The ever perceptive Peter Greene watched the Cuomo Teacher-Demolition Derby from afar and found it a disgraceful spectacle.
He couldn’t decide which was worse: Cuomo’s lust to crush the teachers, who stood by watching him coming with an axe in hand, or the Assembly Democrats, who wailed that they voted for Cuomo’s plan with a heavy heart but did it anyway. As someone tweeted earlier today, “Probably they had a heavy heart because they had no spine.”
Greene writes, for starters:
This has truly been the most bizarre thing I have ever seen. An unpopular proposal that guts teaching as a profession and kicks public education in the teeth, sails through the NY legislature.
Yes, “sails through.” There’s nothing else to call a budget that is approved 92-54.
NY Democrats tried to make it look like less of a total victory-in-a-walk for public education opponent Andrew Cuomo by making sad pouty faces and issuing various meaningless mouth noises while going ahead and voting for the damn thing. “Ohh, woes and sadderations,” they cried as they took turns walking to the podium to give Cuomo exactly the tools he wanted for helping to put an end to teaching as a profession in New York state.
I am not sure what Democrats hoped to accomplish by taking to the podium and twitter to say how deeply, tragically burdened they were. I mean, I guess you’d like to know that people who club baby seals feel a little bit bad about it, but it really doesn’t make a lot of difference to the baby seal, who is in fact still dead.
Maybe the lesson here is that the craziest person in the room controls the conversation. The person who’s willing to ram the car right into the sheer rock face gets to navigate the trip, and Cuomo has displayed repeatedly that he really doesn’t care what has to be smashed up. If the world isn’t going to go on his way, it doesn’t need to go on for anybody.
But if teachers needed reason #2,416 to understand that Democrats simply aren’t friends to public education, there it was, biting its quivering lip and sniffling, “I feel really bad about this” as it tied up education and fired it out of a cannon so that it could land directly under a bus that had been dropped off the Empire State Building.
Hell, even Campbell Brown must be a little gobsmacked, as Cuomo’s budgetary bludgeoning of tenure and job security rules has made her lawsuit unnecessary. The Big Standardized Tests results will continue their reign of teacher evaluation, dropping random and baseless scores onto the heads of New York educators like the feces of so many flying pigs. And all new teachers need to do to get their (soon-to-be-meaningless) tenure is get the random VAM dice to throw up snake-eyes four times in a row. Meanwhile, school districts can go out back to the magic money trees to find the financing for hiring the “outside evaluators” who will provide the cherry on top of the VAM sauce.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Isn’t Cuomo doing what the noble voters of New York State elected him to do? Hasn’t he been promising to do this?
Like nearly every elected Democrat, Cuomo is determined to destroy the teachers unions because they are the only organized opposition to converting a very large part of public schools into corporate schools. Republicans join with that effort because they want to destroy one of the main sources of money and people for Democratic campaign.
The problem is that most voters all over the country seem to think this is a grand good idea. At least for the public schools attended by children other than their own. Like a lot of very bad ideas, it will be tried for decades before it dawns on the majority of voters that it’s a bad idea. I’m still waiting for them to change their minds about cutting taxes on the rich in the belief that it will improve employment and wages, or reducing spending on support programs during a severe depression, or a host of other Reagan Era political/economic nonsense.
“Today’s agreement puts in place a groundbreaking new statewide teacher evaluation system that will put students first and make New York a national leader in holding teachers accountable for student achievement. This agreement is exactly what is needed to transform our state’s public education system, and I am pleased that by working together and putting the needs of students ahead of politics we were able to reach this agreement.”
-Andrew Cuomo
February 16, 2012
I spoke with our State Assemblyman about this issue for nearly 2 hours – he is very aware of the systematic destruction of public education, but explained that the courts allow extensions of the budget to include all the provisions in the Governor’s budget, so the only opportunity for altering his terrible plan is to either vote now on the amended- but still horrible- budget, or allow the government to shut down entirely and negotiate from that position. I walked away wanting to create a letter and petition campaign insisting that the Assembly refuse Cuomo’s budget and endure the shutdown of the government, that we will support a government shutdown over this terrible budget. But the public does not understand what is at stake and would resent the interruption of services etc. Unfortunately the Governor holds outsize power in NY, and is happy to use it to further his agenda and bully those with opposing ideas, no matter their credibility.
I understand the crushing disappointment when nothing we do makes a difference.
That is because the only power we the people have is through the law, and when those at the top ARE the law, we are powerless… and there is only one thing to do, as Diane points out, and that is to VOTE them out.
We can do it.
Yes, we can vote them out. But the general public, even though they support teachers, does not understand what this eval law will do to our schools. A large majority of people do not understand the link between big money, greed, and the destruction of an institution they value.
So, we can vote them out. But they will be replaced by politicians who are also owned by big money. As long as our society allows big money to finance our elected officials democracy can’t exist.
You are preaching to the choir. I write about this at OENhttp://www.opednews.com/author/comments/author40790.html
and your point is true, but th only way we can counter the influxx of dark money, is to actively choose and then HELP THOSE WE CHOOSE, by educating the public at a grassroots level…this takes time and people,not tv ads…
That is why Diane, Anthony ,Leonie and the others created the NPE , to build a network so that we can counter the huge impact of altho money. We can find people with integrity (like Bernie Sanders, for example) and mobilize everyone we know to get the vote out.
It is the only way.
Yes, vote them out of office.
Unfortunately the citizens of this country have been brainwashed into thinking there are ONLy two choices…REPs and DEMs. SAD.
Right now look at TPP! Save us. Obama wants to FACE TRACK TPP.
This country is for sale. Connect the dots. It’s ALL connected like a dot-to-dot puzzle.
I posted this above but will post it again.
Yes the union leadership, for too long, claimed that their seat at the table was more important than organizing, educating, agitating and creating waves. They did not educate their membership about unionism. They became a service union rather than an organizing union. Too many of the union leaders at the local level also refused to educate and lead. They also led their local members to believe that their only responsibility was to pay union dues, in exchange for contract negotiations every few years and personal representation when an issue with administration might go through the grievance process.
The big question of course is what the union leadership will do now? If they plan a bold action to counteract the attack on their membership, will the membership agree to take the risk? Would the local leaders rally the troops or would they argue amongst themselves and stand in the way?
One thing is certain. If the teachers do not stand together and fight back now, thousands of good teachers will be picked off one-by-one. Teachers seeing that happen to their colleagues, will become more fearful and less willing to stand together as a union. They will rightfully wonder why they are paying close to one-thousand dollars a year in union dues for a weak and ineffectual union. They still will not understand what being a union member means and they will agree to the destruction of their union.
If I were the leader of an army of teachers, I would not allow thousands of my troops to be slaughtered without a good fight. That means going on the offensive now, not waiting to mitigate the wounds when the first casualties are being carried off the field.
Anyone who has read my story here, know why I say that ‘union leadership’ in nYC is an oxymoron. Chicago has a teacher’s union that fights for teachers. Our UFT fights to keep their union job. They need to be replaced with real leaders for the 21st century. Yes, collective bargaining is not easy, and getting a contract at all is miracle, but to many concessions are made just to show teachers ‘look, look what we got…in 9 years… but guess what… your salary will still be a sham.
If anything is to begin at the grassroots, it will begin with union organizers who get out there and SAY WHT NEEDS TO BE SAID… WHAT WE WOULD SAY… not the horsepoop top leadership uttesr!
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Texas Education.
“random dice”
All of America has become a crap shoot for the 99%.
Like the robbers they are, the thieves of Wall Street divert attention. Otherwise they would face justice.
You are absolutely correct. It was right after the economy crashed in 2008 that the war against teachers was ramped up by those responsible for crashing the economy.
They were masterful at taking the blame and shifting it onto teachers and their benefits and pensions.
Look over there everyone….. it is your neighbor, the public school teacher, with her health care benefits and her pension that is stealing from you. And look she doesn’t even deserve to be paid because the children can’t pass the tests that we designed and insist that she proctor.
Corruption and greed emanate from those who sit in the board rooms and gather around the business round tables at both the state and at the federal level.
To get an idea on how completely Democrats have adopted the GOP positions on public education, you-all should read the former Obama Administration hires who now work for ed reform groups. Here’s one- Gates funded, I think:
https://twitter.com/pcunningham57
The only time public schools are mentioned by any of these people is when they’re pushing testing. These are the people Duncan hired and surrounded himself with.
I think it can be hard to get your head around the idea that we have a large group in government who are anti-public schools, but if you read the former government hires who now work for ed reform groups you get a real feel for how completely the ed reform “movement” has captured lawmakers. It’s near- total capture.
I refused to vote for that one section of the budget that enacted these destructive policy changes. But please don’t condemn all Democrats – especially the Assembly Democrats-for the sins of a Governor who the people elected on the Democratic line. From the inside, I saw and participated in the anguished conferences where Democratic Assemblymembers time and again rejected various “compromises” and sent our negotiating team back into the lion den. At the final hour, a majority made the choice that our negotiations produced as much as they could. I thought the end product was far better than where we started but still not acceptable. I could not cast a yes vote. Assemblyman Tom Abinanti.
Assemblyman Abinanti, thank you. Fight the good fight!
Thank you for your conscience Assemblyman Abinanti.
But, as a teacher who chose to work with children who learn differently due to disabilities, I am looking at the termination of my thirty year teaching career if these destructive policy changes are enacted. The fact that some of the assembly democrats voted, “with a heavy heart”, is no consolation.
The real harm will be done to our children. Assembly members could have voted no.
Don’t stick up for your hypocritical, cowardly cohorts. You’re all shills.
Then fight harder. You were elected to represent the majority. A majority of people do not want these reforms. You should’ve stood up to the bully. You didn’t. I don’t care how agonizing it was for you. Your job is still far easier than what public school teachers and kids will face going forward. Your moral obligation is to do what is right. You are all there together making decisions on our behalf. When lousy legislation passes, it is the fault of everyone present. There is no i in team…
Rep. Abinanti,
When will you and your fellow representatives pass legislation that holds the Assembly accountable? When will you enact legislation that punishes legislators for serving the 0.1% instead of the 99%?
When will you and your colleagues answer for turning the U.S. into an oligarchy?
cuomo, the dens, union leaders are no friends of public education, teachers, kids, or families…all the more impt to sustain and build opting-out–best chance to stip the govt./bizness looting of the public sector. opt-out is still growing and will overtake these bums in the near future.