Governor Andrew Cuomo complained recently that legislators were too concerned with protecting teachers’ pensions and unconcerned with protecting children in “failing schools.”
Station WGRZ says that the average pension for retired school employees is $41,000 and change. Cuomo thinks teachers will produce higher test scores if he threatens their pensions. Apparently he wants more test prep, more teaching to the test, more narrowing of the curriculum to eliminate the arts and physical education so there is more time for testing.
Please, someone, tell the governor that threats don’t improve teaching and learning. Tell him that carrots and sticks do not get “results.”
Tell him to read Daniel Pink’s “Drive” or the research of Edward Deci and Dan Ariely on motivation. What teachers need is not threats but support, encouragement, and the resources to do their job.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The more I read about Cuomo after his re-election, the more he reminds me of a rabid dog. I think Cuomo needs a mental health checkup.
Actually it just sounds like he’s taking lessons from Christie.
Oh, Christie is another rabid dog.
Governor Cuomo seems to forget that teachers pay for their retirement benefits. It is not a “freebe” as he seems to think.
As long as the state funds the pension plan…
Hereʻs what I donʻt get about Cuomo and other politicians. What exactly puts teachers on their radar every day? Donʻt they have other issues? Itʻs like people like Gov. Cuomo, Arne Duncan and others have a sign on their desk that says, “donʻt forget, think of something to disparage, delay or totally destroy a teacher today.”
We are easy and familiar targets. Why mess with success?
“Bad Teachers”, “Greedy Teachers”, “Whining Teachers”, “Lazy Teachers”…all have been used over the years with a great deal of success when the so-called reformers are dishing their slop. Sadly, the general public responds to these memes, so they will be used until replaced with something else.
I’m usually not so cynical, but in this I am.
Rock hound – that sounds like the lyrics to a new song:
Bad teachers
Greedy Teachers
Whining teachers
Lazy Teachers
Need to be put out to rest
Failing those assessment tests
Students all should exceed
Benchmarks set beyond their means
Cuomo’s job is to discern
Pensions beyond the norm
He must get rid of us right away
Before we can collect one day
Now dry your eyes and wipe your tears
There’s life beyond the classroom years
Find a job with less scrutiny
Try for one in Albany
The pensions there are even higher
Then teachers ever could aspire
Remember, no experience is required
So luckily you have been fired
And the work load there is much less
So now you’ll know true happiness.
My apologies,
Ellen T Klock
It’s not teachers exclusively it’s education as a whole. Education is one of the last sectors of the economy that has not been infiltrated and ultimately controlled by investors, speculators and the corporate crooks.
Cuomo is pathetic!!!
Teachers better be prepared to fight him, when he calls a constitutional convention in 2017, and tries to eliminate pensions. Some of us worked a lot of years for those guaranteed pensions. And more testing is the very last thing that will improve education. Eliminating the arts and phys ed is pure madness.
During my teaching career I always marveled at those who had the idea I would work harder if I were paid more money. Back in the late sixties none of us chose teaching for the money, yet we often worked insane hours and did much we weren’t paid for at all. Offering high starting salaries will, today, attract highly qualified persons who might otherwise go elsewhere. Andrew’s point of view assumes we are all just mercenaries who teach children solely to put food in our own trough. It makes me wonder just what kind of a school he went to and what kind of people his teachers were. Certainly not like any of the places I either went to or worked in. This insanity seems to just go on and on. If the crazies eventually have their way, then schools really will have the kind of teachers these people envision. People imbued with ideals, purpose, and love of teaching will go elsewhere in the working world.
He was educated entirely at private schools.
From Wikipedia: He graduated from Saint Gerard’s School in 1971 and Archbishop Molloy High School in 1975. He received his B.A. from Fordham University in 1979, and his J.D. from Albany Law School in 1982.
Albany Law School is not affiliated with SUNY Albany.
When it came to his own children, Cuomo made a different choice than the one his parents made for him: his twins attended traditional public schools for grades 1-12 and his youngest K-12.
Tim, since you bring this point up regularly, can you please tell us the extent to which Andrew Cuomo was actively involved in his kids’ schools? You know what I mean, like providing snacks each month, going to PTA meetings, helping the sports or music boosters, field trip chaperone, etc. What contact specifically did he have with his kids’ teachers over the years? Did he attend parent-teacher conferences? Did any of his kids’ have special learning needs which required extra advocacy efforts on his part? Were his kids bullied or harassed because of their famous family?
Please, any information you provide might help convince me Andrew Cuomo has some, rather than zero, actual knowledge of NYS public schools.
Tim
What exactly is your point? Cuomo’s personal choice of public schools for his own kids is in complete conflict with his ant-teacher posturing. So why do you insist on harping on this moot point?
Yes, agree with NY Teacher. Who even knows if it was his decision anyway? Maybe the kids’ mother wanted them in public school, not him.
Tim, Tim, any thoughts? Tim? Bueller? Bueller?
“Albany Law School is not affiliated with SUNY Albany.”
Maybe that’s part of the reason it took him four tries to pass the Bar Exam.
I have recently caught Gov Cuomo making some truly stupid comments which makes me wonder about his intellect. It’s one thing to make decisions based on arrogance, it’s another to develop policies out of ignorance.
I can see why Mario (God rest his soul) and his son had a contentious relationship.
Well, anyway, Tim is wrong. I went a-Googling to learn that Cuomo’s two oldest daughters, the twins Cara and Mariah, attended a private high school, Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts. The younger daughter, Michaela, does apparently attend public school in Westchester County. She lives with her mother, Kerry Kennedy, who is RFK’s daughter (I’d forgotten the Cuomo-Kennedy connection, they’ve been divorced a while now.)
And, Cara now attends Harvard, and Mariah is at Brown. So, no public secondary or higher ed for them. Michaela’s a senior in HS. Will a SUNY be in her college future? Stay tuned!
Great find. I actually had no idea the twins finished high school at Deerfield. You can Google “Michaela Cuomo Byram Hills” to find sources showing Cara Cuomo at least started public high school before entering Deerfield, and that Michaela was a junior at Byram Hills high last year.
You can Google “Cuomo moves North Castle” to find a Times article about the press conference Cuomo and his then-wife held after enrolling their children in public schools in 2001.
I have no clue whether Cuomo was an involved parent or what if any issues his kids may have dealt with, or what went into the decision to send the kids to public schools. I was clearly wrong to say (here and in other posts) that his children went excusively to public K-12 schools. They did, however, spend plenty of time in traditional district schools.
Tim, it’s very decent of you to admit you were somewhat mistaken about the Cuomo children’s schooling.
Very well put, Nino. Perfect.
Cuomo sounds like a member of ALEC. The Kochs must be growing to love him, as they are using their Koch machine to attack both public and private pensions at state and national levels. Cuomo’s proposal reveals considerable ignorance about the persons who become quality teachers and about what they do in the classroom, not to mention ignorance about the challenges facing educators today. Additionally, having thousands of educators retire with insufficient retirement funds in coming years means a much more limited tax base to support schools in the future. Studies show that defined pensions create more stable economies within their communities, and when retirees have money to spend, they spend it in their communities.
Our future teachers are in school right now, developing their earliest ideals about what school is. Ideals that they will carry forward as they make the decision to become teachers in the future.
How many of them will develop a horrible, stunted, vision of what a public education is for and can be in the joyless testing factories that Cuomo and Tisch want to inflict upon us?
This is a good point. We chose as models from the many teachers we personally experienced growing up. What will happen to this “Model Pool”?
As a New York physical education teaceher I am curious as to where you read that Cuomo plans to “eliminate arts and physical education so there is more time for testing”. Can you please cite the web link to where he said that? I thank you greatly. -NY PE Teacher
When more time is devoted to testing, when the stakes increase on testing, when teachers are told that their jobs depend on test scores, something gets cut. What do you think gets cut first? The arts and physical education.
Thank you for your reply. I thought that Cuomo may have actually made a statement that he plans a coordinated effort to legally change PE requirements. In NYS students are required by law to have PE for a mandated amount of hours each week. (And yes, elementary schools hardly ever get all of these mandated PE hours but most middle and high schools students do indeed get these hours) Once again, I thank you for your outstanding blog!
Too bad Richy Rich (cuomo) couldn’t take 10 minutes and see this bit by Daniel Pink:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc
What’s left to remove to make time for more test prep? In Queensbury, NY they’ve cut social studies and science in elementary school down to virtually nothing at all so the day is all CCSS math and CCSS ELA with a few token specials thrown in (art, music, gym). It’s a disaster. Teachers won’t protest or say a word against it. The administration still spouts off the same old CCSS regurgitated propaganda how CCSS is so good because it will make the kids “career and college ready.” Are you kidding me? Who do they think the parents are–idiots? Do they really think we believe this propaganda?
“Teachers won’t protest or say a word against it. The administration still spouts off the same old CCSS regurgitated propaganda how CCSS is so good because it will make the kids “career and college ready.”
GAGA*ers one and all!! May they rot in hell!!
*Going Along to Get Along (GAGA): Nefarious practice of most educators who implement the edudeformers agenda even though the educators know that those educational malpractices will cause harm to the students and defile the teaching and learning process. The members of the GAGA gang are destined to be greeted by the Karmic Gods of Retribution upon their passing from this realm.
Karmic Gods of Retribution: Those ethereal beings specifically evolved to construct the 21st level in Dante’s Hell. The 21st level signifies the combination of the 4th (greed), 8th (fraud) and 9th (treachery) levels into one mega level reserved especially for the edudeformers and those, who, knowing the negative consequences of the edudeformers agenda, willing implemented it so as to go along to get along (see GAGA). The Karmic Gods of Retribution also personally escort these poor souls, upon their physical death, to the 21st level unless they enlighten themselves, a la one D. Ravitch, to the evil and harm they have caused so many innocent children, and repent and fight against their former fellow deformers. There the edudeformers and GAGAers will lie down on a floor of smashed and broken ipads and ebooks curled in a fetal position alternately sucking their thumbs to the bones while listening to two words-Educational Excellence-repeated without pause for eternity.
Teachers are afraid to speak out against the educational malpractice that masquerades as reform for good reason. Our own union has sent email warnings about the risks and possible consequences if we were to speak out against state education policy. The root of the issue lies in the simple fact that, as state workers, we do not have first amendment protections of free speech. We are constrained by constitutional law and our own union (NYSUT) has spread the seeds of fear – instead of lobbying for free speech protections in light of the harmful practices and policies imposed by the federal and state governments. This can be changed. Bobby Jindal, of all people, filed an *executive order providing free speech protections for all Louisiana public school teachers. The precedent has been set, and its time for NYSUT to respond accordingly.
*link:
http://eagnews.org/bobby-jindal-issues-executive-order-protecting-anti-common-core-teachers/
I have felt from the get go that this “war on teachers” was more political that anything else. By scapegoating teachers as the reason for education failure it would be easy to draw public opinion to your side. This is a systematic attempt to remove a strong democratic voting block. Cuomo wants to reduce the professional status of teaching to a right to work job status, eliminate pensions, eliminate due process and tenure and in doing so eliminate the union influence. Now try to attract the brightest and best young people to pour their hearts and energy into a low paying, undependable job…not going to happen. We must keep up the fight for local control of our public education and the return of gap elimination money and foundation aid. It is resources that are needed not regulation.
Yes, this is the most obvious consequence. Yet it seems to just bounce off the crazies without making a dent. Isn’t this proof that they are on an agenda that has nothing to do with education?
Why does Cuomo have such deep seated resentment towards public education and teachers? Maybe he needs counseling/therapy to deal with his bitterness and hatred.
To you, “Used to…” & Lloyd at 1:09 PM: my first thought, exactly. He sounds like a deeply troubled man.
One who most certainly should not be governor.
The office best suited for him would be to regularly visit one belonging to a mental health professional.
Cuomo is a pure bred demagogue. He is ruthlessly ambitious and cares not one whit about students or education. We have re-elected a mean spirited, nasty, despicable human being and so we must sleep in the political bed we made. He is a man who seeks to destroy what was once a top tier public education system to try to further his own presidential aspirations.
Here is a tweet from our governor sent on the day his father died:
Andrew CuomoVerified account
@NYGovCuomo Albany has been too concerned with protecting the pension rights of teachers and not enough with the future of students. #NYGov2015
Another kindly New Yera’s Eve message from our governor:
“I understand the union’s issue; they don’t want anyone fired,” Cuomo said. “But we have teachers that have been found guilty of sexually abusing students who we can’t get out of the classroom.We have a process where literally it takes years and years to get a bad teacher out of the classroom. “
Now he’s imagining sexual predators in the classroom. Governor Don Quixote tilting at windmills. Despicable him.
Unless there is something seriously wrong with NYS, there’s no way a sexual predator can be allowed to remain in the classroom. In states like Oregon, the union was able to get a law enacted that requires the Teachers Standards and Practices Commission to investigate any educator (teacher, administrator, etc.) licensed by the body with just one complaint. It is a very professional process that protects the educator’s reputation through maintaining privacy until the findings, if true, are revealed, and has protected educators and students well over the years. If such a thing were true in NYS, and such predators were allowed to remain in the classroom, it means that the administrators were not doing their jobs
When Cuomo makes comments like this, I wonder if he is really as stupid as he sounds. Surely he realizes that teachers caught in predatory behaviors are immediately removed from the classroom. Even if they aren’t arrested, they have their licenses revoked. Although this situation is rare, it does occur and the responsive reaction is swift.
Although teachers can’t be fired wily nilly, they can be fired for just cause. Sexual misconduct with a student is cause for immediate dismissal.
If that is the true reason why Cuomo wants to get rid of tenure, he has been given bad information, but I just think he just makes things up as he goes along and the tune he is whistling isn’t coming out of his mouth.
Now, consider for a moment the fact that our Reptilian Governor made that comment – a brazen lie, since convicted sex offenders are put in jail, not kept in classrooms – on the very day his father died.
I don’t know exactly what kind of life form this entity is, but it’s not a human one.
When cuomo retires I am leaning toward seeing this education neophyte broke living down at the Bowery sucking on sugar cane. How is it that this slur speaking bozo thinks he is going to save the education world and he cannot even speak English properly…just listen to him he sounds like he just learned how to speak the language…
It is so much easier for the politicians to put the blame on teachers rather than to address the issue of poverty and in many cases lack of support from the home etc. etc. It is too bad that these politicians have no clue that creativity in the classroom and not testing, testing, testing is the key to learning.
I think the $41,000 figure is a little high. It’s that pesky statistics that are misleading. The more affluent districts, of course, bring the total dollar amount much higher than the average teacher receives. Choosing the median or half way point would give a clearer picture. A lot of teachers don’t make it to thirty years. My husband will retire with a pension of $25,000 a year which is more typical in the Buffalo Public Schools where the salaries are much lower than the surrounding suburbs.
And does that $41,000 a year amount include other professions included in the NYS Retirement System. It’s not just public school teachers who pay into the system (yes, it’s not free).
As usual, numbers are thrown around with no explanation or way to verify.
Ellen T Klock
You can find more than you want to know from the databases hosted by the Empire Center.
http://seethroughny.net/pensions/nys-teach/
$41,000 is right around the median annual pension benefit drawn by NYSTRS members in 2013. (Around 72,000 of the 147,000 members who received payments that year got less than $41,000.)
Thanks Flerp for the site. I’m having trouble downloading the info, but I’ll keep trying.
It’s not about teachers. It’s about the money for wall street. Read Matt Taibbi’s work in Rolling Stone regarding looting pensions funds. Also his work with David Sirota.
The NYS Retirement System is well run and fully solvent. It won’t be easy to raid, although I can see how tempting that might be.
The more solvent it is, the more there is to be looted by his campaign funders.
I second all you say, as I am sure most who read this blog will.
How can we get to this man who seems to have become the local point man in the war against public education and public school teachers. This is, as you might know, part of a wider war against public institutions and public sector workers — and intimately against all workers, although most may not realize it. The new civil service tiers here in NY State that Cuomo helped ram through affects all new public sector workers in the state. Of course, in Republican controlled states, things have gone even further.
But again, how can we alter this countrywide progression towards squeezing workers, and in particular, locally, how can we push back against Andrew Cuomo?
Is there a # for that?
“Cuomo thinks teachers will produce higher test scores if he threatens their pensions.”
Of course he doesn’t think this. He thinks, like every other ALEC-bot, that teachers will quit if he threatens their pensions enough. No more teachers, no more public school, problem solved.
daveeckstrom
You have nailed this precisely! NY’s Gov. Cuomo has consumed the Koch/ALEC kool-aid in hopes of furthering the accumulation of wealth for the 1%; therefore padding his own pockets, gathering more political clout, and ultimately widening the gap between the haves and the have-nots (aka ruling class and workers).
Unfortunately, many educators refuse to believe that Kochs, ALEC, Broad, Gates, Rhee, Bennett, Pence, Jeb, et al. want the system to collapse. Pretty contrary to the American Dream, eh?
Their ultimate pyramid will have them at the top (sort of like the eye on the back of a dollar bill), a few handlers who are well-compensated (doctors, engineers, pilots, programmers, political and media hacks) directly beneath them who take care of them and keep them in power and finally masses of under-educated drones who work from paycheck to paycheck.
These would be the drones who watch Hannity on the Hisense big screen bought at the smiley-face store, who drink Busch Light tall-boys also purchased from the smiley-face store and who pop an En-Cor frozen entree into the microwave oven, both of which purchased at the previously mentioned smiley-face store. I know the sentence drags on, but it makes my point…
Ketchup is a vegetable and there just aren’t enough failing teachers!
If the governor wants a pension battle the citizens of NYS (especially all public servants and union membership) MUST call for a constitutional amendment imposing TERM LIMITS for the governor and ALL state elected officials! Part of the problem is that our legislature continues to mostly sit on their hands. Cuomo may not be as powerful the 2nd time around but, we can surely make things miserable once parents, educators and those who care about public school education start a groundswell. Furthermore, it is time to start hounding Cuomo and Tisch on a daily basis. We need to follow them EVERYWHERE and start wearing on them. There is a breaking point despite what folks believe, otherwise. Let’s organize and haunt them every step of the way. The attacks on public school education and educators MUST STOP NOW!