Albany Pols Set To Impose So-Called Accountability Measures On Teachers - Where Is The Accountability For Them?

Governor Cuomo thinks there's not enough accountability for teachers and is pushing a "reform agenda" that looks to impose more - including linking 50% of a teacher's rating to test scores and forcing districts to bring in outside observers for classroom observations.

State Senate Republicans and their Independent Democratic Conference allies are expected to go along with Cuomo's plan, but Democrats and some Republicans in the Assembly were expected to mount an opposition to Cuomo's plan and fight it.

Alas, that was before the US Attorney Preet Bharara arrested Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver on corruption charges and threw the whole new legislative session into disarray.

In the last week Assembly Dems have been trying to rid themselves of Silver and get themselves a new speaker - something that seemed to have been finalized when it was reported that Shelly Silver would resign as speaker on Monday and Dems would hold a vote to elect a new speaker (expected to be Bronx Party boss Carl Heastie) a few hours later.

But now even that plan seems in jeopardy, as the NY Times published a look at Heastie that suggests he's got ethics issues of his own and was investigated by the Moreland Commission for his per diem expenses before it was shut down by Governor Cuomo in return for an on-time budget deal from Silver and State Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos.

On top of that, WNBC 4 and the NY Post both reported that the US Attorney's office is investigating Dean Skelos for his outside income - the same issue that brought down Silver - and the second-in-command in the State Senate, Tom Libous, is under indictment for lying to the FBI.

It has further been reported that the US Attorney's office is investigating Governor Cuomo's sudden shut down of the Moreland Commission in return for a budget deal and while there has been no indication whether Cuomo is in Bharara's sights for corruption the way these legislators are, we do know that Cuomo had the Moreland Commission "pull back" subpoenas to his own donors when they were still investigating matters, so if the US Attorney's office picked up that string of investigation, Cuomo may be facing two separate criminal investigations (one for conspiracy for helping Silver and possibly Skelos cover up their crimes by shutting down Moreland, the second for covering up and obstructing investigations into his own donors.)

The politicians all talk about holding teachers and schools accountable while they steal themselves to satiation, gobble up millions in outside income, campaign donations, etc. in order to enrich themselves and enlarge their campaign war chests - all to maintain their power and privilege and impose their own agendas (really the agendas of their wealthy, powerful donors) on the people of the state.

Only in Governor Andrew Cuomo's New York can so many politicians either already under indictment for corruption or under investigation for said corruption talk with a straight face about holding other people accountable.