Sheriff Andy did not mention the controversy over the Common Core State (sic) Standards, the inBloom data project, the APPR teacher evaluation system or the state's Endless Testing regime during his State of the State speech yesterday.
He did pat himself on the back for doing a really, really swell job as governor, however, and talked about how much better things are in New York State now that he's been governor for a few years.
Presumably he thinks the education system is better as well, improved upon by his APPR teacher evaluation system that mandates teachers be evaluated using so-called student performance (in reality, both local and state test scores) because he doubled down on that yesterday when he called for a merit pay program to award "highly effective" teachers $20,000 a year for being so highly effective as measured by his APPR teacher evaluation system.
Cuomo completely ignored the growing student, parent and teacher revolt over his education reform agenda, indeed, he really didn't even mention his education reform agenda other than to call for merit pay based upon APPR, even as he patted himself on the back for doing such a swell job as governor.
In short, he ignored the concerns and criticisms from all the students, parents and teachers at the King/Tisch Gospel of Common Core Tour road shows and made as if his education agenda is the most non-controversial thing around.
It was an arrogant and deluded performance by our governor in his State of the State speech yesterday and one he must ultimately pay a political price for.
The revolt over Common Core, the Endless Testing regime, inBloom and APPR is not going to go away just because Sheriff Andy ignored it and made as if it doesn't exist.
If anything, Sheriff Andy threw more kindling on the revolution bonfire by doubling down on the agenda with a merit pay proposal based upon test scores.
The key now is to have people ask him at every campaign stop he makes in 2014 why he refuses to listen to students, parents and teachers on education issues, why he refuses to acknowledge his APPR evaluation system is an unworkable mess, the CCSS implementation has been nightmarish and every other state dropped out of inBloom so why is NY State still in it?
Put him on the spot every day of his campaign for re-election, that's the goal here.
Quinn had her Anybody But Quinn people follow her to every campaign stop and protest her.
The problem becamse so bad that she had to embargo her schedule to try and keep protesters away from her appearances.
Cuomo is slicker at managing appearances than Quinn was and he's got police to use to maintain "security" and get rid of anybody who causes problems for him.
Still, if some students, parents and teachers show up at every Cuomo campaign appearance around the state protesting his education reform agenda (one which he won't defend publicly anymore - he just continues to implement it), the press will notice, as will his GOP opponent, and eventually he will have to take a public stand on this stuff himself.
The point is to make him pay a political price for his refusal to listen to criticism and opposition to his agenda.
He wants to run up the score in his 2014 re-election bid in order to set up a 2016 White House run.
He got some help yesterday when Chris Christie's chances of getting elected got stuck on traffic outside the GWB.
But students, parents and teachers angry over his education reform agenda can put a crimp in Andy's re-election campaign this year by putting him on the spot over it.
That should be part of the movement against CCSS, APPR, inBloom and testing going forward - continued pressure on the politicians in Albany, especially Governor Cuomo.
There's clearly a lot of hard work yet to do to derail Cuomo's reform agenda.
But Shelly Silver and some others in the legislature have already blinked a bit, showing us ultimately that it can be derailed if and when the politicians know they pay a real political price for supporting it.
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