Archives for category: Cuomo, Andrew
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NY Educators: Don’t Fall for the Old Okeydoke

By dianeravitch
April 30, 2018 //
8

 

Marla Kilfoyle, teacher and executive director of the Badass Teachers Association, wrote this article.

She warns teachers not to fall for the line of bologna (baloney, not “Bali net,” thanks autocorrect!)  that they will hear from Andrew Cuomo as he seeks their votes. They will be tempted, but only if they forget that the BATs and other concerned teachers have been fighting Cuomo and his bullying tactics for the past several years.

She writes:

“As NYS teachers we will be embarking on an important choice this primary season.

“We have the opportunity to vote for a truly progressive candidate on September 13, 2018 – Cynthia Nixon.

“To learn more about Cynthia Nixon go here https://cynthiafornewyork.com/meet-cynthia/
Join me as an Educator for Cynthia – sign up here https://actionnetwork.org/forms/educators-for-cynthia

“I am a NYS teacher, and I am warning my brothers and sisters in New York….

“Don’t fall for the Old Okeydoke this primary season.

“So what is the Old Okeydoke? It is when a trap is set, but a victim still walks right into it.

“Believe me teachers, Cuomo, and others, are setting a trap for you – don’t walk into it.”

Her post reviews Cuomo’s history of ridiculing and demoralizing teachers. How fast can a leopard change his spots?

 

Categories Cuomo, Andrew, New York, Teacher Evaluations, Teachers

Breaking News:Cynthia Calls for Repeal of Cuomo’s Failed Teacher Evaluations!

By dianeravitch
April 26, 2018 //
21

 

This just in! Cynthia Nixon calls for repeal of test-based evaluation of teachers. This law was passed to meet the non-evidence-based demands of Race to the Top. It has been a complete failure in New York. The American Statistical Association said in 2014 that individual teachers should not be evaluated by the test scores of their students. Highly flawed and inaccurate!

 

For Immediate Release
April 26, 2018
Contact: press@cynthiafornewyork.com

Cynthia Nixon Calls for Repeal of Cuomo’s Failed APPR Teacher Evaluation System

Diane Ravitch joins other educators in launching ‘Educators for Cynthia’ to elect a bona fide public education advocate who prioritizes learning, not testing in New York schools

BUFFALO, NY — On the eve of the New York State United Teachers Representative Assembly in Buffalo, Cynthia Nixon, candidate for governor, called on Andrew Cuomo today to immediately repeal the teacher evaluation system he championed. Known as the Annual Professional Performance Review (APPR), Cuomo’s teacher evaluation system relies on high-stakes testing to evaluate teachers. Education historian Diane Ravitch and dozens of New York educators are rallying behind Cynthia Nixon’s demands with the launch of Educators for Cynthia. Signers include teachers, principals, school board members, superintendents, SUNY and CUNY professors, and former NYSUT statewide officers.

At the time APPR was enacted, Cuomo described it as “one of the greatest legacies for me and the state.” But it helped spur 25 percent of parents to opt out of state tests and was roundly denounced by educators and advocates. Cuomo has since tried to distance himself from the APPR, but it remains on the books, including requirements for additional standardized tests that serve no educational purposes other than to grade teachers.

“A couple years ago Andrew Cuomo described teacher evaluation based on high stakes testing as one of his greatest legacies, now he is hoping that parents and teachers have forgotten all about it,” Cynthia Nixon said. “Enough of the delays and excuses Governor Cuomo, it is time to repeal the APPR now.”

“Cynthia Nixon has a vision that will put education on the right track by refocusing New York schools on the dignity of teaching and the joy of learning,” said Diane Ravitch, education historian. “She will provide the resources our children need to succeed. Andrew Cuomo’s policies have disrespected teachers as a profession and undermined the education of our children.”

The “Educators for Cynthia” group cites additional education reform priorities Cynthia supports including: providing students a rich and balanced curriculum rather than one oriented around standardized tests; ensuring equitable school funding by fully funding Foundation Aid; and delivering fair and full funding for SUNY and CUNY to expand opportunity and improve quality.

“Our public school teachers must be treasured and lifted up for the hard work they do every day in the classroom educating our children. Instead, Andrew Cuomo has vilified and punished teachers, underfunded our neediest schools and deprived students of the educational opportunities and social and emotional supports they need, and placed SUNY and CUNY on a starvation diet which undermines the quality of higher education and decreases opportunities for students who need a leg up,” Cynthia said. “As governor I will make public education from pre-K through college a top priority, our children and our future depends on it.”

“Andrew Cuomo is the king of test and punish education reform,” said Marla Kilfoyle, a teacher in the Oceanside Schools. “He insisted that teachers had to be evaluated based upon standardized tests even though all the evidence said it was bankrupt idea. He has refused to repeal his own failed policy and Cynthia Nixon is a breath of fresh air. She has a strong record on standing up for our public schools and teachers and I am proud to support her.”

Anyone interested in joining Educators for Cynthia can do so at http://cynthiafornewyork.com/educators.

###

 

Categories Cuomo, Andrew, Education Reform, Race to the Top, Teacher Evaluations, VAM (value-added modeling)

New York: No Democratic Legislator Has Endorsed Cuomo in His Primary Fight

By dianeravitch
April 18, 2018 //
42

 

From the outside, the Democratic primary for Governor in New York looks like a cakewalk: Cuomo versus an actress. Cuomo with a 40-point lead in the polls. Unions lining up to support the man who controls their funding.

But here is a curiosity: to date, not a single Democratic member of the Legislature has endorsed the Governor in his bid for a third term. The endorsements will come, no doubt, but at the moment the silence is deafening from these 133 elected officials in the State Senate and House.

Why? Cuomo has stiffed his own party, repeatedly. The leader of the Senate Democrats is an African American woman from Westchester County, and she has been left out in the cold by Cuomo’s tacit alliance with Senate Republicans and the eight Democrats (the so-called IDC) who caucus with the Republicans to keep them in power.

”The Legislature is tired of Cuomo’s business as usual. First, lawmakers are no doubt angered by Cuomo’s repeated exclusion of the chosen leader of the Senate Democrats, Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins, from budget negotiations and policy pushes. Never has this been more glaring than this year, when he publicly promised to seek her feedback on sexual harassment laws, and then reneged — but kept Senator Jeffrey Klein in these negotiations despite the accusations of sexual assault recently leveled against him. In a year where the #MeToo movement has flexed its considerable political power, Cuomo underestimated the impact of excluding women from negotiations (resulting in a sexual harassment package, and budget, that is not even close to as strong as it could have been).

“Second, Cuomo has mismanaged his preferred mechanism for excluding Senator Stewart-Cousins from the leadership, otherwise known as the Independent Democratic Conference (IDC). Albany’s worst-kept secret is that this rogue group of senators, Democrats who have empowered Senate Republicans to run the State Senate since 2011, has been supported by Cuomo. Seven years ago, Cuomo could get away with this. Now, in the age of Trump, enabling Republicans is untenable.

“It took Cuomo too long to realize his support of the IDC hurts him at the polls, as it has with fellow Democratic elected officials. In fact, in a miscalculation of epic proportions, he kept the IDC on during budget negotiations. He could have had a trifecta of Democrats (himself, Carl Heastie and Sen. Stewart-Cousins) build the budget, achieved if he had called special elections earlier in the year. Instead, he waited, calling them for April 24 so he could keep Sens. Jeff Klein and John Flanagan in budget negotiations with him instead. As a result, the budget left out major planks of the Democrats’ progressive platform, like early voting, the Child Victims Act, criminal justice reforms, and more. New Yorkers noticed. In particular, many Westchester voters (those suburban voters that Cuomo so eagerly courts) noticed because they went unrepresented in budget negotiations, and their empty Senate seat could have tipped the balance of the upper chamber to the Democrats.”

Now begins the frantic lobbying to corral the endorsements. They will come, in time, slowly. With pressure, threats and promises. But not with enthusiasm.

Categories Cuomo, Andrew, New York

Why I Am Supporting Cynthia Nixon for Governor of New York

By dianeravitch
April 15, 2018 //
42

 

If you read the previous post, you know that Governor Andrew Cuomo declared war on public schools and their teachers in his 2014 campaign. He continued to lash out at teachers and the UFT as selfish and greedy even after he was re-elected. In 2015, after his election, he told the editorial board of the New York Daily News that the union (the United Federation of Teachers) had turned the public schools into a “teacher employment program.” He echoed the talking points of the charter sector, saying that 250,000 children were “trapped in failing schools” because of the greedy teachers’ union and the rest of the “education establishment.” He declared himself the champion of the state’s charter schools, which enroll about 5-6% of students, as opposed to 90% in the public schools. Cuomo gets large donations from hedge fund managers and Wall Street executives who have been the financiers of charter schools. His $30 million campaign chest consists mainly of donations from the same people who back privatization of public schools.

After Mayor DeBlasio was elected in 2013, he wanted to charge rent for the use of public school space to charters that could afford it. However, Cuomo persuaded the legislature to require the New York City Department of Education to provide free space to charter schools, to allow them to expand as much as they wished, and to pay the charters’ rent for private facilities if they could not find suitable public space.

Cuomo made his contempt for public schools clear in 2014, and nothing he has done since then has changed his image as a foe of public education. He insisted on a 2% cap on local taxes for public school districts that need to raise their revenues; a district can’t raise its own taxes unless the increase is approved by a supermajority of 60%. Cuomo’s hand-picked State University of New York charter committee authorizes charter schools, including Success Academy; it has been extremely lax in holding its charter schools accountable.  Only months ago, it voted to allow Eva Moskowitz’s Success Academy to certify its own teachers, without benefit of the professional preparation offered by education programs at SUNY or elsewhere.

Cuomo has cynically helped Republicans retain control of the State Senate. In 2014, he won the endorsement of the Working Families Party by promising to help Democrats get elected to the Senate (a bizarre commitment by a Democratic governor). The day after he won the WFP endorsement, Cuomo broke his promise and continued to support the Independent Democratic Caucus, a group of eight “Democrats” in the Senate who caucus with the Republicans. This is not the behavior of a progressive Democrat.

Even now, Cuomo is bullying unions and progressive groups to support him “or else.” The UFT, which Cuomo ridiculed three years ago, has joined Cuomo’s efforts to marginalize small progressive groups or other unions that dare to support Cynthia Nixon. The leader of the Working Families Party said that Cuomo told small activist groups—Citizen Action, Make the Road and NY Communities for Change— that if they don’t support him, they can “lose my number.” Meaning, don’t bother ever to call me in the future. He pressured the unions to stop funding them, deriving them of needed income to survive. These are not the words or deeds of a man with a commanding lead in the polls (currently, 40 points ahead of Nixon). Or a man who knows how to live with dissent.

I will vote for Cynthia Nixon, who is challenging Cuomo in the Democratic primary and now has the endorsement of the Working Families Party. I admire her willingness to step away from a very successful career as an actress to run against Cuomo. Unlike Cuomo, she is a public school parent, and she understands that urban schools in the state have been shortchanged. She has also criticized the insular atmosphere in Albany, where “three men in a room” make all decisions. She has promised an open and ethical government.

Four years ago, law professor Zephyr Teachout ran against Cuomo. Teachout had no money, no name recognition, no media exposure, and a threadbare campaign. Cuomo refused to shake her hand or even to look at her when they came face to face. When they met at a parade, he turned his back to her. Teachout nonetheless won 34% of the vote in the Democratic primary and swept large swaths of upstate New York, which is in deep economic trouble. Teachout, an ethics expert, is now the treasurer of the Nixon campaign.

Cynthia Nixon is fearless. When a journalist asked her why she was qualified to run against Cuomo, she responded, “My chief of staff was not convicted on three counts of bribery. That’s number one.”

A few days ago, Cynthia Nixon blasted Cuomo as a “corporate Democrat.” 

“The time is up for corporate Democrats, for politicians who campaign as Democrats but govern as Republicans,” Nixon said to a gathering of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee in Washington, D.C.

“It can’t just be business as usual anymore,” Nixon said. “I know that our country can do better. We have to turn the system upside down.”

Nixon, who is challenging Cuomo for both the Democratic and Working Families Party nominations, attacked Cuomo for “taking charter school hedge fund money and making education policy accordingly.” She vowed to halt the flow of public funds to charter schools.

Music to my ears, after eight years of watching Obama, Duncan, Jerry Brown, Dannel Malloy, and other prominent Democrats do flip-flops for campaign money from hedge funders.

To those who say Nixon is unqualified because she has not previously run for political office, I say that I would rather vote for an inexperienced candidate who shares my values than for an experienced politician who does not.

Cuomo is likely to get a lot of union endorsements because the unions want to be on the side of the likely winner. They are afraid to cross Cuomo. They know they will pay a price if Cuomo wins and they don’t endorse him. He gets even.

I am not a union member. I am one person. I am free to cast my vote for the person who has the best ideas and the best vision for improving life in New York State for everyone.

Call it a protest vote. Call it a vote of conscience. It is my vote and I will cast it for the person I hope will be the next Governor.

That is Cynthia Nixon.

Categories Cuomo, Andrew, New York, Resistance

What Cuomo Said about Public Schools and Teachers in His Last Campaign

By dianeravitch
April 15, 2018 //
44

Lest we forget. This is the real Andrew Cuomo. 

I said when he ran for his second term in 2014 that he sounded like Scott Walker.

Vowing to break “one of the only remaining public monopolies,” Gov. Cuomo on Monday said he’ll push for a new round of teacher evaluation standards if re-elected.

Cuomo, during a meeting with the Daily News Editorial Board, said better teachers and competition from charter schools are the best ways to revamp an underachieving and entrenched public education system.

“I believe these kinds of changes are probably the single best thing that I can do as governor that’s going to matter long-term,” he said, “to break what is in essence one of the only remaining public monopolies — and that’s what this is, it’s a public monopoly.”

He said the key is to put “real performance measures with some competition, which is why I like charter schools.”

Cuomo said he will push a plan that includes more incentives — and sanctions — that “make it a more rigorous evaluation system.”

Cuomo expects fierce opposition from the state’s teachers, who are already upset with him and have refused to endorse his re-election bid.

“The teachers don’t want to do the evaluations and they don’t want to do rigorous evaluations — I get it,” Cuomo said. “I feel exactly opposite.”

He backed off because of the success of the Opt Out movement, after 200,000 students chose not to take the state tests.

He formed a commission and tempered his language. But he continues to privilege charter schools, because that’s where the big campaign contributions come from, the ones that have built a war chest for him of $30 million.

Will the unions that he blasted in 2014 support Andrew Cuomo in 2018?

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Cuomo, Andrew, New York, Teacher Evaluations

Good News: Working Families Party Endorses Cynthia Nixon and Jumaane Williams

By dianeravitch
April 14, 2018 //
65

 

New Yorkers will have a progressive slate to vote for in the gubernatorial election. The Working Families Party has endorsed Cynthia Nixon for Governor and City Councilman Jumaane Williams for Lieutenant Governor.

Andrew Cuomo will be challenges from his left on education, housing, jobs, infrastructure, and every other issue. This should be interesting.

If you want to make a donation to their campaign on the WFP line, use this link.

 

Categories Cuomo, Andrew, New York

Smoke and Mirrors in Albany

By dianeravitch
April 10, 2018 //
10

 

Did Governor Cuomo really broker a deal to unite the Democratic Party and bring the rebel Independent Democratic Caucus back from their alliance with the GOP?

Maybe not.

I just got this appeal from the Working Families Party:

“Well, that was quick.

“Just days after announcing they would “dissolve” their conference, the Independent Democratic Conference is inviting big-money donors to a $5000-a-plate NYC fundraiser for the IDC campaign committee, according to the Buffalo News.1

“Despite promising to immediately return to the Democratic fold, Senator Jeff Klein and the IDC are still raising money from real estate developers and hedge fund billionaires to their own separate campaign committee.

“This is exactly why need to defeat the IDC at the polls and replace them with progressives who we can count on to ALWAYS support a Democratic-Working Families majority in New York’s State Senate.

“Let’s defeat the IDC and Republicans for good and elect Working Families Democrats who we can count on to be part of a durable progressive majority. Chip in $20 to fight back against the hedge fund and real estate billionaires who continue to fund the IDC.

“For years, the Working Families Party has laid it all on the line to elect a Democratic-Working Families majority in the State Senate — and progressive Democrats to Congress — across NY state. But every step of the way, we’ve been stopped by the IDC-Republican alliance.

“We need to make absolutely sure not only that we win this year, but that we do it with candidates who will stand unequivocally with working families, not millionaires and billionaires.

“That’s why we’re proud to be working to elect courageous Working Families Democrats like Alessandra Biaggi, Robert Jackson, Jessica Ramos, Zellnor Myrie, Rachel May, Jasmine Robinson, and John Duane who are running energetic grassroots campaigns challenging IDC incumbents in their home districts.2 These are candidates who would never even THINK of supporting Trump Republicans.

“We need to win these races and others if we want to win a durable Democratic-Working Families majority in Albany. But with IDC members still collecting huge checks from their corporate donors, it’s going to take all of us pitching in to do it.

“Fight back against the hedge fund and real estate billionaires who continue to fund the IDC and Republicans. Chip in $20 to help us elect Working Families Democrats across New York:”

Cynthia Nixon got Governor Cuomo to put on a show of unity.

But once again, like four years ago, his promise did not last.

Who will Cuomo support in the Democratic primaries? The unfaithful IDC or the Democrats supported by the WFP?

Categories Cuomo, Andrew, Democrats, New York

Cynthia Nixon’s First Big Accomplishment: She Forced Cuomo to Unite the Senate Democrats

By dianeravitch
April 10, 2018 //
10

 

Despite the fact that New York is a blue state, its legislature is divided, and Governor Cuomo likes it that way. The Democratic-controlled State Assembly wants progressive legislation, the Republican State Senate does not. A breakaway group of 8 Democrats (called the Independent Democratic Caucus) has caucused with the Republicans, giving them complete control of the Senate, with perks for the breakaway Democrats who keep the Republicans in power. Cuomo’s support of Republican control of the State Senate protected him from ever having to veto progressive legislation because the State Senate reliably vetoed all progressive legislation, such as a tax on the 1% who finance Cuomo’s campaigns.

Under pressure from Cynthia Nixon’s challenge from his left, Cuomo took a crucial step to unite the New York Democratic Party. After eight years in office, Cuomo persuaded the members of the IDC to support the Democratic Party. As one Democrat said, he is wary and will “sleep with one eye open.” The more that Cuomo protests that Cynthia Nixon had nothing to do with his change of mind, the more it appears that she was the precipitating factor.

Now, State Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins will lead the Democrats in the Senate and Jeffrey Klein of the IDC will be her deputy. Only a few weeks ago, Cuomo and three other men were writing the state’s sexual harassment policy, excluding Stewart-Cousins; not a woman in the room as the guys determined what sexual harassment is and how to deal with it.

Four years ago, Cuomo promised the Working Families Party to corral the IDC, promised to help Democratic candidates running for the State Senate, got its endorsement, then broke his promise the day after he won the WFP endorsement.

Why is he shifting gears now? Because Cynthia Nixon has called out Cuomo as a phony progressive.

Sadly, control of the State Senate now resides in the hands of one man: State Senator Simcha Felder.

Felder represents the Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn. Although nominally a Democrat, Felder caucuses with the Republicans. He makes clear that he is loyal only to the religious group who elected him.

”Without Mr. Felder, who recently held up the state budget for concessions on how yeshivas are overseen by the state, the new Democratic coalition would still be one vote short of a majority. In an interview, Mr. Felder reiterated that he has no loyalty to either party, but rather is looking for the best deal for his district, which includes a large population of Orthodox Jews.”

Felder held up adoption of the state budget, until he got reassurances about the independence of the state’s yeshivas, which enroll a small fraction of the state’s 2.7 million students. The Yeshivas do not want the state to monitor their curriculum, such as, whether they teach English and science. Ironically, the final legislation gives the oversight authority to the States Education Department, which has the power to make and enforce demands.

As the swing vote, Felder now controls the State Senate.

 

Categories Cuomo, Andrew, Democrats, Education Reform, Hypocrisy, New York

Dorothy Siegel: Why Cynthia Might Beat Cuomo

By dianeravitch
March 26, 2018 //
15

Dorothy Siegel, a member of the Working Families Party and longtime activist, explains why Cynthia Nixon has what it takes to beat Cuomo.

She writes:

“Teachout never had a chance of becoming governor, unfortunately. Cuomo controlled ALL the levers of power. Anyone who didn’t support him got their hands chopped off. Teachout couldn’t raise money because people/players feared what Cuomo would do to them when he found out. She only raised around $500,000, compared to Cuomo’s $24 million.

“Yet, such was the simmering hatred of Democratic voters for Cuomo in upstate NY that Teachout won almost every upstate county — on a shoestring, and with the active opposition of the Democratic Party establishment that Cuomo controls. That hatred will not change. Nixon will win big upstate — bigger than Zephyr, in part because she will have more money and will have twice as much time (six months vs three months) to introduce herself to voters.She also has the ability to garner lots of free media because of her celebrity, which will be enough to counterbalance Cuomo’s millions, at least upstate.

“In 2014, NYC and the suburbs (2/3 of the vote) went pretty strongly for Cuomo, in large part because most voters hadn’t heard much about Teachout. And most city and suburban Democrats had a hazy “he’s ok” opinion of Cuomo. Now that Cuomo has an acid-tongued, smart and well-funded opponent — and assuming he will continue to put his foot in his mouth — THE TRUTH about Cuomo will finally come out, ESPECIALLY his anti-public school actions of the past eight years. Recall, if you will, that Cuomo was the major promoter of uber-testing and using tests to evaluate teachers. Once voters are reminded of that evil work, Cuomo will be ESPECIALLY unpopular in the NYC suburbs, where Opt Out was a powerful force.

“I am cautiously optimistic that Nixon — and the rest of us pro-public school folks — will help people see Cuomo as the school-privatizing Trump Democrat he is.

“My friends, I see a path to victory. I believe Nixon CAN win, if everything falls into place in this Very Angry at Corporate Democrats political year, In any event, she will do “surprisingly” well against Cuomo. Mark my words.”

Categories Cuomo, Andrew

Why Cynthia Nixon Has a Chance to Beat Andrew Cuomo

By dianeravitch
March 21, 2018 //
44

 

This is a good article in the New York Daily News by Alyssa Katz, of the Daily News about Cynthia Nixon’s challenge to Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary in New York.

She says that Cynthia Nixon should not be written off.

Cuomo has raised $30 million, almost all of it from fat cats and Wall Street.

Nixon, unlike Cuomo, is a genuine progressive.

Cuomo has helped Republicans retain control of the State Senate, even though Democrats have a numerical majority. Cuomo has allied himself with a breakaway group of rightwing Democrats (the Independent Democratic Caucus), who side with the Republicans and keep the Republicans in power. At Cuomo’s last election, he persuaded the Working Families Party to endorse him by promising to help Democrats win back the Senate. The day after he won the WFP endorsement, he broke his promise. That is why the leader of the State Senate is a rightwing Republican, John Flanagan, who defeats every progressive measure.

Nixon promises to change Albany’s culture of corruption. One of Cuomo’s closest aides was recently convicted of taking bribes.

She is way ahead of Cuomo on education issues. She went to public school, and she sends her own children to public schools. She understands that the state has failed to fund the public schools in response to court orders. She knows that Cuomo does the bidding of the charter industry, who have given generously to Cuomo. She knows that Cuomo supports vouchers, in a blatant appeal to religious groups. She remembers that Cuomo promised to “break up the public education monopoly” by funding billionaire-backed charters.

Cynthia is intelligent, quick on her feet, and unafraid of Cuomo, who likes to bully people.

At Cuomo’s last Democratic primary four years ago, Zephyr Teachout won 34% of the vote, with no money or media exposure or  name recognition. She swept upstate New York. Now she is treasurer of Cynthia Nixon’s campaign.

If Nixon can win Teachout’s 34% by building on her New York City appeal, and add to it with the free media and name recognition that Teachout never had, Cuomo should worry.

 

 

Categories Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Cuomo, Andrew, Education Industry, New York, Privatization, Vouchers
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