Andrew Cuomo Allegedly Goes Corleone On Merryl Tisch

Newsday has a very interesting story out tonight about something Merryl Tisch allegedly told to a middle school principal from Red Hook:

A Long Island Republican has posted on the Internet video from a forum this week on the Common Core academic standards where a Hudson Valley middle school principal relayed a conversation she said she had with state Regents Chancellor Meryl Tisch, touching on Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo.

  In it, the principal says Tisch told her the governor pressured the chancellor, in no uncertain terms, to make the Common Core rollout work. A spokesman for Tisch says the story isn’t true.

  Here’s how it unfolded:

   Karyann (Katie) Zahedi, principal of Linden Middle School in Red Hook, told the panel of Assembly members Wednesday night that she and other educators strongly expressed their concerns to Tisch about the Common Core, which has generated controversy around the state.

  “She was frustrated that we were so critical,” Zahedi, speaking of Tisch, told an audience that included parents and educators.

  “She said to me: ‘How would you like to be in my position?’” Zahedi continued. “This is what she says: ‘I’m at the governor’s mansion and he shouts at me that if you don’t get this done, if you don’t get this through, I’ll put three geniuses in a room and I’ll force it down your throats.’”

It's possible Tisch is just putting the blame on Sheriff Andy, but knowing how Cuomo operates, Tisch's story is believable too.

I'm sure Cuomo wants Common Core implemented because he took a bunch of DFER money and hedge fundie cash to get it implemented (along with the charter school cap lifted, teacher evaluations tied to test scores, and the testing regime in the state "strengthened.")

I can believe Cuomo got in her face when the pushback against the Core, the Endless Testing, the APPR teacher evaluation system and inBloom intensified and started making the papers.
I can believe he is totally on board the Ed Deform Express behind the scenes and still pushing this stuff, even as students, parents and teachers around the state turn against it.

And I can believe he got totally tough behind the scenes, telling her this shit better get done or Luca Brasi's ghost is going to visit SED and the Board of Regents and get make them an offer they can't refuse.

It's completely in Cuomo's character to take no responsibility for the ed deform agenda in public anymore, to actually run from questions and make like he's never heard of this Common Core thing before, while pushing behind the scenes to get it done.

He's a bully and a coward, but in 2014 we're going to get him on the public record over this stuff, starting with his State of the State speech.