Cuomo Joins Bloomberg Side On LIFO - Introduces His Own Bill To Abolish Teacher Tenure

NOTE: UPDATED AT 6:43PM - THIS POST ORIGINALLY WENT UP AT 6:10PM.

Okay, so now the equation on LIFO changes.

The senate passed Bloomberg's LIFO bill earlier, but Assembly Speaker Silver said he wasn't going to take up the legislation in the Assembly.

But NY 1 is now reporting that Cuomo has joined the battle to carry Bloomberg's water.

According to a report that NY 1 put up on its website at 6:10 PM, Cuomo has announced a bill that would essentially end teacher tenure by bringing new rules for how teachers would be evaluated in NYC.

Teacher would be evaluated as either "highly effective," "effective," "developing," or "ineffective."

Teachers who are considered "ineffective" would be fired after a hearing, regardless of tenure or seniority status.

Governor Andrew Cuomo has entered his own bill on the city's policy on teacher layoffs that will consider performance and seniority, as the state Assembly is stalling a bill passed by the state Senate that will determine teacher layoffs by performance alone.

The policy at question is the so-called "last in, first out" rule that requires the city to lay off the newest teachers first.

Shortly before 6 p.m., minutes after the state Senate passed by a 33-27 vote a bill that would have teachers layoffs based solely on performance, Cuomo announced his own bill for an evaluation system for tenure and layoffs that incorporates both teachers' performance and seniority.

"We need to put students first by keeping the best educators in the classroom, whether they have worked for one year or 25 years. While seniority should be part of the equation, it cannot be the only factor when making important employment decisions in our schools," said Cuomo in a statement. "Entrenched interests that benefit from the status quo will portray this as an assault, but the reality is we want to work with teachers to support New York's students."

Cuomo's proposed system, which would be in place for the new school year in September, would rate teachers as "highly effective," "effective," "developing" or "ineffective."

The teachers and principals who were determined to be "ineffective" would undergo a hearing process to see whether they would be fired.

NY1 is awaiting reaction on Cuomo's bill from the mayor and the United Federation of Teachers.

The Senate's bill, which also passed the Senate's Education Committee and Rules Committee earlier today, is supported by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and strongly opposed by the teachers' union.

However, the leader of the New York State Assembly has already said the body will not be voting on the Senate's bill.

Instead, Democrat Sheldon Silver said his chamber wants the state Board of Regents to create a teacher evaluation system to help decide who should be laid off come September.

The Department of Education released a list over the weekend detailing teacher layoffs at each city school if the state Legislature does not change the "last in, first out" law.

How's that for a surprise?

How does this play out?

Who knows, but clearly the mayor, paying the governor off, is going to exert lots of pressure on Silver to pass some kind of LIFO changes.

No wonder Bloomberg didn't travel up to Albany today to lobby for the Senate bill.

He knew he had Cuomo in his backpocket.

Government by the billionaires, for the billionaires, of the billionaires.

So, what are you folks?

Effective? Ineffective?

Only Little Andy knows.

But everybody's job is NOW on the line if Little Andy gets his way on this legislation.

Who the hell knows what criteria gets used in Little Andy's "Effective/Ineffective" evaluation system.