Cuomo: My LIFO Proposal Covers Evaluations, LIFO, Tenure and Pay Increases

Buried in this Daily News story about the fight between Bloomberg and Cuomo over LIFO is this gem:

Bloomberg wants an all-out repeal of the first in, last out law that requires layoffs be based on seniority.

His forces said the governor's plan to create a new statewide evaluation system of teachers doesn't address the issue, meaning seniority would remain the only criteria used for layoffs.

Over the past few days, Bloomberg aides called the Cuomo proposal a "scam" and a gift to the teachers union.

Cuomo aides shot back, comparing the Bloomberg-backed bill with Wisconsin-style efforts to evade collective bargaining with teachers.

The governor said his bill would not only pertain to teacher evaluations, but also layoffs, promotions, raises and bonuses.

There are some Cuomo apologists out there on the union side saying that Cuomo has saved seniority protections with his proposal.

That's garbage.

It is quite clear that Cuomo is pushing to use the new "objective" evaluation system for not only evaluations and layoffs, but also for tenure, merit pay, and new "super-teacher positions."

He also wants to see this system replace lockstep pay with a kind of base pay plus bonus system.

And of course test scores and the undying love of your assistant principal and principal will be the objective criteria used to figure out how much to pay you.

This is a horrendous idea, it is going to be rife with all sorts of cronyism and abuse, and will hurt schools and the teaching profession even more than the reform movement already has.

This all started with the Race to the Top program that Obama pushed, and the state supposedly won $700 million for changing how teacher evaluations are done by using the new "objective" criteria.

So Obama deserves blame too.

But believe me, the Cuomo system sucks just as much as anything Bloomberg is pushing.