Cuomo's Education Reform Agenda Exposed

Tim Farley wrote a letter to Governor Cuomo, part of which made it to the Times Union.

In it, Farley shows just how much of the NY State reform agenda is Cuomo's agenda.

He notes how Cuomo has been trying to distance himself from the state reform agenda in recent days, as public outrage over the reforms has grown, then writes:
 

This seems different from two years ago, when he wrote Board of Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch and suggested changes:

• "Impose rigorous classroom observation and other subjective measure standards...
• "Require a positive teacher evaluation rating be given only when the teacher receives a combined positive rating on both subjective and objective measures...

• "Accelerate the implementation of the evaluation system...

• "Impose additional standards on school districts... to make evaluations more rigorous...

• "We must make sure that school districts begin the process in an expeditious manner...

• "My administration will aggressively seek to incentivize school districts to implement the evaluation system expeditiously...

• "School districts would potentially lose millions of dollars on state awards for failure to implement the system quickly."

There you have it - Sheriff' Andy's letter to Merryl Tisch "suggesting" many of the changes that were ultimately put into place that have caused so many of the problems in this state.

As I have written before, the NY State reform agenda is Governor Cuomo's reform agenda.

He will not get away from distancing himself or making believe it is Tisch's or King's.

We will not let him distance himself - as Tim Farley did not in today's Times Union letter.