Joel Klein is the most powerful city school's chancellor in over three decades. This former anti-trust lawyer is the first to be appointed head of the school system since the landmark bill in 2002 that changed the way public education in New York is governed. The legislation significantly expanded the school chancellor's power to reshape a city agency that serves 1.1 million school children.

Chancellor Joel Klein and Professor Diane Ravitch

Radical changes are underway at the Department of Education. Chancellor Klein is in the process of abolishing 40 local school districts and replacing them with 10 regional divisions; he is ordering that a new standard curriculum be adopted in all but 209 of the system's top performing schools; and he plans to fire about fifty school principals.

Chancellor Klein was interviewed at the Department of Education's new headquarters on February 6, 2003.

One of Klein's most outspoken critics is Diane Ravitch, a historian and research professor of education at New York University. She's the author of THE GREAT SCHOOL WARS: NEW YORK CITY, 1805-1973 and LEFT BACK: A CENTURY OF FAILED SCHOOL REFORMS among other titles. She was interviewed at her home on February 12, 2003.

Read the complete text of Rafael Pi Roman's interview with School's Chancellor Joel Klein, and NYU Professor Diane Ravitch.