Cuomo proposes $100M for distressed upstate schools—including Yonkers—that he insists isn't linked to ed tax credit http://t.co/KlYBdfJF0x
— Jimmy Vielkind (@JimmyVielkind) June 14, 2015
More:Asked directly if the school aid and tax credit would be linked, Cuomo said: “No, those are two separate bills.”
Anybody believe him?
Well don't:
“Everything is held up now,” Cuomo said during the news conference. “The way it works in the legislative session, nothing moves until everything moves. It’s a hard concept to communicate. There are 10 or 12 key items, among both houses. They’re working through to get agreement, and then they’ll wind up with a global agreement, and everything moves at the end, hopefully.”
It's not a hard concept to communicate - everything is connected in one gigantic quid pro quo instead of each bill standing (or falling) on its own.
Albany is a cesspool of corruption, it's obvious to anybody paying even an iota of attention, and no matter how much Cuomo swears these bills aren't linked, they are.
Clearly the resistance to Cuomo's education tax credit in the Assembly wasn't buckling as the legislative session came to a close, so now Cuomo's thrown some bribe money into the mix.
And that's what this is:
“The ploy is obvious—he is offering $100 million for urban schools in upstate districts represented by Assembly Democrats,” Billy Easton, executive director of Alliance for Quality Education, a labor-backed advocacy group, said in a statement. “He is trying to sweeten the pot to secure Assembly votes in support. But it must stand on its own merits. There is no room for a quid pro quo.”
Indeed there is no room for a quid pro quo but Cuomo knows no other way to govern.
This is how the scumbag governor thinks: "I'll just throw some money on the table and watch the buggers grab it! They'll do anything for money." Isn't it amazing how our scumbag governor can find money to bribe upstate legislators into voting for his various packages? Andy-boy wants to help failing schools in upstate New York but never mind those schools elsewhere in NYS. Never mind the ridiculous money still owed schools because of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity judgement or because of the GAP elimination adjustment where schools ALL OVER NYS are owed millions of dollars.
ReplyDeleteThis is Cuomo at his worse and a perfect example of dysfunctional government: use money to move his agenda, pit state regions against one another and make it one big money grab. Well, any a-hole state legislator who buys into this (and, I'm sure that there are a number who have already applauded Cuomo's move) should be completely ashamed of themselves. The loss of moral compass among our state government officials makes me ill.
Preet Bharara, where are you?
If you want to understand how clueless Cuomo education policy makers have been check out this link:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.programs.governor.ny.gov/assets/P3Presentation.pdf
It will take you to a presentation made by Yonkers School Officials to the Cuomo Educational Reform Commission. The presentation is part of a symposium titled “Maximizing Resources for Student and School Success.” Apparently the Cuomo people wanted other NY state school districts to engage in the same fraud and mismanagement that resulted in Yonkers arriving at a $28M deficit. Notably, one of the other presenters at the “Maximizing Resources” Symposium was from Ohio where he had been involved in funding scandals involving fraud perpetrated by Ohio Charter Schools. Why would a man fired by the Ohio state government for incompetency be brought in to give a presentation To Cuomo’s Education Reform Commission? Simple answer–he is a great spokesperson for an organization promoting Cheater Schools! Finally, at another symposium presentation made for the Reform Commission–this one titled “Innovative Solutions for Restructuring Public School Systems” the former Superintendent from Montgomery County, Maryland presented. This gentleman was one of the other school officials found to be taking free travel from the Pearson Foundation while his district was spending millions on Pearson products and tests–just like our former State Commissioner David Steiner. Ever wonder why Quid Pro Quomo’s education policy is such a mess? You now have a partial answer!
It seems like Quid Pro Quomo is finally waking up to the fact that NY State will soon lose two legal actions that follow up on the state’s failure to fund the Campaign for Fiscal Equity settlement. This panic move is Quomo trying to look like he cared and did something…while he actually has done nothing on behalf of low wealth school districts. Total state aid will exceed 2008-09 only next year (2015-16). Much more of next year’s state aid will be siphoned off to Charter schools than was diverted in 2008-09. Gap Elimination Adjustments (which began under Patterson–but were almost completely offset by Federal money during the Patterson years) under Quomo imposed about three times the per pupil reduction in state aid on high need/low wealth school districts than they imposed on low need/high wealth school districts. Data from Mass and NJ show that those states are outperforming NY primarily because they fund high need students at higher levels than low need students. AQE’s analysis shows that in NY we spend $8,500 more per pupil in our one hundred lowest need/wealthiest districts than we spend in our one hundred highest need districts. Quid Pro Quomo has a mess on his hands and this does almost nothing–folks are upset and they will not be bought off by this token. This token action makes it clear the courts are set to slap Quid Pro Quomo pretty hard. He now wants to look like he was out front on the issue but this clearly amounts to “too little, too late!”
ReplyDeleteBeing that the oligarchs, kleptocrats, metastasizing testers and fundies to whom Quid Pro is a catamite want things the way they are, PR Spin is ' bout the best this clown can do.....
ReplyDelete