David Sirota puts the pieces together in this investigative report about Governor Andrew Cuomo’s outside income.
“New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo likes to portray himself as a crusader against corruption in Albany, the state’s capital, taking a hardline position against allowing state lawmakers to collect outside income that may be connected to pending legislation. He has championed a bill that would require lawmakers to disclose more of their outside income lest they write bills that benefit special interests in pursuit of private cash….
“But the Democratic governor’s strong words don’t quite square with his own personal appetite for cash earned outside the confines of his state work. Cuomo has so far raked in more than $188,000 from HarperCollins, a News Corporation subsidiary. That is part of a book deal that could ultimately net him more than $700,000. With Albany’s transactional politics now the subject of a federal probe, the context of that April 2013 book deal is particularly significant: An International Business Times review of New York state documents reveals that News Corporation gave Cuomo a book contract after Cuomo’s administration backed a series of state initiatives that benefited the media giant.”
Not a bad return for a book that has sold only 3,000 copies, says Sirota.
About Murdoch’s companies and their philosophy: I suggest picking up Nick Davies’ “Hack Attack.” Former, NYC School Chancellor Joel Klein also gets to make a cameo appearance toward the end to help keep the old man himself from a possible visit to the Old Bailey.
Reblogged this on Crazy Normal – the Classroom Exposé and commented:
An International Business Times review of New York state documents reveals that News Corporation gave Cuomo a book contract that will net him more than $700,000 for a book that has sold only 3,000 copies—-after Cuomo’s administration backed a series of state initiatives that benefited the media giant.”
Lloyd Lofthouse: say it isn’t so!
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Next thing you know, someone like me will claim that he and his peers are in it for the money.
Even when we’re told—it’s all about the kids.
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Uh, yeah. His kids. The kids of his peers.
Rheeally! In the most Johnsonally sort of way! and Really—in a way that makes the most ₵ent¢!
But for us? Well, we just don’t count.
And counting up the loot, accountability, is the name of the $tudent $ucce$$ biz, just as it is in any bidness.
Thank you for your comment.
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P.S. I couldn’t help but do the math. $700,000 ÷ 3,000 = $233.33…. @copy.
He must be quite the writer!
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What about the money News Corp stands to make on the Smart Schools Technology Bond? This is a drop in the bucket.
It’s ALL so GROSS. America is the land of GROSS profiteers at the behest of our most vulnerable.
The money from the book deal combined with any paid book tours or paid speaking engagements can be huge. Michelle Rhee and Michele Bachmann make big bucks as propagandists even if their books are poorly received or have poor sales. Cuomo like money and power. Cuomo supports Cuomo. He is part of a dynasty that has become divorced from civic duty.
It’s all about the propaganda, the power, and the $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.
Yet again:
Follow the money trail.
Nuff Sed!!
Now Governor Cuomo has released his own report on failing schools – https://www.governor.ny.gov/sites/governor.ny.gov/files/atoms/files/NYSFailingSchoolsReport.pdf
It sounds like he wrote it according to his talking points then stuck a bunch of statistics at the end though many of those cases warrant closer scrutiny than the report gives. For instance – focuses on changes in spending but doesn’t offer a picture of changes in a school’s population assuming that year over year schools are serving the same children since 2005-06.
We know that’s not the case given the shake up that happened under bloomberg – http://project.wnyc.org/schoolbook-nyc-school-closures/ – that started around then leading to this http://annenberginstitute.org/sites/default/files/Demography%20is%20Destiny.pdf
The report focuses on the % above the national average that NY spends, but neglects to include the higher cost of living in NY compared to other parts of the nation http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2012/tables/12s0728.pdf – NYC is more than double the overall cost of the “average” place and quadruple under housing in Manhattan – the teachers are not putting all of that “extra money” in their back pocket – it goes into the local economy (and NYC schools make up half of the schools).
This census report also excludes taxation costs which we know are high, and in school funding the Governor’s report also doesn’t include the Gap Elimination Adjustment focusing on the enacted aid and formula based aid – not what the end result was. More than half of the schools are in NYC which is why I focused on that – but nearly all of the locations are in urban areas and we don’t have costs of living for most of them.
Finally, slipped in there is that 53% of students in NYS live in poverty – and the vast majority of both the districts and schools in this report are WAY above that – most seem to fall in the 85%-100% poverty range – not at the average.
This suggests that the most failing schools are poor kids trapped in extreme poverty and the balance of the state (which is a much higher number of schools compared to this sample) – those who are not in extreme poverty in an urban center – are fairly well off.
No disadvantage to these districts. Even the schools on Long Island, most are the homes to the working poor in Long Island – not the well supported schools in most of the suburbs.
Of course any mention in the changes in tests or Common Core roll out are also left out even though their scores are the basis for the failing charges.
In the words of our Governor this report is “baloney”.
I got 1/2 way thru the article and thought “this is a scam! There’s no way enough books will be sold to pay for this, so it’s just a bribe disguised as business.” Then I get to the bottom of the text and see that only 3 K books have sold!!! Waiting for Superfraud, all of the other edu-propaganda pieces that have fallen flat on their faces, move over and make more room in the dustbin of history.