FLASHBACK: Governor Cuomo Issues Ultimatum To NYC Over APPR Teacher Evaluation System, Mulgrew Applauds

Sheriff Andy Cuomo makes believe like he never heard of the Common Core State Standards, inBloom or the SED Endless Testing regime that has been in part imposed by Cuomo's own APPR teacher evaluation system, but here was Sheriff Andy last January warning NYC they had better get a system in place soon or he would do it for them:

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo warned the Bloomberg administration and the New York City teachers’ union on Wednesday that if they did not create a new teacher evaluation system quickly, he would move to impose one upon them. 

Speaking plainly, the governor said at a news conference in the State Capitol that his “strong hope” was for the two sides to hammer out a settlement. 

“If they don’t,” he said, “then let the state step in and let the state handle the evaluation process, determine an evaluation process, and impose it on the City of New York.” 

The city and the union missed the Jan. 17 deadline for reaching an agreement on a new system, costing the city at least $250 million in state aid and possibly hundreds of millions more. That would include some of the city’s portion of New York State’s $700 million Race to the Top award, granted by the Obama administration in 2010. The award was based, in part, on the presumption that the city would have a new teacher evaluation system in place. 

A 2010 state law created the outline for a new system, one based on students’ test scores, classroom observations by principals and other measures, with the details to be negotiated by each school district and its teachers’ union. Virtually all of the 691 districts reached an agreement, but New York City did not, mainly because of a dispute over whether the agreement should be allowed to expire in two years, as the union had wanted, or continue indefinitely, as the Bloomberg administration had desired. 

...

Seated next to the governor, Sheldon Silver, the Democratic speaker of the State Assembly, and Dean G. Skelos, the Republican leader of the State Senate, each expressed support for Mr. Cuomo’s idea, which would require a new law empowering the State Education Department to devise a system for the city. 

Not only did Shelly Silver and Dean Skelos applaud Cuomo's threat to impose a teacher evluation system on NYC (as ultimately happened last May) - so did the leadership of the UFT:

Mr. Cuomo’s warning was met with silence by City Hall, and the city later said it had no comment. The union, the United Federation of Teachers, embraced it. 

“I welcome Governor Cuomo’s involvement, and while we would prefer a negotiated settlement, it’s good to know that should the talks fail again, people who actually understand education will be part of the decision making process,” said Michael Mulgrew, the union’s president, in a statement. “Parents need to know that, thanks to the governor and the legislative leaders, there will be no further risk of the loss of state money for our schools.”

Now we have that very system - the one Cuomo had imposed, Silver and Skeloo went along with and Mulgrew applauded - and it's an absolute mess.

Administrators do nothing but observe teachers and write up reports, teachers have lost all of their autonomy to teach as they see fit and have to teach using the Danielson cookie cutter approach (ALWAYS BE ASSESSING!), and students do little in school other than prepare for tests and take tests.

That's Governor Cuomo's education reform agenda, the one applauded by Michael Mulgrew and the UFT.

Governor Cuomo owns this mess, even as he tries to run from it and make believe he had nothing to do with it.

But the geniuses at 52 Broadway, the one's with the double pensions and other yummy yummy perks, own it too.