63% Of New Yorkers Disapprove Of Cuomo's Handling Of Education Issues

Jon Campbell at Gannett:

Gov. Andrew Cuomo's job-approval rating has dropped as he battles with the state teachers union over education policy, according to a new poll Wednesday.

The Quinnipiac University poll showed 50 percent of New York voters approve of the job Cuomo is doing as governor, compared to 39 percent who disapprove. That's Cuomo's lowest job-approval rating since taking office and a drop from 58 percent in December, according to Quinnipiac.

Cuomo got low marks from voters when it comes to schools. Just 28 percent of those surveyed said they approve of Cuomo's handling of education issues, with 63 percent disapproving.

...

“Gov. Andrew Cuomo gets his lowest grade on education, which is the top priority for voters, a grade so bad it pulls down his whole job approval score," Quinnipiac pollster Maurice Carroll said in a statement.

...

The poll showed education is on the mind of New York voters. A total of 24 percent listed an education issue as the top priority for Cuomo and lawmakers in 2015, topping the 15 percent who pointed to the economy or jobs.

Cuomo's in a bubble, listening to his charter school donors and ed deform pals who have been telling him he can win with his deform agenda.

But he doesn't seem to realize that post-Comon Core, the politics around education have changed.

Slamming teachers unions and bashing teachers was a fairly effective strategy before the Common Core Era, but as the public has gotten a glimpse of the Common Core math, the insane testing schedules for children, the drill-and-kill days in public schools, they're less likely to blame teachers for problems in education and more likely to blame the people making the policy or the politicians who appoint those people.

That's clearly evident here in the Q polling data.

Cuomo's fighting this deform battle like it's 2011 but it's 2015 and the public has seen the Pineapple and the Hare, Common Core math, the Endless Testing regime for students (including five year old's!), Dr Ted J Morris Jr. and some of the other charter scandals and they're less fooled by the ed deform PR.

This doesn't mean some of the ed deform narrative doesn't still resonate with the public - it sometimes does (as Eva and her charter school ralliers know.)

But it's not a slam dunk the way it was just a few years ago and this is an epochal shift in the politics around education.

Governor Cuomo is discovering that lesson this morning with the release of the Quinnipiac poll showing him trounced by teachers.

Let's hope Assembly Dems - who have already indicated in two different ways that they plan to cave to Cuomo in budget negotiations (here and here) - have learned that lesson too.