Cuomo's Deadline Means There'll Be No Public Comment Period For The New Teacher Evaluation System

Jessica Bakeman at Capital NY:

ALBANY—State education officials will soon adopt regulations finalizing a new teacher evaluation system, but because of a statutory deadline imposed by Governor Andrew Cuomo and the Legislature, they’ll do so without the formal public comment period that’s typically required by law.

The state education department has worked to offer limited opportunities for the public to weigh in before the regulations are adopted, circulating an email address people may use to send comments and offering another outlet at an Albany “summit” next week.

But department officials will present regulations for emergency adoption at the state Board of Regents’ mid-June meeting, skipping a 45-day public comment allowance with which they are typically required to comply under a statute that allows agencies to promulgate rules with the force of law.

Stakeholder groups blame Cuomo and lawmakers for not providing more time for comment and overall implementation of the controversial, complex system.

“There really is no time for public comment, and we’re not happy about that,” said Rick Longhurst, executive administrator for the New York State Parent Teacher Association, whose organization pressed lawmakers for a delay in a recent letter. “I don’t know what to do about that, other than to ask the Legislature to call a time out and extend the overall deadline and give everybody a little more time.”

Let's face it, SED and the Regents don't really care what the public has to say about this anyway.

Neither does Cuomo.

That's been true of the reforms here in New York for a long, long time - imposed from atop, as quickly as possible, before anybody can mount much of an opposition.

Ultimately that may be the undoing of the reform agenda.

The faster this system has to be finalized and implemented, the worse the system's going to be.

Now maybe Cuomo doesn't care about that but he should because he's going to own every problem that comes down the pike with it.

Cuomo's created an artificial deadline and says it must be done by then, bar only "hardship exemptions" that are the "exception," not the rule.

That means most districts in the state are going to have to put whatever crap SED and the Regents come up with into place by Cuomo's deadlines.

Want to bet that kind of timeline isn't going to be conducive to a workable evaluation system?

And want to bet that when things go badly, Cuomo will try and blame SED and the Regents for the system, just as he tried to blame SED and the Regents for the Common Core implementation problems?

And want to bet that few are going to buy that jive this time around?