Perdido Street School blogger warns that teachers, their union, and public schools have become the biggest targets for Andrew Cuomo in his second term.
In a preview of his State of the State address today, Cuomolashed out at teachers and public education:
““It probably has been the single greatest failure of the state in many ways,” Cuomo said.
Cuomo says reform, including an overhaul of teacher performance reviews and fixing bad schools are at the top of his agenda. And he says simply spending “more money” is not the answer. He says it’s been tried in the past, with little improvement.
“And you know what it’s gotten us?” Cuomo asked. “A larger and larger bureaucracy, and higher salaries for the people who work in the education industry.”
Read the comments on Perdido’s post:
Several comments predict that Cuomo will stumble when he goes after schools and teachers in affluent districts. Parents and community leaders in those districts like their schools and their teachers. They don’t see them as failures.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“And you know what it’s gotten us?” Cuomo asked. “A larger and larger bureaucracy, and higher salaries for the people who work in the education industry.” Interesting comment given how far removed charter schools are from the people who fund and govern them, how much bureaucratic nonsense comes from NYSED and USDOE versus our local school districts, and how much Eva Moskowitz makes!
Deborah: it’s called projection.
You project onto others what you yourself think and feel.
To tease out one example: last year Eva Moskowitz made more than 2 1/2 times for managing a school system with [possibly as many as] 10,000 students than what Carmen Fariña made for managing a school system of over 1 million students. It fits what Cuomo describes as “higher salaries for the people who work in the education industry.”
And it’s literally throwing public money at a private enterprise and getting worse results. Contrast the $tudent $ucce$$ of Eva Moskowitz with the success of her “ little test-taking machines” [see this blog, 3-2-2014] to getting into selective NYC high schools. 100%! But with one qualifier: 100% FAILURE rate!
From a piece by Diane Ravitch that appeared in THE NATION, 9-24-2014:
[start quote]
Of the thirty-two eighth graders to finish at Success Academy, twenty-seven took the competitive exam to enter one of New York City’s prestigious specialized high schools. Despite their excellent scores on the state test, not one of these students gained admission to a specialized school like Stuyvesant or Bronx Science.
[end quote]
Link: http://www.thenation.com/article/181752/secret-eva-moskowitzs-success#
So if I may pick up on Cuomo’s opposition to those in the “education industry” that keep giving us all those “bad schools” with large bureaucracies that can’t be fixed even with all the money thrown at them—
Right on! Time to close the charters, stop the vouchers, scrap privatization and get back to improving the one institution that has proven to be the best chance for ensuring a “better education for all”—
Public schools! Any objections?
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“I reject that mind-set.” [Michelle Rhee]
And she should know. She took “her” own students from the 13th to the 90th percentiles, and test prep only takes 1.7% of classroom time. Data-drivel decision making!
Perhaps she and Governor Cuomo could exchange numbers and talking points. I am sure they could learn a lot from each other.
Rheeally!
But not really…
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You hate most in others what you least like about yourself.
Is that why I dislike administrators so much because I can’t stand the ignorance and ass kissing brown nosers that they can be???
This is Cuomo’s first volley in another battle of the oligarch funded, corporate war against democratic public education.
To succeed, the fake reformers must fool a majority of voters and convince them that the public schools in the U.S. are failing even when ALL of the facts prove these schools are probably the most successful public education system in the history of the world and could be even better with proper support.
Nothing could be further from the truth. New York City has some excellent selective magnet schools, and many of the New York City suburban schools have high achieving students. I am sure there are many examples of superior schools throughout the state.
Cuomo is using provocative rhetoric to forward his privatization agenda for his Wall St. connections. If there are problems within the state, he should look in the mirror. He has been in office for more than four years, what has he done to address the funding disparities other than put a cap on spending? What has he done about New York State the fact that New York has the most segregated public schools in the nation? He should be ashamed of himself and his failure to act. He should stop posing and posturing and starting acting to solve problems rather than blaming teachers for institutionalized inequities.
Cuomo has been strangling our state’s public schools since he got into office and has the nerve to say money isn’t the issue:
Click to access Gap-Elimination-Adjustment13.pdf
https://schoolfinance101.wordpress.com/2014/05/01/the-cuomology-of-state-aid-or-tales-from-lake-flaccid/
https://schoolfinance101.wordpress.com/2012/12/07/forget-the-300m-deal-lets-talk-3-4-billion-or-more/
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/05/opinion/the-central-crisis-in-new-york-education.html?_r=2
Meanwhile every flack in education “reform” is busy claiming that the 65-70% of students who scored below proficient on an examination whose cut scores were pegged to the SATs of college attendees are students who “failed” the exam.
What percentage of adults in NY over 25 have a BA? Roughly 32% — so the exams found exactly what they were looking for. And if there is evidence that we need many more college graduates it doesn’t reside in the labor market for recent college graduates who remain as underemployed in jobs that do not objectively require college as ever.
What a cruel farce.
Cuomo’s been governor for four years now. At what point does this “great failure” become *his* great failure?
(Which, BTW, in reference to the thread a few before this, is why Obama is no longer touting the “education is a failure mantra.)
At what point does he cough up the money the state promised to correct the aid formula?
I think the case would have to go the U.S. Supreme Court before Cuomo would do what the courts ruled, and even then he might have to be removed from the governor’s mansion by force and tried and convicted in court and then sent to prison for the crooked politician that he is.
Lloyd,
That’s an image that might sustain me at 5am when Students First NY keeps running an ad with Cuomo trying to sound like a real orator.
I saw that ad Daniel. It is sickening.
You’re on the money here, Dienne. The policymakers ultimately have are certain to declare victory. Btw, in his presidential autobiography, President George W. Bush declares NCLB to be his greatest triumph.
Well, one might expect Georgie Porgie to trumpet his “War Credentials”, isn’t that what makes a “true” hero?!?!? If that is his “greatest triumph” I’d hate to see his “greatest failure”, oops, no, I’ve already seen that called Iraq and Afghanistan. Yes, NCLB pales in comparative failure to illegal wars of aggression.
This sounds oddly dated to me, like the 2009/10 Michelle Rhee approach, before they softened the message to include (rhetorical) “support” for public schools rather than 100% bashing.
Maybe it’s just because I’m in Ohio and we’ve had the exact same Cuomo “reforms” forever- at least 15 years.
Our ed reformers in Ohio have toned down the “public schools suck!” message a little because they want to keep getting elected and 90% of kids attend public schools 🙂
Cuomo really is becoming the Michelle Rhee of modern times.
Cuomo was elected with soon-to-be broken promises, and Michelle Rhee was appointed based on boasted promises that turned out to be false—these two are are surely cut from the same cloth. They must have a common ancestor called Gates or Walton or Koch or Broad.
I don’t know why anyone would want to model themselves on Chris Christie, but maybe he doesn’t have anything else 🙂
His whole thing sounds dated.
Even Rahm Emanuel has toned down this belligerent, combative tone politicians all adopted ’round about 2010.
Please, don’t tell me the North Korean Spy, the Rheester has recruited Cuomo!!
Is he calling them “government schools” yet? I’m waiting for the first Democrat to adopt that ridiculous phrase.
“Government schools” and “backpack vouchers” will be the Democratic position by 2016.
They’ll say they always believed it and it’s the “progressive” position 🙂
Come on Chiara, they ain’t “government schools” they’s “gubmint scoools”.
And Cuomo claims to be a Democrat? Aaaargh!
Our community is gearing up to support our very successful public school by educating our community and starting a letter writing campaign. We won’t be a silent public school!
Educating the public must be a key strategy for combatting this effort to dismantle public education. It would be helpful if communities such as yours network and share their public outreach strategies. It will take enormous focus and political will to stand up to the forces of privatization, which are well funded and sophisticated in manipulating public opinion (e.g., the pro-charter ad campaign which has reappeared just in time to support the Governor’s anti-public school rhetoric).
He will slip and fall with all this generalized rhetoric. But to have that happen the complacent teachers and parents in the highly successful districts have to unite to see that now he is coming after them as well.
“. . . the complacent teachers and parents in the highly successful districts. . . ”
And I’ve been saying since NCLB first passed that it would take the effects of the insanities that are standardized testing to hit the well to do school district before there would be a politically viable push back. I just thought it would come a lot sooner (around 07-08) than it has, but then again, the states kept changing what constituted a “failing school” so as to not include those suburban well to do districts.
Exactly right that teachers and parents in successful districts need to recognize the threat and take action to save their schools. He will not slip and fall without teachers and parents taking concerted action to detail the fallacies inherent in the anti-public school rhetoric.
I suggest we call Cuomo’s artificially low pass rates on NCLB / RTTT exams #DeflateGate
The “education industry.”
The NY Times reported today (Jan21) that Cuomo wants to push tax credits (“backdoor vouchers”). This would clearly violate Article XI, Section 3 of the state constitution. Back in 1967 an effort to remove XI,3 was defeated by NY voters by 72% to 28%. Would Cuomo have the guts to try to amend the state constitution to remove the XI,3 barrier so that voters could have their say? Let’s remember that there have been 28 state referenda from coast to coast on vouchers or their variants and thus millions of voters have said “hell no” by an average 2 to 1 margin. Florida voters defeated Jeb Bush’s signature voucher plan in 2012 and Hawaii voters did the same in 2014. (For a list of the state referenda, see my article “The Great School Voucher Fraud” at arlinc.org). — Edd Doerr
I think they have to push vouchers to keep religious schools in the ed reform political coalition.
Catholic schools aren’t going to let charters put them out of business. They want a government contract too, and why shouldn’t they get one? If they’re changed the definition of “public” to mean “publicly-funded” all bets are off.
It’s such a profoundly bad idea. It eventually turns public schools into charities. We treat them more and more like charities as it is. The begging for donations from corporations makes me sick.
Unfortunately, Unity Caucus, the political machine that has controlled the UFT and AFT for more than half a century, is already engaged in cynical political theater intended to distract and misdirect its members, and has already surrendered. Rather than having the honesty to admit their acceptance of so-called reform premises, they hope to divert attention by proposing a feeble social media campaign, which Cuomo is certain to ignore.
Michael Mulgrew has already indicated that the union has no intention of fighting the new evaluation metrics, and if past practice is any guide, he will do little or nothing to effectively oppose raising or lifting the charter cap. Readers of this blog may recall that Weingrew was silent when Mayor DeBlasio was kneecapped by Cuomo, Moskowitz and their Wall Street patrons last year, who proceeded to give charter schools a free ride using public school facilities, or have their rent paid by the Department of Education.
Instead, they hope to feign opposition to our Reptilian Governor by claiming to fight for increased education budgets and smaller class size, something they have smirked at when UFT activists proposed it in the past.
This dance has already been choreographed: the union will concede virtually everything, get some chump change added to the budget, and claim victory. What do they care if senior teachers have targets on their backs, and new teachers find it increasingly difficult to get tenure (that will no longer be tenure)? After all, union dues are the same for everyone, and are fungible, just as teachers are in the eyes of Weingrew and the so-called reformers.
The many good things the union has provided over the years are now little more than vestiges, a legacy that this misleadership is rapidly giving away in exchange for their “seat at the table,” which includes seats on the boards of organizations (such as New Visions and InBloom, before it was blocked by parent opposition) that are busy privatizing the schools and trying to monetize students.
Lies from an insatiable Overclass seeking to get its claws on the $600 billion spent annually on K-12 education are to be expected. What’s far more demoralizing is to see our unions not only selling us out, but giving ever-larger discounts to our enemies, on our backs. Their cynicism seems to have no limits.
“After all, union dues are the same for everyone, and are fungible, just as teachers are in the eyes of Weingrew and the so-called reformers.”
Plus your union’s elections are largely determined by a voting bloc composed of people who technically aren’t even teachers.
Unity Caucus, the last of the great political machines…
Michael Fiorillo: which gives new meaning to the rheephorm attacks on those putatively fierce teachers unions full of bareknuckled thugs and greedy ne’er-do-wells.
Just another example, however pathetic, of the sneer smear and jeer of the self-styled “education reform” crowd.
On the other hand, anybody remember the UAW?
I grew up in Detroit. The Battle of “Bulls” Run in 1937 was not exactly ancient history when I was a child.
When it came to the auto companies then, or it comes to the edubullies now, you can’t win their respect by acting servile.
Thank you for your comments.
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I really hope Andy gets a handle on those failing school districts on LI and others like: Chappaqua, Edgemont, and Bronxville to name a few. Yeah! Can’t wait for that. What a show!
“New York’s Greatest failure”
Look in the mirror
And Cuomo will see
That biggest failure
In state is he
Actually the biggest failure is Andy’s time as a Clinton appointee and his governance of NY state over the past 4, soon to be 8 years.