Cuomo Plans To Attack "Failing" Schools And School Districts in 2013-2014

He's ratcheting up the "death penalty" rhetoric for schools:

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said Thursday that he intends to put an end to the status quo when it comes to New York’s failing schools. Far from backing away from his recent comments calling for a “death penalty” for these schools, the governor said he intends to set benchmarks and consequences for schools – and school districts – when they don’t give students the education the students deserve.

“What I’m saying on education is, failing schools are not acceptable. Period. It has to end, and it has to end now,” he said in a meeting with The Buffalo News Editorial Board. “Our society’s willingness to perpetuate this situation is no longer acceptable. We need dramatic action, and it’s going to come to a head.”

Improvement models for failing schools might include a range of options, including restructuring poor schools as holistic “community schools” or having charter schools take over, he said. If an entire district is failing, the possibility of mayoral takeovers or state takeovers might exist, he said.

Interestingly enough, he seems to actually know that what schools in poor communities do is more than just, you know, function as schools:

Of the many options for changing failing New York schools, Cuomo spent the most time describing a “community school” concept, which would apply to schools serving children in poor neighborhoods.

“A school in a poor community is really not a school,” he said, “and to compare a school in a poor community to a school in a rich community – that analysis is bogus, because the school in a poor community is trying to do many more things than a school in a rich community.”

Society needs to acknowledge that schools filled with poor students serve different functions, Cuomo said, and are more of a cross between an educational institution and a community center that serves both social service and educational needs.

“In a rich community, you have the parents, you have the after-school care, you have a healthy home,” he said. “The school in a poor community is a school, a mentor, a nutritionist, a counselor. ... You have students where it’s not just an education problem. Then don’t call it an education problem, and don’t expect the teacher in a school to be able to wear seven hats with no money and no training and no resources.

“I call that community schools. That’s an alternative.”

Of course, as he adds more and more mandates to districts, as school are forced to spend more and more money on evaluations and testing and the like, they have less money to spend on social services and the wrap around support needed to help students succeed.

Is Cuomo aware of this?

He's many things, but he is not a stupid man.

I am sure he is aware of this.

In fact, I would bet it's part of his privatization plan - overburden districts with mandates, starve them of funding, force them to "fail," declare them "failing," take away democratic control of the district from an elected school board and put all the power into the hands of a mayor (or the state via takeover), shut down the schools, fire the teachers, reopen the schools as charters with a burn and churn teacher employment philosophy, hire non-unionized teachers, and enrich his charter school/hedge fundie buddies.

That's the plan Cuomo's got going.

Will he get away with it?

Perhaps.

Perhaps not.

There is Cuomo fatigue in Albany that has begun to set in.

His "reform agenda" is not a foregone conclusion.

One final thing from this article - Cuomo seems blissfully unaware of the insanity that is APPR.

He thinks it's a good, data-driven teacher evaluation system.