Governor Andrew Cuomo announces that he is working with Bill Gates to re-imagine education in New York after the pandemic.
@ZackFinkNews
.@NYGovCuomo says New York State will be working with @gatesfoundation to develop a blueprint to “reimagine education” in New York State in post-COVID19 world.
Obviously Cuomo knows that Gates is one of the richest men in the world.
Obviously he does not know that every education idea promoted by Gates has failed. Think Common Core, which Gates funded singlehandedly, which was adopted by almost every state, and which has shown no results on national tests for a decade.
Think charters, which Gates has zealously funded and promoted. Think Detroit, where half the city’s schools are charters yet Detroit is the nation’s lowest in the NAEP tests.
Think value-added assessment, that is, evaluating teachers by the test scores of their students. This has been a massive failure, because test scores are influenced by hone background than by teachers.
Think standardization, and you will find where Gates’ heart lies.
Think anything Gates has funded in education and you will discover a lot of publicity, loud claims of success, but ultimate failure.
Doesn’t New York have a state board of education called the Board of Regents? Isn’t the Board of Regents the state authority on all things related to education? Does Cuomo think the Regents are chopped liver?
Why does Cuomo think he has the power to take control of the state’s education policy when the state constitution excludes him?
New York parents. Wake up. Don’t let Cuomo give your schools and children to Bill Gates.
Let him re-imagine someone else’s schools or go solve international conflicts or find a vaccine for coronavirus.
Education is not his strong suit. It’s the issue where he has consistently failed.
Take care of the pandemic and the economy, Governor Cuomo, and leave the schools to the Board of Regents, local school boards, parents, and educators.
From New York State law:
“The University of the State of New York shall be governed and all its corporate powers exercised by a board of regents….” NYS Education Law section 202(1). https://codes.findlaw.com/ny/education-law/edn-sect-202.html
“Subject and in conformity to the constitution and laws of the state, the regents shall exercise legislative functions concerning the educational system of the state, determine its educational policies, and, except, as to the judicial functions of the commissioner of education, establish rules for carrying into effect the laws and policies of the state, relating to education, and the functions, powers, duties and trusts conferred or charged upon the university and the education department.” NYS Education Law section 207. https://codes.findlaw.com/ny/education-law/edn-sect-207.html
Diane Ravitch's blog 
My heart goes out to New Yorkers. Pray Cuomo doesn’t let that greedy fox in the henhouse. It will be the end of public education.
Hat tip to KrazyTA
Rhee-lly miss KrazyTAs contribution here by the way. Especially the quotes from Greek philosophers.
I wrote Krazy TA to urge him to return
I miss him too!
I assume KrazyTA is probably busy working on a doctorate.
This will happen across the country. Diane, you need to contact Anand Giridharadas or Naomi Klein as I guess she posted something. You need to contact VICE!!
This needs to get to a larger audience than just those believing in public education.
Will NPE be sending a petition out?
Organize. Just say no to the SED if it becomes Cuomos tool. Make it clear to pols that they will lose their seats if they don’t support parents and kids against the privatization of public education. Talk is great. But this is a time to use political power to the hilt. Opt out….lead!
Omg! Horrible.
I told my husband to watch out for politicians and Bill Gates. Holy cow! Happened so fast. These vultures sure don’t waste any time.
Cuomo needs to stick to what knows and leave education to educators.
Just wondering, what is it that he “ knows”?
Nothing. He knows nothing
Trump wants to be a dictator for life.
Cuomo thinks he already has all the power of a dictator.
Yet, Trump is 1,000x viler than Cuomo, but that isn’t saying much considering they are both authoritarians by nature.
Maybe, just maybe, Cuomo is not a malignant narcissist, serial liar and psychopath like Trump.
He is. But does it eloquently which makes him more dangerous than Trump
Of course, Cuomo is not as dangerous as Trump. Cuomo is only the governor of New York State. Trump is the president of all of the U.S. states and Trump has the ability to start wars. Trump is the commander in chief of the most lethal military force in human history, and he has access to launching nuclear weapons. Trump also is being allowed to violate his Oath of Office almost daily by the U.S. Senate controlled by Moscow Mitch and the traitorous GOP.
Since the legislature in New York State is controlled by a majority of Democrats, those Democrats have the ability to limit Cuomo’s corruption.
Exactly right. He is well spoken and can be charming. He can control himself. He can play the crowds. He is just as vile, but hides it. Far, far more dangerous.
Problem is he doesn’t know anything…
and Cuomo is intelligent and has empathy for commoners unlike Donald!
Cuomo isn’t smart at all. All he trying to do is have the federal government solve all his problems. So he looks for Trump to do his dirty work. Cuomo is the worst governor in the US along with that thing from Michigan. He lies every day to US citizens, especially New York. How thinks nothing of the people in his state that live above Albany. He is the biggest piece of crap governor ever. He has had several failures which has cost new Yorkers dearly. Why do you think thousands of people each year leave New York State. And who the hell does Bill Gates think he is.
Edward Trudeau, until Trumpty Dumpty and the corrupt and traitorous GOP, stole the 2016 election with help from Ras-Putin’s Russia, every governor in the country counted on the federal government for help for tragedies like this pandemic.
As much as I do not approve of Cuomo’s politics, he and the hero governor from Michigan are not the worst governors in the country.
Look to the GOP Trumpish ass-kissing governors that have done nothing to deal with the spread of COVID-19, for that list. Those governors are no better than the Nazi commanders of the concentration camps that executed millions of innocent people during World War II.
Absolutely nothing …but evil!
Given that Gates has already “re-imagined education” in NY (eg, with Common Core and his small schools initiative), wouldn’t this really be “re-re-imagining education”?
Or is it re-Rhee-imagining education?
Since Gates just said his Foundation is focusing entirely on promoting online education as the future of education, he is clearly Rhee-imagining with dollar signs in his eyes all the valuable data the big tech companies will gather when they shutter every single public at once. Rahm’s closing 50 Chicago schools in one day will pale in comparison. Can’t think of any words to describe it that begin with re- except that what Gates will do is Rheeally horrifying. What a monster.
How about, Gates is starting over and recycling all of his ideas under different names?
Rhee-peat of Rhee-cycled ideas.
He prolly claims these are not his ideas but Melinda’s, so technically they are not repeats.
Endemic DAMdemic
Rhee-cycled DAMdemic
Of Rhee and of Gates
Disease is endemic
To all of the states
Show them a better way. https://savingstudents-caplee.blogspot.com/2020/03/when-kids-get-back-to-school.html
I cringed when I saw that, too.
So, is Gates “reimagining” Common Core version ll and/lll “admitting” that the restructuring failed by creating a brand new market?
Someone needs to bring a lawsuit. He is overstepping his role as governor. Does being a billionaire qualify you to be an expert in education? In healthcare? Gates is not qualified. Diane please stop telling people to push Gates out of the education rfield into the health field he is not qualified for either and will end up destroying children’s love in both fields!
The Education Law Center and SPLC are planning to bring more cases to the courts. This may turn into a case. Maybe it is time for parents to take a stand and refuse to accept this bait and switch. When government refuses to listen to people, it is time for civil disobedience.
I have been trying for a while.
I hope & pray he doesn’t try involve neighboring states à la pandemic policies (said she, holding cross out to ward off vampire).
So, Gates is the devil when it comes to the virus in conspiracy circles, but him working in education is okay?
Could you restate your question? It makes no sense.
Speaking of questions, I’d like to answer a few from the post:
Doesn’t New York have a state board of education called the Board of Regents? Why, as a matter of fact, it does.
Isn’t the Board of Regents the state authority on all things related to education? They are legislatively supposed to be, but with I-have-a-daddy-complex Cuomo, they are subordinated to his illegal autocracy.
Does Cuomo think the Regents are chopped liver? Of course he does. Why bother asking. But the bigger question is why the Regents think of THEMSELVES as chopped liver…..???
Why does Cuomo think he has the power to take control of the state’s education policy when the state constitution excludes him? Because he’s a narcissist, an immature ugly toad, a gangster more obnoxious than Edward G. Robinson, and a loser unable to handle a Kennedy and a Prime Time cooking show princess.
He definitely is overstepping and being dictatorial. He needs to be stopped.
The nation is scraping bottom here….leadership and ideas.
Yikes.
Gates’ solution in New York will be more computers and educational software. For once, more computerization is a solution for the kids who don’t have computers, but students also need internet connections, and both teachers and students need the capability for instruction that’s as relatable as possible. If Gates would confine himself to that and would find ways to fund it, that would be a real contribution. If he tries to tell us what to teach, he’s WAY off base.
Nancy,
He is and has been telling us to teach this way for years!!! Tech giants are pushing for computers to replace teachers!!
This is NOT new stuff
I literally have a case that includes Gates from 2011 and Cuomo from 2000. I can’t find a federal atty to touch it. Anyone who knows of a fair federal atty left in the US, please let me know. The Dept of Justice seems to be conveniently ignoring the issue.
It took hard work to push that deformer pendulum back over the last several years. We made inroads with the Regents and formed powerful coalitions with parent groups. We now need to use the momentum we have garnered to prevent the Cuomo/Gates virus to infect public education in New York.
Not that I support Gates’ or Cuomo’s ideas for “improvement,” but the NY Regents are the fine folks those high-stakes, win-or-lose-all, Regents exams as a requirement for being awarded a high school diploma or admission to a 4-year NY state college, regardless of a student’s classroom grades.
An NYS non-Regents (“local”) diploma, which has somewhat lower requirements but still requires minimum grades on certain Regents exams, is accepted & recognized with no differentiation at any four-year school in the US except NY.
It does seem that some sort of change is appropriate.
Agreed, look me up. Gates gave me a big award in 2011 and I won’t sell to him.
Gates is an expert in monetization. He is going to cure Covid and education all in one shot. He is not a doctor, not a scientist and not an educator. The US has plenty of all of the above. Gates is a college drop out.
this is total bullshit!!! seriously this guy needs to go! i’m a bus driver and love my job!! this is so unfair to our kids, teachers, staff etc!! please stop this NOW someone has to stop him from taking our freedom and our children’s education away!
Hey Angela! Thanks for all you do for kids. If you want to join this fight, you’re in the right place. Diane Ravitch, as I will say to anyone willing to listen, is the voice of reason on these issues.
May I presume to recommend that you also join the Network for Public Education (https://networkforpubliceducation.org/)? It’s an organization for activism and a clearinghouse for information on subjects like the one in this blog post.
Best wishes to you.
You know what else the NY Constitution says? That all students are entitled to an education. Where was the Board of Regents when Cuomo kicked out 26,000 kids on the basis of religious intolerance? You were literally boarding up your doors to keep angry parents out, that’s where.
When did Cuomo kick out 26,000 kids? I have no idea what you refer to.
On June 13, 2019. In one day, the last day of the session I believe, Cuomo pushed through legislation that removed the religious exemption to vaccine mandates. There was no data that kids with religious exemptions were to blame for the measles outbreak, nor that their removal from schools would reduce the chance of a future occurrence. This lack of objective data was one reason (of many good reasons) that so many Democrats broken rank and voted against the bill. In fact, Cuomo actually initially lost the vote in the Assembly Health Committee but they strong-armed a junior representative into changing his vote, as shamefully recorded here (http://www.firstfreedoms.org/fbi-investigate-potential-corruption-in-ny-religious-freedom-repeal.html). Cuomo and others purported there were no valid religious reasons to decline vaccination but that’s just not true. (The fact that vaccines are made from aborted fetal tissue and contain fragmented human DNA is one of many reasons people of faith object.) Anyway, as a result, many religious families fled NY. Others became homeschoolers. The only good to come of this is the personal testimony of families who reluctantly and with great fear began to home educate, and now see their kids are thriving.
Welcome to the medical common core. Conform or be cast out.
Let’s be honest about Common Core: the biggest problem with the whole thing is that it was not implemented at all in the way that it was imagined by its original envisioners and developers. In fact, those who were involved in the initial development, from what I understand, cringe over what happened to it. It became about testing. It became political. And it was rolled out without proper training. Common Core, if it had been done right, would have been engaging and brought students to new places in their thinking. But when I walk by any math class today, what I see is a lot of direct instruction with a lot of disengaged students who just want to get a grade and move on. There is no ownership, there is no interest, they simply want to jump through the hoops and move on. That is not the spirit of Common Core. And, while I think the curriculum is good — I love the progression of topics in my Algebra 1 course — it’s important to realize what failed was the implementation in the schools. We missed the boat completely in that regard, and it’s sad. I can’t help but think about “what could have been” and feel a little disappointed.
I hate to disillusion you but Common Core was rolled out and implanted exactly as planned. It was hurriedly written by a committee with no teachers, no early childhood educators, no one knowledgeable about special education or ELL. The largest group on the writing committee came from testing companies. It was supposed to be a seamless standardization of curriculum, testing, teacher education, textbooks, etc. Perfect.
Actually, what you are describing is the point when it all went to hell, not the original vision.
Martha,
I was there. The CCSS was always designed for testing. The original vision was a complete and all-encompassing system of standards, curriculum, tests, teacher education, professional development, textbooks, software.
Yes. And the original vision of NCLB was to highlight the failures of public education by establishing impossibly hight standards while withdrawing support in order to pave the way for the privatization the most voters did not want. Blaming teachers, rather than inequity was the essential strategy.
Exactly right.
Diane,
Doncha know?
The Original Vision (TM) of Common Core was written on the tablets that God gave to David Coleman on Mount Error-rat
“Night on Coleman’s Mountain”
Dave came down from the mountain
With Common Core in tow
He’d drunk from the Magic Fountain
Which made the fiction flow
And who was the virtual god that the Coal-man met on the cloud wrapped peak of Mount Error-rat?
The holographic representation of that virtual god was none other than Bill Gates, in disguise.
“Commandments from on High”
Coleman came from the mountaintop
With tablets in his arms
Commandments: “Buy the Common crop*
And patronize our farms”
*Crap works too
Oh I see Diane beat me to the punch but here it is anyway:
If you check out the members of the working groups who wrote the CCSS (24 for math, 14 for ELA), you’ll find only a tiny minority with K12 teaching experience. Some of them may have been dismayed that CCSS was implemented for testing purposes– but probably not the ones who had already left teaching for data collection, programming, and testing companies. There were some university professors onboard, but preponderance of the 38 were from the latter three fields.
The College Board and ACT had solid representation on the CCSS drafting committee
The Common Core itself, in ELA, is idiotic. It was hacked together from existing lowest-common-denominator state “standards.” It’s almost entirely content free. It leaves out vast areas of the English language arts. In places, in its grammar and vocabulary “standards,” it is based on what can best be described as unscientific folk ideas about how language is acquired. It consists of descriptions of “skills,” and those descriptions are so vague and broad that they cannot be rationally operationalized sufficiently to be validly tested, though they are what is purportedly tested on the high-stakes standardized tests. Almost every “standard” is mediocre and not thought through. For almost any one of them, an analysis like this could be done:
Basically, Gates chose an utter incompetent, Coleman, to be the decider for the rest of us, and the result has been an extreme trivialization and devolution of ELA curricula and pedagogy. Why did Gates appoint Lord Coleman to this task? Because the result didn’t matter to him. He wanted a single national bullet list to key depersonalized education software and Orwellian education databases to, and this Coleman delivered. They are called the Common Core State Standards, but they are substandard, they weren’t produced by the states, they leave out descriptive knowledge and all reasonably precise descriptive knowledge (the true cores of ELA), and they are common only in the senses of a) being base, mediocre, received, ordinary and b) being forced upon everyone without any vetting or democratic adoption procedure.
Gates has a vision. Prole kids on computers learning to be gritful. He and his cronies selling lots of computer software and computer database systems. The Common Core was a business plan.
He wants to get rid of teachers and their pensions. He is a tyrant who knows nothing about education. Every Bill and Melinda Gates education initiative has failed. He thought that if he threw money at a problem, he could solve it. Glad I retired and left the state. Fear for my grandson’s education, however.
This cannot happens. Cuomo is using Corona
as an excuse to STOP our Children from attending School and getting rid of our Teachers. No! Our
Kids need School and their Teachers. This pandemic has had a major impact on them Mentally,
Physically & Socially. Home is no place to be
Educated. We must end this now! Just because
Bill Gates makes Computers doesn’t mean he knows anything about Education! WAKE UP PEOPLE!
I agree with everything you write, Diane. However, I don’t think parents need to wake up. Teachers, principals and superintendents need to wake up. We were all fighting the Common Core and 3-8 tests together, until the union was able to temporarily decouple the results of the state tests from teacher evaluations. Meanwhile, our children have still suffered under “standardized education”. I don’t want a seat at the table when my parental voice is not respected or heard.
Ms. Dana, there are millions of teachers on your side.
Sign the petition
https://www.change.org/p/nys-board-of-regents-say-no-to-ny-permanent-online-education?recruiter=60269097&recruited_by_id=457cf290-ee94-0130-bad2-38ac6f16d25f&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_campaign=petition_dashboard
Thanks, Ms. Gipe!
Signed
Mr Cuomo. Governor – NYS Education is governed by our Constitution. Please don’t ruin it as you have everything else in our State. Our Teachers are doing well with no encouragement from you. Please allow them to continue.
Let Bill Gates provide the board of regents money so that experts who understand teachers and kids and most importantly teaching do what they do best!
As always, well said Ms. Ravitch! Keep being the voice for our children and educators!
Cuomo turns to Bill Gates for education advice. I thought ignoring expertise was supposed to be Trump’s MO.
Want to “reimagine” eduction? How about providing universal health care, basic income, well-paying union jobs, and a green infrastructure to ensure a stabile family life so that kids are fully able to access a high quality education? How about ending the dependence on inequitable property taxes to fund schools? How about consulting educators rather than tech billionaires with no commitment to democratically-governed public education?
Well said.
Amen, Arthur!
Horrible. Stop him now! The joy of teaching has been gone for years. Kids in the last 15-20 years never grow up.. i was born in 1970 and teachers were teachers when i went to school. Not only should we not let Bill Gates reimagine our education but the state needs to go back to its old more successful ways as well!
King Cuomo is a lying sneaky Dictator. Who gives him the power to pass Bill’s at 3am when no one is up to oppose his bs. He has messed up NY so bad. DO NOT LET HIM TOUCH SCHOOLS. They have enough problems without his interference. Wake up New Yorkers
Thank you! Very well said, very well warned. My heart is breaking for my students, their families, and teachers in NYS! I’m a twenty six year public school teacher veteran. I have experienced Gates-based education. I knew we were in for something when Cuomo said we were doing a fabulous job with distance learning last Friday. He never gives us compliments—and more importantly, distance learning is inequitable and ineffective! I’m an educator, not an app! Reimagine our governor!
Well, I’d have to concede that this pandemic has amplified some of our profession’s “unreadiness” with respect to educational delivery, especially as it concerns the growing population of students who, for whatever reason (phobias, childcare, missing parents), aren’t able or aren’t interested in conventionally attending school. I have been experiencing this in the classroom for the greater part of a decade. For some of those students–and, yes, it is a slippery slope–a more enhanced distance-learning platform may be beneficial. I, personally, have been surprised by the output of my chronically absent students over the course of this period. Be that as it may, I would agree with your warnings vis-a-vis the governor’s role in these necessary improvements; we do have an established channel for these discussions and changes. I won’t go so far as to describe it as a proven channel, but it certainly contains safeguards woefully missing from what is being discussed herein.
“For some of those students–and, yes, it is a slippery slope–a more enhanced distance-learning platform may be beneficial.”
Are you talking about “the ones that are not interested” in learning?
The district I taught in for thirty years still an alternative high school to reach those students, and that school is run like a charter school is supposed to be managed, by the teachers who decide on the class schedules to fit the students needs instead of some mandate from the district office, the state or federal capital. That high school adjusts schedules to fit students that work to help feed the families they belong to. That high school has day care. That high school does not end in the fourth year but will keep working with students to help them graduate late if needed well beyond turning 18.
I say be carful what you ask for. I could cherry pick a few good outcomes from remote learning. For example, I have learned a great deal about google classroom and how it helps with the submission of online assignments. However, remote learning pales when compared to face to face. If anything it tells me we should not go down that rabbit hole. It has created a whole new set of inequities and exasperated others. I’ve been an educator for 37 years, be careful when you look at a Foundation that has vested interests offering to partner. My advice, their better be a lot of teachers helping to create this initiative or it will be another failed “reform”.
“creating a whole new set of inequities.” That feels like it could be attached to every news story about Gates and education.
Cuomo has already sold out our state to both pharma and Bill Gates. It’s not just on education — it’s on the health front as well. Last year he kicked 26,000+ children out of school when he removed the religious exemption to vaccination, and then gutted the medical exemption. A few made it back to school via lawsuits, but the vast majority did not. He’s in cahoots with other pharma trolls and working toward requiring HPV for school attendance. Be very clear: you can attend school if you have HPV or Hepatitis B, but cannot attend if you do not have the vaccination for it…and they are generally sexually transmitted. Now with the rush for a fast track coronavirus vaccine (which has been a failure for other coronaviruses), that will no doubt be put on the schedule too. He gutted education standards. Gutted teachers. Gutted special ed. Our school is removing the G&T program. And now he this. Be very, very clear — Cuomo does not care one bit about your family or your children. He cares about his allegiance to Bill Gates (who wants mandatory everything, including microchips) and his allegiance to the pharmaceutical companies. He has gutted NY already and will continue to do so…and then when he makes a run for president, sponsored by big, big money, he will do the same to every other state. The devil himself.
If money is a corrupting factor in education, I’m surprised by the lack of skepticism towards money and medicine, and Gates in particular.
Governor Cuomo! What is wrong with you!!!? Virtual school? Don’t you get kids need human interaction? Don’t you get they need to socialize and to maybe get away from a bad situation at home? As sad as it is alot of children don’t have parents that support them or help them schoolasticaly . Alot don’t have food and they eat at school all three meals. Which is so sad too! Please! Worry about managing this covid situation. Please stay out of trying to fix our schools. Leave that to the people who get it!
Well said, Ms. Dec!
Here’s how Cuomo works: 1) Force nursing homes to accept covid patients and don’t allow them to refuse or require test results in advance. Since they have no PPE and no ability to properly isolate patients, it runs rampant. Then the hospitals begin offloading covid patients to the nursing homes to make room. 2) Seize and push ventilators, which end up killing thousands more, while some doctors and nurses are screaming that it’s not the right treatment and are being censored. 3) Issue Do Not Resuscitate orders so that if you call 911 for someone in cardiac arrest, they will not attempt resuscitation any longer. Do the same in the hospitals. 4) Force everyone to wear masks, including bandannas, while the U.S. Surgeon General states that they are ineffective, and multiple doctors warn that rebreathing carbon dioxide waste and limiting oxygen can be harmful, 5) Attribute any and all deaths to coronavirus. 6) Limit the ability to use drugs that are having great success elsewhere and that doctors are asking for and push other treatments that are less tested with less history…but will make billions more than the old and cheap medications already shown to work. 7) STAND UP AND TAKE A BOW TO ALL THE PEOPLE WHO THINK YOU’RE AMAZING BECAUSE THEY HAVE NO AWARENESS OF WHAT A FAIL YOUR POLICIES AND ACTIONS ARE.
NEXT STOP: EDUCATION.
Well said.
He is not a doctor! He’s a college drop out! Ask India and Africa about his vaccines and their children. Why funding was cut. He talks about “population control”, I seriously can’t believe people are so blind to tie man and his evil intentions.
School is not a one size fits all scenario. Educating students comes from the hearts of teachers that can assess their students strengths and weaknesses and deliver instruction based on those attributes. There may have to be some distance learning in the fall, perhaps alternating days where 1/2 the class comes one day and the other 1/2 learns remotely that day. I understand that. However, the idea that every child should adhere to the same standards is counterproductive. Most educators are dynamic and are tuned into their charges. The craft, modify and deliver the appropriate instruction based on needs. Having learning morph into robotic learning is unacceptable. We will turn more students off and then where will we be?
How is my daughter supposed to get PT to walk if she has to do schooling at home over the computer? There are so many kids that have an IEP, like my daughter, for so many things that need face to face teaching.
Common core drove out many wonderful and talented teachers.
It’s sad to have lost some of the very best
Same in the textbook industry, McCarthy. Good people have left in droves, sickened by the consequences of Gates’s coring of curricula and pedagogy.
Oops. I meant “Ms. McCarthy.” Typing to hastily.
Oops again. “Too hastily.” Yikes.
Our governor’s announcement was just another hit by outside forces against public education. Cuomo never hide his dislike for public school teachers and jumped in this opportunity to try to make some money for some multi-millionaires. They have been drooling over taxpayer money for a long time. What Gates and Cuomo don’t know about the people who populate public education is a lot!!
Should I be relieved that Bill Gates will be advising Gov. Cuomo on education? I think not!
Fox: I have some ideas for vastly increasing the productivity of the hen house.
Yesterday Andrew Cuomo hinted that the traditional way of teaching (with a teacher, classroom, and students) is becoming obsolete. His words:
“All these buildings, all these physical classrooms. Why, with all the technology you have?”
Just last week, you sir said you didn’t believe there was a way to open business and close schools because people need a place to send their kids when they’re at work.
students are having an extremely difficult time with distance learning. I hear from parents literally all day, everyday about the the struggles their children are facing and how they miss and NEED the face to face instruction.
School NEEDS to be a social experience. It is so much more than reading, writing, math, history, etc. In school we teach empathy, kindness, friendship, citizenship, social awareness. To take kids out of the classroom is to rob them of their most valuable lessons.
For some, in fact for many children school is where they can feel safe, warm, and loved. They don’t get the warmth and love they so desperately deserve at home. But I guarantee you they get it at school from their teachers, staff, custodians, cafeteria workers etc.
The business of children is no business at all. They aren’t numbers you can put on a spreadsheet. They aren’t there for your profit and gain, or for Bill Gates profit and gain. They are funny, insightful, kind, silly, stubborn, loyal, intelligent, dopey, lovable, and yes sometimes gross, human beings.
Not every child is meant to sit in front of a computer. Not all are academically minded. Some desperately need art, technology, home and careers, gym, music etc. They need to get their hands dirty and learn a skill set from a person, not a computer.
Truthfully, this list can go on and on. I didn’t even mention the students who’s parents can’t afford a computer or Wifi, or the ones who live in homeless shelters. I know my teacher friends could add to this list ten fold. We need teachers. WE NEED TEACHERS! WE NEED TEACHERS AIDS AND ASSISTANTS. WE NEED ADMINISTRATORS AND CUSTODIANS. WE NEED A SCHOOL BECAUSE A SCHOOL IS THE CORNERSTONE OF A COMMUNITY. Or we are doomed as a society.
This is precisely what Gates said in a speech years ago, that all the costs in education were in facilities and teachers and that these could be done away with by switching to computers.
This stuff is rational only to those who have psychological issues with normal human interactions like those that take place in school–ones who would rather be in a basement with a computer than with people, whom they don’t understand and find scary.
Yesterday Andrew Cuomo hinted that the traditional way of teaching (with a teacher, classroom, and students) is becoming obsolete. His words:
“All these buildings, all these physical classrooms. Why, with all the technology you have?”
Just last week, you sir said you didn’t believe there was a way to open business and close schools because people need a place to send their kids when they’re at work.
students are having an extremely difficult time with distance learning. I hear from parents literally all day, everyday about the the struggles their children are facing and how they miss and NEED the face to face instruction.
School NEEDS to be a social experience. It is so much more than reading, writing, math, history, etc. In school we teach empathy, kindness, friendship, citizenship, social awareness. To take kids out of the classroom is to rob them of their most valuable lessons.
For some, in fact for many children school is where they can feel safe, warm, and loved. They don’t get the warmth and love they so desperately deserve at home. But I guarantee you they get it at school from their teachers, staff, custodians, cafeteria workers etc.
The business of children is no business at all. They aren’t numbers you can put on a spreadsheet. They aren’t there for your profit and gain, or for Bill Gates profit and gain. They are funny, insightful, kind, silly, stubborn, loyal, intelligent, dopey, lovable, and yes sometimes gross, human beings.
Not every child is meant to sit in front of a computer. Not all are academically minded. Some desperately need art, technology, home and careers, gym, music etc. They need to get their hands dirty and learn a skill set from a person, not a computer.
Truthfully, this list can go on and on. I didn’t even mention the students who’s parents can’t afford a computer or Wifi, or the ones who live in homeless shelters. I know my teacher friends could add to this list ten fold. We need teachers. WE NEED TEACHERS! WE NEED TEACHERS AIDS AND ASSISTANTS. WE NEED ADMINISTRATORS AND CUSTODIANS. WE NEED A SCHOOL BECAUSE A SCHOOL IS THE CORNERSTONE OF A COMMUNITY. Or we are doomed as a society.
He has no business getting involved with the school system. Wake up and take a stand. Don’t let money speak louder than common sence.
I wouldn’t take advice on making a peanut butter sandwich from this crazy loon.
exactly
How could any one think this is a good idea. These kids deserve to be back at school , life wasn’t meant for isolation and distant learning. You are ruining their future, keep the education decisions to the people who know what what is best for our kids .
This is most enlightening. How do you get the word out is my question? We did it for the constitutional convention we can do it for this.
Thank you . If I read correctly he doesn’t have this power . Alot of us are panicking and I’m seriously thinking of relocating over this . But after reading this I’m a little calmer thank you
We must be vigilant to insure that these failed policies are never implemented on N.Y. or anywhere else. I am confident that N.Y. will take a data driven path that avoids those demonstrably flawed approaches.
You have no idea
Cuomo is doing more for our children than you know or think you know
I believe his exact words yesterday, in addition to re-imagine, is that together with Bill & Melinda Gates (net worth 99.5 billion) we would be ‘revolutioning’ education! How did public education get in his cross hairs yet again? I’m not sure who he has spoken to, but schools were not as unprepared to provide distance learning as he suggested. It was the chaotic atmosphere that he helped to create that may have impacted when the remote learning started and, of course, making sure that students had the equipment that they needed to participate Let’s not forget we were originally told that we would be out for 15 days to ‘flatten the curve!’ Well, that seems like a lifetime ago and now suddenly once again we need to re-invent education. I am sure that this is the message that every hard/working teacher wants to hear as they are teaching remotely from home , with their own children in the background. Very motivating for sure. But, then again one just needs to listen to the Govenor’s daily chats about how he knows everything about healthcare to education to good parenting, etc. I couldn’t believe my ears as he uttered the statement “we don’t need a teacher in every classroom.” And, “a teacher in Staten Island could be teaching students on Long Island!” Does he have any idea what teachers do everyday ? The many hats that they wear, the inspiration they provide and the incredible influence they have on children’s lives. This was the time for him to assure teachers that working together we would create a bridge to normalcy since teachers know their students, families and schools better that he or Bill & Melinda. I was hoping that today he would back peddle about his misguided plan, but instead he gave a very contrived thank you to teachers and then followed by introducing another mogul to join his Revolution, Eric Schmidt former CEO of Google, who just happens to continue to consult with Google and is worth 15.3 billion. Incredible, that on his Blue Ribbon committee Cuomo chose 2 men who stand to benefit financially from this Revolution. We need to ask one question “Why, in the midst of a Healthcare crisis that will have so many far reaching, unintended consequences on our students’ lives, on all of our lives, would a Governor make statements like he did yesterday and again today? Let’s remind Governor Cuomo that it has been said that “A great teacher can teach calculus with a paper clip and literature in an empty field. Technology is just a tool, not a destination.”
Education is about so much more than just academics. I can’t imagine living in a world where our children are taught strictly via electronic interaction. A world where they haven’t learned how to interact with adults as teachers and as authority figures. A world where they haven’t learned how to interact with their peers. A world where they haven’t had exposure to diversity. Not to mention the fact that leaving the house and going to school provides a safe haven for many children, and often the only place they experience stable relationships and well balanced meals. This “reimagining” is a very frightening prospect.
Cuomo should contact Mary Ellen Elia-She had Hillsborough County coordinate with Gates and their plan failed. She went back to a cushy NYS Education career then left them in the lurch for another state soon afterward. Gates history speaks for itself as this article emphasizes. NYS needs to regroup and study models of other states who have eliminated every practice implemented by Gates Foundation’s frivolous idealism ASAP!
Elia was fired by the Hillsborough board before the Board of Regents hired her. She was fired for nearly bankrupting the district paying for the Gates’ project. Gates dropped it before paying in full. Then Hillsborough fired her and the board dropped the Gates project too.
Disgusting display of ignorance
Horrible idea. Children need the socialization to encourage each other, make friends and feel the love and caring of their teachers and peers😡
NYS at one time was highly regarded for our primary and secondary education. It has gone down hill.
Cuomo has already deteriorated our state financially,
Please keep him and Gates out of our school systems
Thank you and Amen!!
Well said Diane! He has no clue what it takes to truly educate the whole child. Children are not robots to be educated by robots. Children need socialization. Children need to deemed valued. Children need teachers in a human personal level. My poor daughter was caught up in the midst of elementary school when common core was adopted. She is an excellent t student as seen in her high school years who failed miserably on those state exams but did phenomenal on regents which truly assess knowledge. Gates is not a child advocate. Governor Cuomo and Mayor DeBlasio are not child advocates. You are. We the educators are. What is happening to our State? I have been teaching Special education and have been a dean for 30 years and I know what it takes to educate, be a support for a child in crisis and I am so disheartened to see the writing on the wall and where education is heading. Thank you for always be a child advocate and staying far from taking the side of politicians who money is the only deciding factor.
Let’s hope Cuomo in his exhuberance to find something positive, left out the part that Bill Gates will not be working alone and will NOT be working with Betsy Devos but will be working with The State Education Department and the Regents! If that is not the case, we’re in trouble!!
The State Constitution vests all education authority in Regents, not the governor.
Just keep the school system as is. By not having classrooms it’s unheard of. Children and adults need human interaction. Why restrict this. What do you gain other then money I am assuming. You sir are a disgrace to our state. You can sit their in your office as king an think you can dictate what’s to be. I feel for you for the hate towards you in this state is climbing more everyday. I know I as a New York citizen I did not elect you to office. My judgment was right. For you are thinking more of how you can control your citizens. We the people were not born to privilege. Unlike you we depend on our jobs to live here. I ask myself daily why I stay in this state. For you have our state so high taxed we can barely get by. You were not born to a throne your were elected to a position. That position is to serve the people of this state not restricting their lives. Please looked beyond your ego. Leaves schools as is and let people go back to there lives without restrictions. All you are doing is causing people’s immune systems to weaken.i implore to you to let the people of New York keep their dignity and freedom.
Agree 100%! Cuomo needs to focus on NYS economy, ASAP and Gates needs to stick to computers. Our educators will take care of educating!
Most New York public school teachers out there had to cringe to hear Cuomo re-imagine education. Teachers are your main source for improving public education – not the governor, not tech giants, not even administrators. Let’s begin to notice how young administrators are becoming, with maybe ten years of education behind them. It certainly does not mean that they are not competent, but their mission has become the state’s mission and therefore teacher voices have been drowned out. Maybe it is time for a new type of leadership for teachers. And one cannot forget the FEAR of loosing one’s teaching job because of the connection to student’s scores and the most ridiculous, unattainable scores of the Danielson rubric. Throughout these last few years, the forcing of unfunded mandates have completely and quite slowly (but surely) beaten the motivation and voices OUT of teaching – yet STILL, teachers manage to MUSTER every bit of motivation to bolster students and public education, no matter what has been thrown at them. Look at what public school teachers did to get education online during this pandemic – utterly an unbelievable accomplishment in record time! When will the days of testing companies, consultants and endless, useless faculty meetings about improving scores end? When will teachers be able to gain their voices back to take control over their classrooms? Again, TEACHERS are our main source of information, not political or wealthy, supposed supporters or even the experts who have left the classroom and constantly assure teachers that their way is best. Education must be the priority in our country and it will ALWAYS need funding, ALWAYS need resources, ALWAYS need teacher training and ALWAYS need initiatives for student growth that are realistic. Ask any teacher if they have been properly trained for ANY initiative and their answer will be NO – unless teachers had to pay for training themselves or teachers constantly improving their teaching practice on their own and/or in their own time. Forget the notion that a teacher’s day ends at 3:00 and that summer vacation is a time for teachers to relax. Of course NY education is in trouble – what else is new? This is such a tiresome old story. TEACHERS should always be the first LINE of DEFENSE, not the Regents, not the school boards, not even the parents. It is a system that is seriously broke and again, quite sadly, the same old story. With all that has failed, no matter how people (even some teachers) will “spin” the story, maybe it is time to consult with TEACHERS in the trenches, as they are truly the ones that KNOW students and KNOW realistic ways to accomplish the road to improving education for all students.
The time is here when we will have to make difficult choices and truly stand up for our rights. Our hands can’t be tied here. What are we going to do about it?
Someone above said: “Let [Gates/Como] re-imagine someone else’s schools”. No, thank you. In Africa we have been too often re-imagined’ from NY or London or…. only partly our fault but that’s another discussion. I wanted to say that it’s refreshing to hear New Yorkers stand up to declare that they have the mechanisms for driving their own education system and insist on using it, that the economists (Cuomo?) and technologists (Gates) should sit at the back row and merely provide tools determined by educationists, as and when requested. This is how many of us feel in Africa, as New Yorkers do. We are tired of being told that technology will solve it all – when so many times aready it has not – and, just like NY, we have seen technology fail us big time as regards remote learning these last six weeks. Project-talk will get us nowhere, be it NY or Africa. If the technologists have been so short-sighted as not to notice that the software programmes are ‘not ready’, not relevant, not well targeted, not well organised, expensive, difficult for children to concentrate on and for households to logistically manage…. then they have not started to listen to educationists. Yet they tout technology as the panacea for education all the time. It seems to be unknown for educationists to drive education programmes making [good] use of technology. The shoe is definitely on the wrong foot in NY and in Africa. So let us use technology in education but relegate it to the peripheral tool that it needs to be amongst all those theories and skills and experience and heart that a teacher must have to do the job well.
Get Cuomo out of upstate NY.
Dear Melinda:
Please let Bill know that there are many other hobbies that he can take up that don’t hurt other people’s children. The Common Coring and testing and depersonalized education software have been terribly destructive and keep me and a lot of others awake at night. Here are a few suggestions: ceramics, macrame, paint-by-numbers. Our experience with his education initiatives shows that he isn’t willing to invest time into actually learning something about his education hobby, so I hesitate to suggest baking or instrument making, which also involve a significant learning curve.
Oh, and by the way, it was very thoughtful of you to remember that I was working on a mystery novel and looking for the perfect deadly potion for my villain to use. The Gates Cocktail you’ve recommended is PERFECT: Two parts money, two parts arrogance, two parts ignorance. A lethal combination.
Thanks again,
Bob S.
P.S. I know that Bill is really fond of numerology, generally, so he might try Tarot card reading and casting astrological prognostication. These other pseudosciences are far, far less dangerous than the invalid testing and VAM and LMSs and student “data”bases he’s so fond of. Thanks.
A “Nightmare Vision.” Leave it to Diane to find the perfect discriptor,
I never know which post will catch fire. The “Nightmare Vision” of Cuomo asking Bill Gates to reimagine education in New York did. Cuomo then asked Eric Schmidt of Google to join Gates, and the vision gets even darker. And the irony is that the state constitution does not give the governor ANY authority in education. He doesn’t choose the state board or the state commissioner.
It was really, really heartening to see how many non-regular contributors commented on that post. The movement grows!
Eric Schmidt re-imagined public education in his own image by flooding the schools with 20+ million Chromebooks. He virtually gave them away and I’m sure it wasn’t out of the goodness of his heart. Its pretty hard find a school that isn’t Google-centric, making Bill and Melinda’s pet dream come true will be easy – if we let them.
As an educator thank you for a ray of hope. I just want to educate kids. I am open to change and have changed over the past 25 years. However, I hate being an easy target for Mr. Cuomo.
For those who will say I am a whinny teacher. I teach 7,8,11, economics, government and some times sociology and history through film. All for 65k a year.
To ensure You that I am a decent teacher. 11th grade US History Regents scores 97% pass rate and a 70% overall mastery rate. I get those results because I set a bar high and push kids to find their inner strength and the skills I started in middle school.
So I want the governor let me do what I love to do and what I do well.
Total bullshit gates himself Says what a catastrophe has dreamed up common core is let’s not let him keep experimenting with New York’s educational system it’s all about creating mindless computer geeks and not self thinking individuals that can accomplish tasks