City Hall just sounded a major hElmo Alert on Gov. Cuomo's surprise "last in, first out" plan, reports our Ken Lovett:
Aides to Mayor Bloomberg immediately trashed the plan, saying “we’re assuming the Cuomo bill was drafted by the [United Federation of Teachers].” They called the announcement a “scam,” and questioned if it was meant as a “diversion” away from today's Senate passage of a bill by put forth by Sen. John Flanagan with Bloomberg's support.
Hizzoner, the aides say, was not asked for input -- or even given a heads-up about the bill until it was released publicly.
The Cuomo bill does not address two key points the mayor was seeking, they fumed: Bloomberg aides say it does not actually repeal the "last in, first out law" and provides “no legal connection” between the teacher evaulation system being developed and the layoff system.
It also doesn’t provide immediate relief, they say. Bloomberg said layoffs could begin in the spring, while the governor’s bill wouldn’t kick in until the next school year.
Gee - it sounds to me from the reports of the proposal that tenure and seniority are undermined, that teachers just have to be declared "ineffective" to be canned.
But I guess that proposal isn't strong enough for Bloomberg?
Sounds like he really wanted the ability to fire any teachers he wants to fire NOW rather than 2011-2012.
Or maybe he's just pissed because Cuomo is superseding Bloomberg in the headlines with this proposal.
Probably a combo of the two.
One thing I have to do here is take back the part I wrote earlier about Cuomo carrying Bloomberg's water.
Apparently he's just carrying the ed deform water.
Carrying Bloomberg's water means never getting in the way of the Mayor of Money's headlines.
I wonder where the UFT reaction is to this. It seems the Cuomo's bill is nothing more than the Mulgrew-negotiated evaluation system that was scheduled to take effect next year. How can Mulgrew oppose it when he was the one who supported it for 2012?
ReplyDeleteThe facts are this, LIFO remains intact for now and if Bloomberg layoff take place the last in within license area will be the first out. The Assembly democrats and even the Senate democrats are paying back Bloomberg for his support of the Republicans who gained control of the Senate. Silver and the unions could never allow Bloomberg to destroy civil service protect. The mayor will look foolish and the comments by his advisors show how upset he is by the events of today. This is an even bigger defeat than the west side football project which was thrown back in his face. good!
ReplyDeleteMr. Talk - yup - the only difference I see between this proposal and the RttT guidelines is that Cuomo wants the changes instituted for NEXT year for EVERYBODY. They were not supposed to be instituted for all grade levels and all subject until 2012-2013. How will they handle the part about "objective criteria" when that "criteria" doesn't actually exist?
ReplyDeleteAcuity testing? witchcraft? Who knows?
Anon, I would admit that the reaction by Bloomberg's aides to the events does indicate that Cuomo sideswiped him on this. Given how much has changed in the last few hours over this, I'm not quite ready to say this is a "defeat" for Bloomberg. Too much happening too fast - plus the Cuomo proposal sucks too, IMO.