Rosa, in brief remarks to conclude a Zoom meeting, called for an educational renaissance in New York. Our state, our nation and the world are at a crossroads, she said. We must rebuild in new ways and on many levels. I submit that investing in education is foundational to our recovery and the future of our state and nation.
Rosa is the first Latina commissioner, as she was the first Latina chancellor of the Board of Regents from 2016 until she stepped down to serve as interim commissioner. She had served on the Board of Regents, representing the Bronx, since 2008.
Last month, the Regents chose Lester Young, a former Brooklyn principal, as their new chancellor, essentially the chairperson – the first Black chancellor in state history.
The Social Order
In late 2014, I met with Naftuli Moster, a bright and charismatic graduate student at Hunter College who grew up in Brooklyn’s Hasidic community. He was interested in studying Hasidic parents’ attitudes toward secular (nonreligious) education an area that I have long researched and written about.
I gave him the best guidance I could: how to write a survey, how to get buy-in from the community, whether to use Yiddish or English, and how to ensure that his sample was as representative as possible.
I eventually realized that his aim was not data collection. A month later, the