Cuomo Started This War, Why Won't The Unions Fight It?

Ken Lovett reported that the teachers unions may have pulled attacks ads they were running against Governor Cuomo at the behest of some Cuomo aides.

Teachers union leaders are said to be in talks with Cuomo's aides on how to make the peace, which Norm Scott reads as the unions surrendering to Cuomo (I read it that way too.)

There is no confirmation that the unions have surrendered to Cuomo already, but UFT President was a no-show at the first UFT teacher's forum devised by the union to garner rank and file support against Cuomo's agenda.

This comes after Governor Cuomo "declared war" on public education (the words of the Daily News, not mine), after he promised to "break" the public school "monopoly," after he introduced a budget that ignores such parental and educator concerns like Common Core and overtesting to focus on ways to fire more teachers and privatize schools and school districts.

We're in war for survival and the union leaders appear to be ready to surrender just as we're getting going.

Cuomo wanted this war, not teachers.

Cuomo is the one who made this personal, as a group of New York Teachers of the Year explained so eloquently in an opinion piece this weekend.

If the Lovett piece is correct, the union leaders at the NYSUT and the UFT may have agreed to pull their attack ads just as they were starting to get some traction against Cuomo.

Cuomo's education budget got beaten up in a budget hearing last week.

Politicians on both sides of the political aisle are condemning Cuomo's education budget and agenda (see here and here.)

Cuomo's said to be "rattled" by the federal investigations into corruption in Albany, with Fred LeBrun at the Times Union writing that Cuomo himself is the top target of the US attorney.

Cuomo's on the run, badly enough that he wants the attack ads pulled and what do the unions do when they're asked to pull them?

They pull them.

Is this any way to fight a war?

Cuomo vowed to destroy public schools.

That's not hyperbole - he actually promised to do this.

He declared war on public education.

That's not hyperbole - that's how the Daily News described his budget.

And how do the teachers unions fight this war?

With an aim toward losing it, that's how.

When a politician vows to destroy you, you do not compromise with this person, you do not look for a seat at the table to talk to him.

You pick up the seat at the table and you bash him over the head with it before he can do it to you.

There is no reason the unions should be pulling their ads down now, not when Cuomo's getting beaten up all over the place for his reform agenda, not when he's under attack from both sides of the aisle over it.

There is no reason the unions should be taking about anything with Cuomo, not after he broke his promise over the CCSS safety net, not with him taking heavy damage from both political sides.

The unions ought to be doubling down on the ads, running more of them, exposing more of the Cuomo agenda for the brutal vendetta it is, weakening him so that when the time to talk does come, he's soft and pliable from the beatings he's taken.

Cuomo is out to destroy public education.

It is only fair, right and just that we counterattack and try to destroy him politically.

There is no other way to handle a battle with Cuomo.

There can be no compromise with a guy out to destroy us.

The time will come for talk, but it surely hasn't come yet - there's more attacking to be done to make sure that when the talk time does come, Cuomo's beaten up enough to actually listen to what other people have to say.