Cuomo now at Capitol. Let the final deals begin ...
— Tom Precious (@TomPreciousALB) March 29, 2015
And:
The Assembly Democrats are scheduled to conference early this evening. The Senate Republicans are not conferencing again until tomorrow at noon.
Interesting that Senate Republicans are not conferencing until tomorrow.
That probably means no ethics deal tonight.
But with Assembly Dems conferencing tonight, an announcement on the education issues in the budget is a possibility tonight or early tomorrow.
We shall see.
I'd say "Stay tuned," but that phrase has a different meaning these days in Albany...
UPDATE - 5:15 PM:
Skelos, in brief interview, says the Senate is "very close" to reaching an agreement with Cuomo on ethics.
— Thomas Kaplan (@thomaskaplan) March 29, 2015
Skelos says the distribution of school aid is still being negotiated, but an on-time budget is within reach.
— Thomas Kaplan (@thomaskaplan) March 29, 2015
UPDATE - 6:10 PM
Teachers' union lobbyists working outside speaker's office, near conference room where Assembly members are meeting soon.
— Jessica Bakeman (@jessicabakeman) March 29, 2015
UPDATE - 7:00 PM:
Assembly Dems now in conference. The expectation is this will be a long one.
— Nick Reisman (@NickReisman) March 29, 2015
Brilliant.keep lobbyists(except NYSUT), public out with final budget crunch on weekend,when Capitol doors locked.
— Tom Precious (@TomPreciousALB) March 29, 2015
UPDATE - 8:20 PM:
Assembly Dems will be in conference for another hour/hour and a half, and they don't expect to make an announcement tonight on a budget deal
— Jessica Bakeman (@jessicabakeman) March 29, 2015
Our friends are our enemies, denial is wisdom and capitulation is victory. Congratulations to the UFT for another victory!
ReplyDeleteHere comes the screw job, thanks NYSUT, UFT and AFT!
ReplyDeleteOur profession has been officially destroyed.
Deal done. 4 year tenure and SED doing reforms on evaluation. Good bye any local control.
ReplyDeleteWhat exactly does SED control mean? Will there recommendations automatically be official? Are all of Cuomo's proposals back on the table? Outside observers, 50% on tests?
DeleteTheir*
DeleteGovernor Andrew M. Cuomo, Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie today announced an agreement on the 2015-16 State Budget.
ReplyDeleteThe Budget agreement includes landmark education reforms and investment, an ethics package with the nation's strongest disclosure laws for legislators with outside income, and new investments in rebuilding and growing the state's economy, including $1.5 billion for the Upstate Revitalization Initiative and $500 million to make New York the first in the nation to have statewide broadband.
Governor Cuomo said: "With this agreement, we address intractable problems that have vexed our state for generations. After decades of leading the nation in education spending but lagging in results, New York will set an example for all other states with a complete overhaul of the entrenched education bureaucracy. These reforms – accompanied by an unprecedented financial investment – will put students first by bringing accountability to the classroom, recruiting and rewarding our best teachers, further reducing over-testing, and finally confronting our chronically failing schools.
Senate Majority Leader Dean G. Skelos said: "I am pleased that we have arrived at a responsible Budget agreement that lives within the 2 percent spending cap, rejects tax increases and meets the needs of every region of this state – reflecting the priorities of our Senate Republican conference. Thanks to a dramatic reduction in the Gap Elimination Adjustment along with an overall school aid increase of approximately $1.4 billion, students will continue to have the resources they need to learn and thrive. The Budget also includes a blueprint for significant new reforms designed to improve performance in the classroom, reduce over-testing and promote excellence in teaching. In addition, we make sound investments in our infrastructure to create new jobs and encourage the private sector to build and grow. Working together, the Legislature and Governor have also significantly tightened up the state’s ethics and disclosure laws to improve transparency and restore the public’s trust. I thank the Governor, Speaker Heastie, Senator Klein and all of the members of the Senate and Assembly for their hard work and contributions to this year’s enacted Budget, which we expect to pass on time before April 1."
Full details and language to be released Monday.
Our friends are our enemies, denial is wisdom and capitulation is victory. Congratulations to the UFT for another victory!
ReplyDeleteThe agreement includes a new teacher evaluation criteria that will include both state-based tests as well as principal and independent observation. School districts can opt for a second test for teacher evaluations developed by the state Department of Education.
ReplyDeleteTeacher evaluation criteria would be tied to tenure: Three out of four years a teacher must be given a rating of at least “effective” in order to receive tenure.
On the inverse, teachers that are deemed to be “ineffective” for two years in a row could be removed within 90 days. Teachers rated ineffective for three years in a row could be removed within 30 days.
School districts must implement the new evaluation criteria by November and doing so is linked to state education aid.
An administration official on Sunday evening said the new evaluation criteria would need to be included in new contracts, but would not be subject to collective bargaining with local units.
“It’s in the law,” the official said.
The budget includes a plan for school receivership. Schools deemed to be struggling or “failing” have a school district put forward a turn around plan to the state Department of Education, which could either approve the plan or have the school taken over by an independent monitor.
The first batch of schools up for review would have to be deemed “failing” over the last 10 years, with the second batch deemed “failing” for the last three years.
The fight over education policy in the budget was one of the more pitched in recent years, as Cuomo tangled with the highly organized teachers unions both in the city and statewide.
Both the New York State United Teachers and the United Federation of Teachers accused Cuomo of strengthening charters at the expense of public education and as way of rewarding the deep-pocketed campaign contributors who also support charter networks.
While Assembly Democrats resisted the education proposals, Cuomo faced opposition to his disclosure of legal clients from Senate Republicans.In the end, a lifting of the statewide cap on charter schools was not included in the final budget agreement, which could ultimately be tied to the re-approval of mayoral control in New York City, which expires in June.
At the same time, Cuomo was not able to win agreements on measures he proposed in January, including the passage of the DREAM Act, which provides tuition assistance to undocumented immigrants and the education investment tax credit, which is aimed at spurring donations that aid public schools and private-school scholarships.
http://www.nystateofpolitics.com/…/state-lawmakers-cuomo-r…/
"Independent observation" is in the above article. How they come to manage that with 70000 plus teachers in the city and the enormous number of teachers in the state is beyond what my mind can contemplate, yet according to the above made it in the agreement. What are these politicians smoking? If not smoking - drinking? If not drinking - what planet or cloud are these fools living on? Just read Mulgrew's response to the budget and of course he says a lot without saying much and also spinned it as win for teachers without again mentioning any of the fine print.
ReplyDeleteThat seems to be the only source reporting that. I hope they are wrong
ReplyDeleteLots of goodies for teachers like more paperwork, more observations, 4 years to obtain tenure. Call th UFT to thank them .
ReplyDeleteIf you were fortunate enough right now to be standing over George Orwell’s grave in the sweet garden of the churchyard at Sutton Courtenay, Oxfordshire, you would hear, piercing the roar of his revolving corpse, a plaintive, despairing voice crying out: “Bury me deeper. Now. Please.”
ReplyDelete