Perdido 03

Perdido 03

Friday, January 18, 2013

Not A Tragedy

Cuomo called the failure of the NYCDOE and the UFT to come to an agreement on the APPR teacher evaluation system a "tragedy."

No it isn't.

Newtown was a tragedy.

Hurricane Sandy was a tragedy.

The failure of the NYCDOE and the UFT to come to an agreement on the APPR teacher evaluation system was simply a failed political maneuver by Governor Cuomo to tie evaluation agreements to aid increases in order to get a 100% compliance across the state.

Similarly, Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch called the failure of the DOE and the UFT to come to an agreement "devastating."

No it isn't.

Getting cancer from the Newport cigarettes her family made for all those years is devastating.

Getting bedbugs from the movie theaters her family owns, bringing them home and having to throw everything you own out as a result is devastating. 

This increase in aid was never going to see the inside of the classroom.

It was going to be used on testing contracts, data tracking, outside consultants and other giveaways to Tisch's corporate cronies - including her brother-in-law who helps run K12 Inc.

Nothing devastating or tragic from my point of view for that money staying up in Albany.

If anything is tragic and devastating, it's the unpiloted education reforms sweeping the state as a result of Tisch's and Cuomo's leadership.

12 comments:

  1. RBE I just read a Karen Mathews NBC update on the teacher evaluation deal; apparently the state has now given NYC until Feb. 15th to get a plan together so that future state money isn't denied for lack of a plan. The fix IS in (it was just delayed):(

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    1. Thanks for the update - I just posed about it and used your comment as the title.

      The fix IS in.

      Delete
  2. Yes the evening news reported that state commissioner King has extended the deadline to Feb 15th BUT, he also stated that a total of a billion dollars(state and federal) could be lost if the sides do not make an agreement. This was reported by channel 7 eyewitness news Art McFarland.

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  3. So the Kubuki dance was real between Albany, the Mayor, the DoE and the UFT.

    Question: Why did Prof. Bruce Baker write in the blog.villagevoice that the state owes the city billions of dollars anyway from the CFE, but has continued to cut it instead of adding to the school funding?

    Another Question: Why did a commentor by the name Littlefield, state the following pn GS:
    "Funding for the NYC schools was increased by the Bloomberg Administration by several times more than was required by Justice Leland DeGrasse in his 2001 decision. The Pataki Administration appealed the decision, because it didn't want the state to pay. But the city increased property taxes 18 percent and increased funding itself.

    Later Eliot Spitzer, the same Governor who signed off on the 25/55 pension deal, also dropped the appeal and promised higher state funding. That promise was dropped during the recession.

    The UFT could try to go back to court, but a lawsuit by other cities in NY State was turned down by the NYS Court of Appeals on the grounds that their funding was very high -- as New York City's is now.

    I wonder if Bloomberg/Weingarten would make the claim that while the deceptively claimed 25/55 would cost nothing, their actual plan was to use all the additional state funding to pay for the pension increase, leading to all the cutbacks (despite smaller funding increases) when the increases did not occur.

    "What's rightfully owed to the children."

    Is apparently nothing. Since 2001 I've learned my lesson, and expect any additional increases in funding to also be used for earlier retirement and larger retirement payouts. Nothing else. It was a hard and depressing lesson."

    Why would he mixed this in with CFE? It sounds like Randi had used the CFE money to change the pension law. Can someone decipher what he's talking about because if that's the case I'm really super pissed off.

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    1. That Littlefield fellow is always railing about pensions - I dunno, I kind skip over his comments. But I'll check the Bruce Baker post. Thanks, I noticed that...

      Delete
  4. I wonder if King knows that our students have a name for people who talk junk then back down...

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  5. You're right as usual RBE. People like Tisch are carcinogens for both the lungs and education. My question is: where is the chemo?

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    1. I really find her to just be this distasteful little troll. I dislike people who talk about how much APPR means to the kids, and how we all should think about the kids, when her family made billions selling cigarettes to adults and kids.

      I used to smoke Newport a long, long time ago. And when I was a kid, they used to give them out free. Trial packs at the beach - fabulous way to hook future customers. Cough, cough...

      Awful family. Awful person.

      Delete
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