Cuomo Pushing For A Commission To Handle Teacher Evaluation Reforms

Because it's never too late for another jive commission empaneled to give cover to politicians who already know what they want to push through but don't want to take a political hit for doing it:

Majority Leader Dean Skelos on Tuesday said his conference is “just about there with him” on education issues following a lengthy closed-door conference on the issue.

At this point, state lawmakers and Cuomo are considering the creation of a commission that would develop teacher evaluation criteria.

It’s unclear what the final composition of the panel would be and what their purview would be.
“Now it’s really about the commission, the composition of the commission and really want their charge would be in terms of finalizing education reform,” Skelos said.

It also remains undetermined if the panel’s recommendations would be immediately acted up on or have to be approved by the Legislature, he said.

“They would come up with recommendations to the Legislature and the question is whether we would vote for it or whether they would implement what they recommend,” Skelos said.

Remember that idea yesterday that Cuomo was dropping most of ed reform agenda in return for the ethics agreement he got from the Assembly Dems?

Turns out it's not to be so:

Cuomo is continuing to press on with most of his initial education reform agenda, though a lifting of the statewide cap on charter schools is being left for later in the legislative session.

Assembly Democrats remain at odds with Cuomo on a variety of education issues, including a school receivership proposal as well as an effort to reform teacher tenure and the evaluation procedures for teachers.

It looks like receivership, tenure changes and evaluation reform all still alive in the budget talks, but the charter cap is out.

So much for Assembly Dems getting anything out of Cuomo for caving on ethics reform.