Why Doesn't Cuomo Dispense With The Sham Hearings And Issue His Common Core Report Now?

Pauline Liu in the Times Herald-Record:

If you were able to get to the Common Core Task Force hearing in Albany last Friday, you probably would have gotten an earful about the learning standards.

The panel was created by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who charged it with reviewing Common Core for what he called "a total reboot."

The event in Albany was one of five simultaneous hearings held across the state by members of the task force.

According to media reports, only about 100 people showed up to the Albany hearing. I wished I could have gone, but the so-called "listening sessions" were announced on such short notice.

In fact, the task force came under fire last week from both parents and teachers' associations for its "last-minute" planning.

The public was given only a few days notice about the sessions. They were originally scheduled from 3-5 p.m.

After working parents and the New York State United Teachers union complained that they couldn't get there in time, the hours were switched to 4-6 p.m.

I can't think of a more inconvenient arrangement.

If these hearings are truly important, it's difficult to understand why the task force put them off until what amounts to rush hour at the very end of a work week.

The group appears to be in a rush to hold sessions that it barely has time to schedule.

It's obvious when they hold "total reboot" hearings for education policy during school time so that most parents and teachers can't make it to the meetings that they're not interested in hearing from anybody who doesn't already agree with Cuomo.

And given the previous commissions and panels Cuomo has convened, from the Moreland Commissions on Public Corruption and Utility Storm Preparation and Response (both of which he controlled through the executive director doe both, Regina Calcaterra) to other education commissions in the past like the one that Todd Hathaway was on where they didn't want to hear about his dissent and signed his name to the final report even though he didn't agree with the findings, we know Cuomo has total control of the scripts of these dog and pony shows.

So why not just save everybody some time, energy and money and release the report now instead of going through the sham of making it look like you're listening to parent and educator concerns, Governor?

You're fooling very few with your dog and pony shows on Common Core.

We've seen these shows before and we know when they rigged for outcomes.

To be frank, if they're your show, they're always rigged.