Everyone kicks PA.'s Education Secretary on His Way Out - Good Riddance

[JPZenger]

Unpopular PA. Education Secretary Tomalis has been replaced. Don't worry too much about him - Corbett appointed him to be an aide to the Governor at the exact same salary.

Most people involved in public education hated Tomalis for being an arrogant dick. However, he may have been replaced because the right-wingers didn't think he was enough of a dick - and didn't forcibly push through statewide tax-payer funded vouchers for private schools.

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http://www.mcall.com/news/breaking/mc-pa-corbett-tomlalis-harner-20130515,0,1590242.story

Excerpts:

"State Rep. Bernie O'Neill said Tomalis' background was a detriment. He did not have the experience of running a classroom or a school, O'Neill said. "He's never walked in those shoes," said O'Neill, a former teacher. "I am very pleased with the person who is replacing him because of his background in education."

Rep. Steve Samuelson criticized Tomalis and Corbett for creating an unfair playing field by excluding charter school staff from new teacher evaluations and trying to ease testing standards for charter schools. He also slammed Corbett for keeping Tomalis on the payroll. "Adding an additional bureaucrat is what the governor is doing here," Samuelson said.

Stuart Knade, interim executive director of the Pennsylvania School Boards Association, said he hopes Harner fosters better relationships between the state and districts than Tomalis did.
"I think it's safe to say the working relationship between Secretary Tomalis and public school leaders around the state was not a productive product," Knade said."

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Meet the new boss - same as the old boss?

http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/state/corbett-expected-to-name-new-education-secretary-687689/

The good news is that the new Education Secretary actually ran a large public school district in PA., (although that is an affluent suburban district where every child is above average). The bad news is that he never was a teacher. He spent many years in the military.

Excerpt from article:

"Mr. Harner almost became superintendent of Toledo Public Schools several years ago, but the deal fell apart due to Mr. Harner's requirement that he live outside the district and that the district pay to send his daughter to a $13,600 per-year private school, according to The Blade of Toledo, Ohio.

..."I found Mr. Tomalis to be arrogant and not to be an advocate for public education," said James Giel, president of the boards of the Shaler Area School District and the Allegheny Intermediate Unit. Mr. Giel said he recalled meeting with Mr. Tomalis two years ago at Hampton High School and "he didn't get the plight of those of us in public education."

[JPZenger]

1. Harrisburg Patriot-News' Perspective

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2013/05/latest_shake-up_in_corbett_adm.html#incart_m-rpt-2

Excerpts:

"It was clear this was not a move that Tomalis wanted, but rather one forced upon him.... Additionally, sources say there was dissatisfaction with some decisions Tomalis made involving the near-collapse of the Chester-Upland School District that required the state and federal courts to get involved. He also made some school choice advocates unhappy by cracking down on poor-performing charter schools.

...Some were surprised by the timing of the announcement about the change at the education department's helm, with Common Core standards now under siege and the state budget deadline nearing. They said delaying the announcement about Tomalis' departure until July 1 would have looked better for him and saved face for the administration that now is drawing media attention for its inner friction.

...Another person close to the situation called the whole matter another example of the dysfunction within the front office of the administration that has now seen its fifth Cabinet officer depart since October.

“It also gets him out from having an education secretary who was viewed as a sharp-edged ideologue, someone who was really identified with school choice,” Madonna said."

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There are some great public comments under that article, including the following:

"Those in the know, will tell you (off-off-off the record) that Corbett has a pretty nasty temper. Combined with a total lack of willingness to accept responsibility for his own ineptitude and twice the amount of self-esteem he's entitled to, it doesn't exactly add up to happy times at work. If you had a dollar for every state employee working on his resume (during work hours) you might be able to make a donation to Tommy's campaign that would get his attention."

"What the environment needs protection from most is the Corbett Administration. "

[Pat Riot]

2. Sounds like

an out-of-the-frying-pan-into-the-fire situation.

"Yes, I will head your school district as long as I don't have to live there or send my kid there."

[femmocrat]

3. A little about Harner:

Dr. William Harner, currently the superintendent of Cumberland Valley School District in Mechanicsburg, will take over for Tomalis pending Senate approval. Harner spent 20 years in the military and has garnered an impressive resume in education since then. He has served as a middle school principal, a superintendent and as the deputy chief executive officer of the School District of Philadelphia. Harner was also an administrator at a New Orleans school district designed to deal with underperforming schools, overseeing nine school buildings post-Katrina.

http://www.politicspa.com/gov-corbett-taps-william-harner-as-new-education-secretary/48090/

I didn't do a lot of digging, but this article says that his teaching experience was at West Point. I wonder how he became a middle school principal (one year in Philadelphia, I think) without the requisite five years teaching experience. I wonder if he is a graduate of one of those instant-urban-principal "academies"?