fade away as surely as the morning dew. How do I know this? Because in a way we can already make that journey through time, and evaluate the results of a reform effort... ANDREW WOLF http://www.nysun.com/opinion/save-yankee-stadium/82184/ Fri, 18 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST It came as an relief to me that our Landmarks Preservation Commission has designated 30 mostly forgettable buildings along the west side of Manhattan as the "West Chelsea Historic District." I can now sleep soundly secure in the knowledge that the R.C. Williams and Co. building, the Berlin and Jones Envelope Co. building, the Wolff Building and the Wolff Building Annex, and 26 others will be protected from the wrecking ball. Meanwhile, several miles to the north, wrecking crews are anticipating... ANDREW WOLF http://www.nysun.com/opinion/school-lessons-from-china/81699/ Fri, 11 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST Next week, some 30 educators from Shenzhen, China are attending seminars sponsored by the College of Mount St. Vincent "to study the concepts, practices, institutions, policies, and learning strategies embedded ... specifically within New York City where test scores are ever improving, and put those concepts into practice back in China," according to the announcement of the program released by the college. I would suggest that perhaps we turn things around and have the Chinese educators teach... ANDREW WOLF http://www.nysun.com/opinion/three-american-originals/81196/ Thu, 3 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST The Fourth of July marks the anniversary of the independence of America, a time to reflect on the greatness of our nation and all sorts of high-minded civic concerns. For me, however, it's an opportunity to reflect on another aspect of America's greatness and ingenuity, the great jazz music pioneered by Louis Armstrong. Armstrong's birthday traditionally is celebrated on the Fourth of July. It is said that Satchmo thought that he was born on the Fourth of July of 1900. But research since he... ANDREW WOLF http://www.nysun.com/opinion/middle-management/80815/ Fri, 27 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST When one digs into the testing data released by the State Education Department earlier this week, one comes up with some surprises. The huge across the board gains in the statewide math and English language arts tests would suggest that all children should be doing better. But one group seems to be adrift when it comes to the English test. Curiously, it is not the low performers, special education students, minorities, English language learners, or other "at risk" groups that is lagging behind... ANDREW WOLF http://www.nysun.com/opinion/civil-rights-or-good-instruction/80392/ Fri, 20 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST Unmarked vans from a private courier service were sent out last week by the Department of Education to deliver the news to lucky families whose children were admitted to the gifted programs around the city. Now comes news that the results undermine the whole rationale of the Bloomberg administration for restructuring the popular programs. A front-page story in yesterday's Times told the tale. After a second round of restructuring last year failed to increase the numbers of minority children, a... ANDREW WOLF http://www.nysun.com/opinion/the-ikea-that-never-was/79878/ Thu, 12 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST On a visit to Washington, D.C. many years ago, a slick advertising supplement fell out of my morning newspaper. It was for a store I had never heard of, but immediately wished there was a branch in the New York area. The booklet was filled with the kind of furniture that would appeal to people who appreciated modern design and incredibly low prices, in other words many New Yorkers like me. So I celebrate the opening of the city's first Ikea branch in Red Hook, Brooklyn. I had hoped that the... ANDREW WOLF http://www.nysun.com/opinion/for-whom-beller-tolls/79427/ Fri, 6 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST The issue of mayoral control of the schools is due to end at midnight on June 30, 2009. If the state legislature and governor fail to act, the current Department of Education will disappear and revert into the old Board of Education at 12:01 a.m. the following day. This is unlikely to happen, but what is likely is that there will be changes in the law that will rein in some of the mayor's powers over the schools. In getting to an improved governing structure for the schools, there is likely to... ANDREW WOLF http://www.nysun.com/opinion/the-phoney-war/78937/ Fri, 30 May 2008 00:00:00 EST The specific issue in New York City's public schools that has caused the most recent brouhaha is how much we spend on teaching our students. In this dust-up, all parties manage to come out on the wrong side. Expenditures for education already have risen to more than $20 billion a year from $12.5 billion six years ago, without any objective indicator that would suggest that we are on the path to success. There was a time when the mayor himself would criticize the $12.5 billion figure, asking not... ANDREW WOLF http://www.nysun.com/opinion/the-education-of-ms-quinn/77403/ Fri, 23 May 2008 00:00:00 EST Correction Appended "We're lawmakers, not education experts," City Council Speaker Quinn declared in a breakfast speech Tuesday. She proceeded to wring her hands over cuts of $191 million to the schools. If she really wants to be mayor, better she should be asking how the administration squandered the $8 billion added to the budget these past six years, even as the system serves 60,000 fewer students, and why the results are so lackluster. When the Board of Estimate was struck down by the... ANDREW WOLF http://www.nysun.com/opinion/commissioner-on-the-hot-seat/76567/ Fri, 16 May 2008 00:00:00 EST The National Assessment Governing Board is in town, here for their quarterly meeting, the site of which rotates around the country. It is New York City's turn to host the board, which represent a glimmer of hope in a largely bleak educational landscape. NAGB is a federal agency that is truly non-partisan in the political sense. Think of it as a sort of bureau of weights and measures, providing a common measuring stick to measure the academic performance of our children. It is NAGB that puts... ANDREW WOLF http://www.nysun.com/opinion/herman-badillos-vision/75717/ Fri, 2 May 2008 00:00:00 EST Herman Badillo is too much of a gentleman to use his speech accepting the Manhattan Institute's Alexander Hamilton Award last week to attack the Department of Education over the half-hearted implementation of Mr. Badillo's pet program to end "social promotion" in our public schools. But the elder statesman still made his point clear, reminding all present that this pernicious practice still lives. During the years bridging the administrations of Mayors Wagner and Bloomberg, Mr. Badillo's... ANDREW WOLF http://www.nysun.com/opinion/new-yorks-academic-race-learning-from-siena/75335/ Fri, 25 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EST Students celebrated their spring vacation last week in the medieval town of Siena, Italy. And within the town walls are lessons for those who run schools in America's cities, particularly here in Gotham. Among these Siennese students were a number graduating from the University of Siena, just now completing their degrees. Gathering with friends and family in the vicinity of the Piazza del Campo, the graduates could easily be identified — they were the ones wearing laurels on their heads — from... ANDREW WOLF http://www.nysun.com/opinion/mccann-school-of-education/74928/ Fri, 18 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EST Mayor La Guardia was famous for his insistence on high levels of integrity on the part of the police. In those days, long before computers and CompStat were even dreamed of, lore has it that precinct commanders made themselves look good by "assigning" complaints to "Detective McCann." Detective McCann was slang for the precinct's garbage can. With the departure of LaGuardia from City Hall in 1946, official tolerance of crime grew, along with the political power of organized crime figures such... ANDREW WOLF http://www.nysun.com/opinion/making-do-with-fewer-dollars/74557/ Fri, 11 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EST In the midst of the state financial crisis, the governor and legislature still found funds in the budget to increase education spending across the state by a record $1.75 billion dollars. School spending has long been at the center of a key public policy debate, one that was "resolved" by a settlement of the long standing Campaign for Fiscal Equity lawsuit. That lawsuit began as an effort to create a uniform funding formula that would insure that New York City schoolchildren would get a "fair"... ANDREW WOLF http://www.nysun.com/opinion/history-for-the-speaker/74191/ Fri, 4 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EST In the late 1750s, fed up with steep tolls on the King's Bridge, then the only link between New York and the American mainland, the business community of the day underwrote the construction of the Farmers Free Bridge between Manhattan and what we now call the Bronx. The opening was celebrated at the time by a great barbecue on New Years Day, 1759. In short order, the toll revenue dried up on the King's Bridge, and the levies were abandoned. The lure of free travel to the mainland turned out to... ANDREW WOLF http://www.nysun.com/opinion/patersons-pocketbook/73823/ Fri, 28 Mar 2008 00:00:00 EST Good government types are quick to limit and monitor contributions to political campaigns. After all, we don't want Assemblyman Jones to be unduly influenced by the $250 contribution sent by Citizen Smith who works for a bank that just happens to have legislation pending before some committee on which the good Assemblyman serves. The problem is that the real corruption occurs not when the money comes in, but rather when it goes out. Scrutiny of this may be the sea change that will come out of... ANDREW WOLF http://www.nysun.com/opinion/why-i-drive/73472/ Mon, 24 Mar 2008 00:00:00 EST Last week, I spent a half hour debating with Transportation Commissioner Jannette Sadik-Khan over the issue of congestion pricing. Ms. Sadik-Khan came to my Bronx office to pitch her case to the editorial board of the Bronx Press and Riverdale Review newspapers, which I publish. I have come to the conclusion that congestion pricing is bad public policy for the city. For the vast majority of New Yorkers, those of us in the outer boroughs and upper Manhattan, having an automobile is a defining... ANDREW WOLF http://www.nysun.com/opinion/future-of-commuting/72489/ Fri, 7 Mar 2008 00:00:00 EST We're coming into the home stretch on Mayor Bloomberg's "Congestion Pricing" tax plan. The City Council and the state Legislature need to pass or reject this proposal by the end of March, the deadline for coming up with a plan that will enable the city to obtain several hundred millions of federal dollars to help get the scheme underway. This is money on which we would be well advised to pass, funds that will move us in the wrong direction as we plan for our city's future. I have previously... ANDREW WOLF http://www.nysun.com/opinion/whizzing-by/72195/ Mon, 3 Mar 2008 00:00:00 EST Immigrant children outperform some native-born children in New York schools, my colleague Sarah Garland reported the other day. Indeed, it seems the longer newly-arrived children attend our schools, the worse they do. These conclusions come from a new study, "Do Immigrants Differ From Migrants?" "The foreign born are whizzing by the native born at every level," one of the researchers, Amy Ellen Schwartz, said. Ms. Schwartz, together with Leanna Stiefel, both of the Institute for Education and... ANDREW WOLF http://www.nysun.com/opinion/lesson-of-the-bagel-man/71015/ Fri, 8 Feb 2008 00:00:00 EST Mayor Bloomberg, with the connivance of Council Speaker Quinn, has proposed permitting the addition of 1,500 vendors to city streets. These vendors have long been a source of contention. In some cases they so crowd certain streets that they become a public nuisance, which is the rationale for having government regulate them. Those who sell the same wares in conventional stores hate the street vendors with particular passion. After all, who wants a competitor opening up right in front of his... ANDREW WOLF http://www.nysun.com/opinion/reverse-commuter-tax/70578/ Fri, 1 Feb 2008 00:00:00 EST The commission appointed to "study" the mayor's congestion pricing initiative has come up with a proposal that hardly changes the original plan. This commission was front-loaded with committed proponents of the idea, a kangaroo court if ever there was one — if kangaroos acquit. There now seems to be a shift in emphasis away from claims by proponents that congestion pricing reduces traffic (only a 6% reduction is projected) or will clear pollution from the air and cure children of asthma. There... ANDREW WOLF http://www.nysun.com/opinion/breaking-the-education-truce/70356/ Tue, 29 Jan 2008 00:00:00 EST Quite a debate among advocates of school choice has been ignited by Sol Stern's article on school choice in the current number of City Journal. Mr. Stern is a longtime advocate of school choice, whose book "Breaking Free: Public School Lessons and the Imperative of School Choice" is a bible to many in the voucher movement. Now Mr. Stern, in "School Choice Isn't Enough," suggests that for choice to work, close attention must be paid to how and what children are taught in the classroom. Without... ANDREW WOLF http://www.nysun.com/opinion/getting-beyond-d/69773/ Fri, 18 Jan 2008 00:00:00 EST Nothing will grab a headline faster than rating schools with a letter grade. We saw it here in New York City when the Department of Education recently assigned grades to all of its schools. Last week, the national trade newspaper, Education Week, released its "grades" for each of the 50 states. Astoundingly, on the top of the list with a composite total grade of "B" in this "Quality Counts" evaluation, is the State of New York. A closer examination of these results clarified the situation... ANDREW WOLF http://www.nysun.com/opinion/bronx-hello-daddy/69383/ Fri, 11 Jan 2008 00:00:00 EST If you are looking for a reason why the economic good times in the city seem to have passed by the borough of the Bronx, events in recent days should offer some clues. In a national atmosphere where the word of the day is change, in the Bronx, among the poorest places in the entire nation, the watchword is "more of the same." A game of political musical chairs is being played in the borough, designed to insure that the "dynasties" that benefit a handful of well-connected families are... ANDREW WOLF http://www.nysun.com/opinion/resorting-to-cheating/68924/ Fri, 4 Jan 2008 00:00:00 EST On Tuesday, elementary school pupils in the city will sharpen their number two pencils and sit down for two or three days of the state's English language arts test. The following Tuesday, it will be the turn of middle school students. The stakes couldn't be higher. Not so much for the students, since only a small proportion in only some grades are held back, despite the city's policy of "ending" social promotion. The real pressure is on the principals and teachers to "perform." A number of... ANDREW WOLF http://www.nysun.com/opinion/report-from-new-orleans/68801/ Wed, 2 Jan 2008 00:00:00 EST NEW ORLEANS, December 27 — Visiting the crescent city for the first time since Hurricane Katrina hit has been an eye-opener. I am amazed that the candidates for president, all so eager to show how they alone embrace the concept of "change," aren't highlighting the failure of the public and private sectors to address the emergency. The French Quarter and Garden Districts, so beloved by tourists, emerged largely intact, and the great restaurants are mostly reopened. Still, more than two years... ANDREW WOLF http://www.nysun.com/opinion/did-the-dog-eat-millss-homework/68480/ Fri, 21 Dec 2007 00:00:00 EST A lot is now riding on the examinations administered each year by the State of New York. The state uses these results to determine compliance with the federal No Child Left Behind law, and failure to maintain "annual yearly progress" determines whether students are permitted to transfer out of a school or receive supplemental tutoring at taxpayer expense and even whether a school should be closed. The city uses these tests to determine the new "report card" grades of schools, upon which depend... ANDREW WOLF http://www.nysun.com/opinion/whacking-groundhogs/68107/ Fri, 14 Dec 2007 00:00:00 EST Debate on the mayor's congestion tax scheme is about to get into high gear. It is clear that there will be modifications to the mayor's plan. But we need to put aside those details. The main question before us is whether we are willing to open the door to the congestion tax in the first place. The details are immaterial. I am sure that those who created the first income taxes or sales taxes to meet "emergency" needs would be horrified to see what became of their ideas years later. Tolls... ANDREW WOLF http://www.nysun.com/opinion/farewell-to-ps-79/67685/ Fri, 7 Dec 2007 00:00:00 EST It isn't often that I hear the name of my old junior high school on the radio, but on Wednesday morning I was greeted by the news of its impending demise. Despite test scores that, while not stellar, were not even near the bottom of the pack, Chancellor Klein announced that P.S. 79 is being "closed." Closing is less drastic than one would think. Most of the educators will keep their jobs. What will change is the number of the school or schools that will reside in this venerable old building... ANDREW WOLF http://www.nysun.com/opinion/hold-the-phone/67328/ Fri, 30 Nov 2007 00:00:00 EST Two seemingly unrelated news stories intersected the Thursday before Thanksgiving, and the result was a public relations disaster for the Department of Education. But things might have been worse. Coverage of a troublesome third story, which happened simultaneously, seems to have fallen through the cracks. When the Department leaked word of a squad of lawyers hired to find ways to dismiss low performing teachers, led by a former prosecutor, the story quickly grabbed attention. That such a legal... ANDREW WOLF http://www.nysun.com/opinion/gifted-but-no-cigar/66573/ Fri, 16 Nov 2007 00:00:00 EST The sooner that the Department of Education abandons the idea that classes for gifted and talented children are some sort of civil rights program, the better off we will all be. Two weeks ago, Chancellor Klein announced another restructuring of the city's gifted and talented programs, the third such effort in as many years. What is the reason behind all of this attention? The quest for "equity." The problem is that gifted programs are not about equity. On the contrary, they are about inequality... ANDREW WOLF http://www.nysun.com/opinion/how-not-to-grade-schools/66226/ Fri, 9 Nov 2007 00:00:00 EST The creation of school report cards with letter grades attached is an intriguing concept, which explains the enthusiasm by the editorial boards here in Gotham. At its center is a simple idea I advanced in this space more than five years ago, value added testing. On October 4, 2002, I wrote, "The best schools are not necessarily those that score highest, but rather those that achieve the greatest improvement of their individual students. Only if we look at the schools by this measure can we... ANDREW WOLF http://www.nysun.com/opinion/in-praise-of-congestion/65755/ Fri, 2 Nov 2007 00:00:00 EST In recent weeks I have spent a lot of time thinking about the reasons that I, and many others, occasionally drive into Manhattan, causing all this awful congestion that we hear so much about. My conclusion is that Mayor Bloomberg and other supporters of a congestion tax should be careful for what they wish. We may be a lot better off with congestion than without it. Suffice it to say that when I do drive into Manhattan it is not to take a joyride to pass the time. Every time I drive into the... ANDREW WOLF http://www.nysun.com/opinion/mario-biaggi-at-90/65429/ Mon, 29 Oct 2007 00:00:00 EST One of the most intriguing figures in New York's recent political history showed that he could still bring out a crowd — and some key officials — nearly 20 years after his own political career ended in the worst possible circumstances. Mario Biaggi celebrated his 90th birthday Saturday evening surrounded by hundreds of family, friends, and admirers. Among those present were Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly and his wife Veronica, Congressmen Charles Rangel and Peter King, Ambassador Charles... ANDREW WOLF http://www.nysun.com/opinion/socialism-for-schools/64902/ Fri, 19 Oct 2007 00:00:00 EST Anyone who harbors the notion that Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Klein have just won a victory over the teachers' union by gaining approval of a merit pay scheme had best look more closely. The plan announced on Tuesday was indeed a "slam dunk," but not by the mayor and chancellor. It is the president of the United Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten, who leaves the bargaining table victorious. It may be a "historic" deal with national implications, but it is one that increases the power... ANDREW WOLF http://www.nysun.com/opinion/return-to-evander-high/64462/ Fri, 12 Oct 2007 00:00:00 EST On Wednesday a dispatch came from Cleveland with the disturbing news of another incident of a troubled student coming to school with firearms and turning those weapons on his classmates and teachers. The youngster, 14-year-old Asa Coon, a freshman who was under suspension, arrived at school in the early afternoon with two handguns, went up two flights of stairs to a crowded hallway, and opened fire. Two students and two teachers were injured before the young man fatally turned a gun on himself... ANDREW WOLF http://www.nysun.com/opinion/passport-to-buffalo/64008/ Fri, 5 Oct 2007 00:00:00 EST Governor Spitzer's proposal to ease identification requirements for a New York State driver's license is turning into an astounding pile-up. I can appreciate the arguments on both sides of the issue. The Motor Vehicle Bureau is ill-equipped to enforce immigration laws, but should we be officially validating the identity of individuals who are here illegally? The problem comes from the custom we have developed in the United States of using a driver's license as a de facto national identity card... ANDREW WOLF http://www.nysun.com/opinion/troubling-age-to-come/63554/ Fri, 28 Sep 2007 00:00:00 EST There wasn't much to celebrate when the National Assessment of Educational Progress test results disclosed earlier this week. The news wasn't particularly good nationally, with scores that were largely flat as compared with the results two years ago, deflating some of the president's arguments as America reconsiders the No Child Left Behind law. Nor was there much positive news here in the Empire State. There is one state that can look upon the results released this week with a great deal of... ANDREW WOLF http://www.nysun.com/opinion/revisiting-school-reform/63166/ Fri, 21 Sep 2007 00:00:00 EST It hasn't escaped the notice of the city's politicians that in less than two years, unless mayoral control of the public schools is affirmatively ratified by the state legislature, the old Board of Education will rise like a phoenix from the ashes, along with the much-maligned 32 community school boards. Two commissions have been appointed this week to study the future governance of the schools, one by the City Council, the other by the public advocate, Betsy Gotbaum. The Council panel has...