Cuomo Press Flack To Teachers: Don't Be Upset, The Governor's Just Asking Questions!

NYSUT and the UFT responded to Governor Cuomo's letter to Regents Chancellor Tisch and NYSED Commissioner King which sets out his anti-public school privatization agenda.

First, NYSUT:

The governor says he wants to put students first,” Magee said. “If that were even remotely true, he would listen carefully and act on the advice of the real experts — parents, educators and students — about what’s best for public education,” she said. “Instead, New Yorkers get clueless, incendiary questions that do the bidding of New York City hedge fund billionaires who have letterhead and campaign donations, but know absolutely nothing about how public education works. If the governor wants a battle, he can take the clueless New York City billionaires. We’ll take the parents, teachers, higher education faculty and students in every ZIP code of the state.”

Then the UFT:

“This letter comes right out of the playbook of the hedge funders for whom education “reform” has become a pet cause and who poured money into the Cuomo re-election campaign,” Mulgrew said. “The Governor owes these people big time, but unfortunately the children of New York will end up paying his debts.”

Cuomo's press flack - one of the few people still working for the governor as the rest of his administration seems to be quitting by the day - responded:

“New York state spends the most money per pupil, while continuously ending up in the middle of the pack on results,” she said. “It is mind-boggling that asking questions to start a dialogue on improving our public education system would provoke a hostile response, unless you view your responsibility as protecting a broken status quo at the expense of New York’s children.”

Oh, sure - the governor's only "asking questions" to "start a dialogue."

@NickReisman Cuomo's not "starting a discussion." He already knows the answers he wants to hear for those questions.
— realitybasededucator (@perdidostschool) December 19, 2014

@NickReisman Nick, have you ever heard Cuomo ask a public question he didn't already know the answer to?
— realitybasededucator (@perdidostschool) December 19, 2014

This isn't a dialogue starter Cuomo issued today - it's a blueprint for his plan to "break" the public school "monopoly."

In case you missed it, here's what he plans to "reform" and/or address in the coming legislative session:

1. The evaluation system
2. The 3020a disciplinary process
3. The ATR pool in NYC
4. Teacher certification
5. Probationary period for teachers
6. Making it easy to close schools
7. Increase in charter schools, especially in NYC
8. Adding more technology to the system, including online classes
9. Consolidating districts
10. Reforming the Regents appointment process
11. Making the hiring of NYSED Commissioner King's replacement transparent

Notice that two items that had a lot of parents upset over the last year aren't on Cuomo's list - that would be testing and Common Core.

Funny how that goes - apparently the dialogue Cuomo wants to have about education won't include the two topics parents in New York State want to dialogue about most.

Oh, but don't worry says the Cuomo press flack.

This is just a dialogue-starter.