Pro-Common Core Andy Cuomo Throws In With Parent Critics Of Common Core

Don't take a sip of water while reading the following or you'll be performing a Danny Thomas spit take:

Gov. Andrew Cuomo in Rochester on Thursday compared himself to a parent protesting the implementation of the Common Core standards and sought to distance himself from the highly criticized roll out.

Cuomo was asked by a reporter in a Q-and-A about parents and children outside of his regional budget presentation protesting the Common Core standards.

“The Common Core is being implemented by something called the Board of Regents,” Cuomo said. “The Board of Regents supervises something called the state Education Department People think the governor is in charge of the state Education Department. It sounds that way… You would think the governor is in charge of the state Education Department. Actually, I’m not, I have nothing to do with it. The Board of Regents supervises the state Education Department and I don’t appoint anyone to the Board of Regents, either. So I’m sort of where the parent is standing outside with the sign. I would hold the same basic sign that the parent is holding.”

Cuomo himself has taken some heat for the roll out, with Republicans like Rob Astorino referring to it as “Cuomo’s Common Core”

Nevertheless, the governor harshly criticized the implementation.

“I think the way they have implemented Common Core has failed utterly,” he said. “There is massive confusion, massive anxiety and massive chaos all across the state. It may have been a good idea, but it has to be a good idea that is done properly. And this was not done properly.”

Cuomo added, “We have to slow this down, it’s caused too much disruption and if the Board of Regents doesn’t do it satisfactorily, I’m with the parents.”

Okay, lots to digest here.

I'll be back with a longer post dealing with Cuomo's attempts to distance himself from the Common Core, the Regents/SED, the CCSS implementation, etc.

In that post I'll make sure to hit all the salient points - how Cuomo continues to support CCSS, how he has done everything he can through his budgets to make sure CCSS continues to be implemented and teachers get evaluated using the CCSS tests.

But let's note this right now - when Cuomo throws in with parent critics of the Common Core, you know that the Common Core Rebellion has hit the big time.