Cowardly Cuomo Has His Thugs Shut Down Criticism At Vigil For Orlando

Sherry Wolf Confronts Gov. Cuomo at the Vigil for Orlando from TheDustyRebel on Vimeo.

Kathy Hochul Hears It From A Teacher, Lies Directly To Her Face In Response

Governor Andrew Cuomo was supposed to be at the New York State Fair but he canceled his appearance and sent Kathy Hochul in his place instead.

Hochul met with a teacher protesting the Cuomo administration's imposed education policies and agenda:

Beth Chetney, a ninth-grade English teacher who has been teaching at the Baldwinsville Central School District for 24 years, gave Hochul a fair-sized litany of frustrations. On their list? Teacher evaluations, student testing, a growing lack of control they feel inside their own classrooms, and Gov. Andrew Cuomo himself.

"The stress that they are under right now is incredible," Chetney said of fellow teachers. "We have a lot of teachers that are feeling the pressure, that if they don't instruct based on what they can guess is going to be on this asinine test."

... 

The teacher described how five or six third-grade questions were released online recently, and most adults she knew were getting at least one of those wrong.

Hochul paid some lip service to saying the administration was dealing with these problems:

"The issues you raise are legitimate," Hochul said. "I assure you they are being talked about at high levels. And you're going to see some changes."

That's a lie, of course - these changes that have brought about more pressure, more stress, more emphasis on testing, and an increased sense of control over what teachers teach and how they teach it came DIRECTLY from the Cuomo administration and Cuomo himself.

Cuomo said not enough teachers were being fired under his vaunted APPR teacher evaluation system, so he had it re-engineered as part of the budget process to ensure that more will be found ineffective and fired next time around (even though these changes actually keep "effective" teachers from teaching in schools with the most vulnerable populations.)

How in hell can Hochul look this teacher in the face and say ""The issues you raise are legitimate...I assure you they are being talked about at high levels. And you're going to see some changes" when Hochul knows this is exactly the way her boss, Andrew Cuomo wants things to work in the public education system?

After all, he said public education is a "monopoly" which he plans to "break" - that was a pretty clear statement of intent upon Cuomo's part, one which he stated more than once (here,  here and here.)

Chetney gave Hochul more:

Chetney, the president of the Baldwinsville district's teachers union, kept going. She said she feels the governor has targeted teachers, calling them unethical. Chetney said she's heard the governor say that student tests are meaningless to kids. If that's true, Chetney said, then why does the governor insist that 50 percent of the teachers' evaluations are based on those same test scores?

Hochul said it wasn't true that Cuomo has targeted teachers - another lie:

Hochul listened and then pushed back, not on the teacher eval argument, but on the claim that Cuomo doesn't care about teachers and the pressures they face.

"It's easy to pull out these sound bites that sound the most contentious," Hochul said. "But I've sat in rooms with him, and heard his real concern for teachers and the students. And I don't think that gets covered."

It isn't true that he hasn't targeted teachers, intentionally ratcheted up the pressures in the system, deliberately tried to raise test scores in the evaluation to 50% (even though he said those tests are "meaningless" for students and they shouldn't worry about them)?

Of course it's true, whether Hochul says this is a "contentious sound bite" or not.  As for her claim that Cuomo cares for teachers and students, here's what she's basing that on:

Then Hochul laid out some of Cuomo's education proposals that have become law: less testing in younger grades, more bonus money for stellar teachers, and free tuition for qualifying new New York teachers.

"I'm here to tell that you he has a true commitment to supporting the profession and making sure that New York state regains its position as No. 1 in the nation in education," Hochul said.

These Hochul claims are, at best, distortions.

Since the tests count for 50% of a teacher's evaluation, even for teachers teaching younger grades, the pressure around testing remains, the so-called "bonus money" is based upon a bogus evaluation system that is currently under review by a judge in the Lederman case for "irrationality", and the free tuition for qualifying teachers, well, that doesn't have much value for a career increasingly viewed as a losing proposition by young people.

Chetney finished up her conversation with Hochul this way:

As Hochul and Chetney finished their talk, the crowd around them clapped.

Chetney made a final plea to Cuomo: "He needs to really engage parents and teachers and let them be a part of the solution," she said.

Hochul again said the governor shares the same goal.

"I haven't heard him say that," Chetney said, "and I invite him to my classroom in Baldwinsville anytime he would like to come."

Of course he'll never take Chetney up on the invitation to visit her in her classroom because he doesn't care about what's going on there.

He has an agenda that has been paid for by his wealthy donors to "break" the public school "monopoly" and help them to profit off public education and by golly that's what he cares about.

Hochul's full of crap and her responses to Chetney were lies, deceptions, distortions or empty words.

Teachers know Cuomo has targeted them for destruction no matter what talking points Hochul uses to say differently.

Too bad the cowardly Cuomo doesn't have the courage to meet with teachers directly - either in their classrooms or at the state fair - to hear their grievances and criticism.

Cuomo Said To Cancel Appearance To Avoid Protesters

From WWNY TV:

Governer Cuomo won't be coming to Massena Sunday after all, but Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul will.

A source told 7 News Friday that Cuomo was expected to be in Massena Sunday to help promote the Evan Williams Bourbon Bassmasters Elite Tournament, which kicks off July 30 in Waddington.

On Saturday, Cuomo's office said the governor is not coming, but Lt. Gov. Hochul will be instead. No additional explanation was offered.

Hochul is expected to do some ceremonial fishing as part of the visit.

The New York Power Authority Hawkins Point Visitor Center and Boat Launch is closed Sunday until 6 p.m., in connection with the visit, according to a source.

Why the sudden cancellation on Cuomo's part?

Well, there's this:

(Anti-Safe Act protests were threatened) Cuomo Out, Hochul In For Sunday Massena Visit | WWNY TV 7 - http://t.co/hhth8JHsaY

— Fredric U. Dicker (@fud31) July 25, 2015

If true, this wouldn't be the first time Cuomo has tried to avoid protesters by canceling an appearance.

There was that whole Lake Placid charter school thing a while back, where Cuomo "apologized" to his charter school donors who had made him honorary chairman of their conference.

Cuomo had cancelled, claiming he was stuck in Albany, but the real reason was, an anti-Cuomo protest was planned for outside the conference.

Cuomo, like all bullies, is a coward.

Cowardly Cuomo Refuses To Own Up To Working Families Party Slam

Typical from Governor Narcissist - say something scummy, then make believe he didn't say it:

Gov. Andrew Cuomo today denied identifying the labor-backed Working Families Party as a “fringe” party, despite radio remarks yesterday that seemed to mock and belittle the left-leaning group.

On a Friday interview on the Brian Lehrer Show, Mr. Cuomo seemed to allude to the WFP–with which he has long had a fractious relationship, and which reluctantly endorsed him twice for governor–as a “fringe” party, while pushing the Women’s Equality Party, which he created this year. The WEP purports to promote the anti-discrimination, pro-choice Women’s Equality Agenda, but many critics view it as an effort to lure progressives away from the WFP and deny it the 50,000 votes it needs to keep its ballot line.

“The Women’s Equality Party, the Women’s Equality Agenda, is something that is very important to me. I think it can be a national precedent. And it empowers women in a way that’s never been done. It’s almost amazing when you think about it. We’ve formed every kind of fringe party for every kind of reason. We have Democrat, Republican, Green, Red, White, Blue, Working People, Working Short People, Working Tall People,” Mr. Cuomo said yesterday.

But following a rally in the Bronx today with 1199 SEIU, 32BJ SEIU and the Hotel Trades Council–all components of the WFP’s union-community group alliance –“I don’t think I called them a ‘fringe party,'” Mr. Cuomo said, then clarifying his remarks when the Observer quoted his words from yesterday to him. “I think that I said there are a number of parties, you can vote for me on the Democratic Party, you can vote for me on the Independence Party, you can vote for me on the Working Families Party, you can vote for me on the Women’s Equality Party.”

Clearly he was tweaking WFP yesterday with the "We have Democrat, Republican, Green, Red, White, Blue, Working People, Working Short People, Working Tall People” comment on Lehrer's show.

Too bad he didn't have the guts to admit it in front of working people from 1199 SEIU, 32BJ SEIU and the Hotel Trades Council who were rallying for him.

Too bad the working people from 1199 SEIU, 32BJ SEIU and the Hotel Trades Council who were rallying for him don't realize what an arrogant, anti-union prick he is.

Governor Cuomo Remains In Hiding For A Third Straight Day (UPDATED - 10:00 AM)

State of Politics:

Gov. Andrew Cuomo is in New York City, with nothing public planned.

When will the governor face the public and explain himself on the Moreland/NY Times story?

He kept out of sight yesterday too, instead issuing press release after press release about everything in the world except Moreland.

Is he going to stay hidden for the rest of the summer, then re-emerge in September and claim the Moreland mess is old news, he's focused on the "now"!

Is he hoping people are just going to forget about the whole thing and leave him alone?

Is he in denial about the whole thing?

I don't know what the idea behind Cuomo's strategy for dealing with this is, but he's only going to be able to remain hidden for so long before he becomes a national punchline, much like his beloved Common Core.

You know, the "tough as nails" governor who can dish it out but can't take it.

The sheriff who rode into Albany to "clean up" the cesspool but made things much, much worse.

And no matter what he does about the public and the press, one person who will not be deterred by games is the US Attorney for the Southern District, Preet Bharara.

Bharara sent that message to Sheriff Andy yesterday.

So stay hidden all you want, Andy - you'll have to surface eventually and deal with the heat and if you've got legal problems because of your Moreland conduct, hiding at Billy Joel's house isn't going to save you.

UPDATED - 10:00 AM: Turns out Governor Cuomo is already a national punchline, courtesy of Jon Stewart:

The questions surrounding Gov. Andrew Cuomo's administration's alleged meddling in a corruption probe has officially become a late-night punchline.

Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" took on Cuomo's role in its lead segment Thursday, where host Jon Stewart roasted Cuomo's marked shift on the independence of the Moreland Commission, which he created last year with the broad charge to investigate public corruption in New York.

Stewart played a clip of an interview with Cuomo at the beginning of the probe, saying the commission had the ability to look at his or anyone else's operations. He contrasted that with Cuomo's office's more-recent comments to The New York Times -- that the panel couldn't have investigated him because of conflict-of-interest concerns.

"You know that's (expletive) ridiculous, right?," Stewart asked. "You know the I-made-it, I-can-do-what-I-want-with-it excuse only works for George Lucas, right?""

More from Stewart:

"It turns out Gov. Cuomo may be like the boss at work that says, 'Yeah, no, we'll play hoops at lunch. You can go hard.' And then when Jimmy from accounting blocks his shot and drives the lane, he's like, 'Hey, you're not allowed to touch the ball because I started the game.'"

 And it also turns out that Cuomo's already arguing that the Moreland Times story is "old news":

Rather than taking questions on the report, the Cuomo administration points to a 13-page response it wrote to the Times. Officials also claim many of the facts in the story had already been reported by other outlets, making it old news. 

 That didn't take long.

Andrew Cuomo Shows His Cowardice

In case you missed the news, Andrew Cuomo has pulled out of his billed appearance at the Education Reform Now-sponsored education reform retreat at Whiteface Lodge in Lake Placid.

According to Jessica Bakeman at Capital NY, Cuomo cited scheduling difficulties for the conference and has sent a video along instead of driving himself over on his motorcycle and appearing as the "honorary chair."

I'm sure Cuomo's cancellation had nothing to do with the growing protests over the conference or the anti-Cuomo rebellion spreading across the state as parents and educators fight Cuomo on his education reform agenda.

Oh, no wait - I bet that's exactly the reason why he's cancelled his appearance.

Cuomo has made himself less available this year, not just over the education policy protests - Zach Fink at Salon wrote that's he making many fewer appearances before the Albany press for Q & A.

Cuomo's on the run over Common Core, the state's education testing regime, the tax cap, the Moreland Commission, and his complicity in Chris Christie's Bridgegate scandal, among other things.


Cuomo's cancellation at the Camp Philos event is just another example of the vulnerability he is experiencing going into his re-election campaign.

Cuomo needs to stage manage his appearances as much as possible and after last week's protests outside a Long Island fundraiser, he looks like he's going to get a little more controlling about where he makes those public appearances.

Just as Christine Quinn couldn't make a public appearance when she was running for NYC mayor without having the Anybody But Quinn people protesting her, Cuomo's got angry parents, angry teachers and a curious press corps looking to confront him over various things and, like the coward he is, Cuomo seems to be looking to duck them all.

Andrew Cuomo Allegedly Goes Corleone On Merryl Tisch

Newsday has a very interesting story out tonight about something Merryl Tisch allegedly told to a middle school principal from Red Hook:

A Long Island Republican has posted on the Internet video from a forum this week on the Common Core academic standards where a Hudson Valley middle school principal relayed a conversation she said she had with state Regents Chancellor Meryl Tisch, touching on Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo.

  In it, the principal says Tisch told her the governor pressured the chancellor, in no uncertain terms, to make the Common Core rollout work. A spokesman for Tisch says the story isn’t true.

  Here’s how it unfolded:

   Karyann (Katie) Zahedi, principal of Linden Middle School in Red Hook, told the panel of Assembly members Wednesday night that she and other educators strongly expressed their concerns to Tisch about the Common Core, which has generated controversy around the state.

  “She was frustrated that we were so critical,” Zahedi, speaking of Tisch, told an audience that included parents and educators.

  “She said to me: ‘How would you like to be in my position?’” Zahedi continued. “This is what she says: ‘I’m at the governor’s mansion and he shouts at me that if you don’t get this done, if you don’t get this through, I’ll put three geniuses in a room and I’ll force it down your throats.’”

It's possible Tisch is just putting the blame on Sheriff Andy, but knowing how Cuomo operates, Tisch's story is believable too.

I'm sure Cuomo wants Common Core implemented because he took a bunch of DFER money and hedge fundie cash to get it implemented (along with the charter school cap lifted, teacher evaluations tied to test scores, and the testing regime in the state "strengthened.")

I can believe Cuomo got in her face when the pushback against the Core, the Endless Testing, the APPR teacher evaluation system and inBloom intensified and started making the papers.
I can believe he is totally on board the Ed Deform Express behind the scenes and still pushing this stuff, even as students, parents and teachers around the state turn against it.

And I can believe he got totally tough behind the scenes, telling her this shit better get done or Luca Brasi's ghost is going to visit SED and the Board of Regents and get make them an offer they can't refuse.

It's completely in Cuomo's character to take no responsibility for the ed deform agenda in public anymore, to actually run from questions and make like he's never heard of this Common Core thing before, while pushing behind the scenes to get it done.

He's a bully and a coward, but in 2014 we're going to get him on the public record over this stuff, starting with his State of the State speech.

Cowardly Cuomo Continues To Run From His Own Education Reform Agenda

From Newsday:

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo didn’t bite Monday when asked about a proposal by Sen. John Flanagan (R-East Northport) to eliminate some student testing, re-evaluate the Common Core academic standards and tighten student-data privacy.

Flanagan, chairman of the Senate Education Committee, unveiled his proposed legislation last week.
"Who is this?" Cuomo said when a reporter asked him about Flanagan's initiative.

Cuomo then suggested Flanagan put forth a bill. When told the senator already had, the governor said: "I don't know. I'd have to see the bill."

Critics have pointed out that Flanagan's bill is jive and does little more than give SED even more power than they already have over districts.

Nonetheless, that Cuomo won't even go on the record over something as mild as the Flanagan bill shows you how little he wants to do with the controversies over Common Core, the SED tests, inBloom or his own teacher evaluation system.

The past two years, during his State of the State speeches, Cuomo has lectured about how he plans for NY State to be out front in the education reform movement, how he is the official "lobbyist" for students who plans to look out for them by making sure they get more tests, more days in school, better teachers blah blah blah.

He sure had a big mouth on education in 2011 and 2012 - even early in 2013.

But now that all this stuff has become controversial, he won't even go on the record over the Flanagan bill.

As with fracking, he continues to run from the education issues.

So far, he's gotten away with it.

But he won't get away with this in January when he gives his next State of the State and we compare this year's speech to the past few State of the State speeches he gave or when he begins running for re-election in 2014.

He'll be put on record over these issues whether he likes it or not.

NYSED Commissioner King And Regents Chancellor Tisch Show Their Cowardice

Via Ed Notes, we find that King and Tisch have just announced Common Core meetings, giving about a week's notice, give or take a day:

More from Leonie:

Just learned that the first NYC NYSED/Regents forums on Common Core, testing and privacy – of which 16 others have already been scheduled and most held elsewhere in the state – are going to be held in Bronx and Brooklyn on the same night, just one week away: Tuesday Dec. 10.
Bronx at Evander Childs HS with Tisch, Brooklyn with King venue as yet unknown (at least to me); both from 6-8PM. More soon.

The one in Manhattan is scheduled for the very next night, Dec 11th. Interesting, that is the evening Diane Ravitch is meeting with parents and teachers at Julie's school in Red Hook.

Anything to hold the attendance down.

Less than a week's notice.

All three meetings held within 24 hours of each other.

Cowards.

Is Commissioner John King Now A Liability To The Education Deform Movement? (UPDATED - 11:40 AM)

CNY Teacher posts that NYSED Commissioner had a difficult week.

On Thursday, he got beaten up pretty badly at a state PTA-sponsored town hall meeting on the Common Core in Poughkeepsie, as parents attacked him over his education reform agenda, problems with the Common Core standards, the inBloom data project and King's hypocrisy for sending his own kids to Montessori Unlimited, a private school with the motto "We believe education should be about more than memorization, repetition and standardized tests," while he forces memorization, repetition and standardized tests on the rest of the children in the state.

But CNY Teacher posts that King did another Common Core p.r. meeting on Monday in Whiteboro that did not go so well either (though it didn't quite approach the meltdown moments King experienced on Thursday):



You can see the anger parents have over the Common Core reforms King is pushing and, just as King didn't seem to win over anybody to his agenda on Thursday, he doen't seem to win over anybody on Monday night either.

Now of course King won't be winning anybody over to his agenda, because he's canceled all of the remaining PTA-sponsored meetings with parents (though there may be an October 15 meeting that is not sponsored by the state PTA that he is still scheduled to attend - well see if he makes that date.)

CNY Teacher wonders if King hasn't become a liability to the deform movement at this point, the face of policy intractability and public official intransigence:

After the epic public relations failure that unfolded in Whiteboro and Spackenkill this week, is it possible that the politicians and bureaucrats in Albany will come to view Commissioner King as a political liability? Has his ability to effectively manage the state’s reform agenda been so compromised that Board of Regents Chancellor Tisch, Governor Cuomo, and NYSUT President Ianuzzi will finally call for King’s resignation?

It's clear from the commentary across Twitter and the blogosphere this weekend that Commissioner King is now a target of derision, mockery and ridicule.

Ed Notes Online found him in the witness protection program, B-Lo-Ed Scene noted how King can't handle any crowd that doesn't respond with adoration for his reforminess, NYC Educator found that King can only dish out the abuse but can't handle it, NYC School Parents blog posted that King's cancellations of the future PTA-sponsored events with parents only reinforces the meme that SED officials are out of touch and incommunicado with parents, and here at Perdido Street School blog we found Commissioner King rated "ineffective" on the Danielson rubric for effective commissioners, although when King decided to cancel the rest of the remaining PTA p.r. dates, he did inexplicably make a pineapple and hare very happy and we were able to award him a Profile in Cowardice certificate. 

I posted yesterday that if King were an astute politician, he would cancel the cancellations of the PTA-sponsored town halls and go out and meet the people, take his beatings over Common Core with grace and good humor, pay lip service to parents' concerns and then continue to do what he's doing on policy without any change of course.

I don't think that tactic would end the criticism of SED and the Regents, nor do I think it would save the Common Core State (sic) Standards and SED testing regime from their ultimate demise (not with the state having made parents in affluent areas like Scarsdale, Great Neck, Garden City and the like upset over the agenda.)

But I do think such a strategy would save King from being seen as a political liability by the deformers in power in Albany and NYC, something that is almost certain to happen if parents continue to rise up in anger and fury all over the state and King goes into hiding in Albany and lets his SED deputies deal with the furor (as he did on Long Island back in September.)

If King doesn't have the courage to face critics and defend himself and his education deform agenda from detractors, then he doesn't much serve the powers that be looking to promote the corporate deform agenda any longer and they will turn on him the way they would turn on any of their own ilk who no longer serve their interests.

UPDATE - 11:40 AM: The October 15 town hall has been canceled.

Commissioner King has gone from the Ed Deformer Boy Wonder to the Wizard of Oz, a charlatan hiding behind the curtains at SED.

Commissioner John King Throws Gasoline Onto The Common Core/inBloom/Endless Testing Bonfire

The only thing worse that NYSED Commissioner John King could have done after his meltdown in Poughkeepsie the other night, where he threatened to take his microphone and lectern and go on home if the audience didn't sit quietly and let him pontificate about the wonders of Common Core, Endless Testing and the inBloom data base, was to cancel the remaining meetings with parents across the state.

One major criticism King and NYSED, along with Merryl Tisch and the Board of Regents, have been taking over their education reform agenda is how they have rammed it down the throats of students, parents and teachers in the state without taking into consideration any of the cares or concerns of the other stakeholders.

By canceling the remaining PTA-sponsored town hall meetings with the public, King reinforces the meme that SED officials are out of touch and do not care one whit what anyone outside of their own offices or the Gates Foundation thinks about their education policies.

The smart move would have been to take the verbal beating in Poughkeepsie, take the verbal beatings elsewhere, acknowledge some of the concerns and say "Oh, we'll conduct a study over that..." or something to that effect and just keep on keeping on like they've been doing.

But Commissioner King is not a smart man, certainly not politically at any rate, because he did the absolute worst thing possible in these circumstances - he took his microphone and lectern and went back to Albany in a huff, canceling the rest of the town hall meetings and underscoring in one feckless act how little he cares about what the public thinks and how little he can handle criticism or challenge.

As Leonie Haimson put it in this post:

These cancellations have  provoked even more anger and resentment, with parents saying that while King won't allow their schools or children to opt out of the Common Core, standardized testing or data sharing with vendors, he is opting out of an important dialogue with parents.

Leonie says there is one meeting that was not sponsored by the PTA that King is still slated to attend - October 15 in Oyster Bay, co-sponsored by Senator Marcellino.

If King was a smart man, an astute politician, he would attend that meeting and make believe he actually cared what the attendees were telling him there rather than act as he did in Poughkeepsie and get all defensive and snooty about things.

He can take some of the fuel off the Common Core/inBloom/Endless Testing Bonfire by acting like most politicians and making believe he cares what people think and feel about these issues rather than showing how little cares about what the public thinks or feels about them.

In other words, he would fake it.

Not that faking that he cares when he really doesn't would put an end to the criticism and the fight SED and the Regents are going to takeover their education reform agenda.

It won't - not with parents in the affluent suburbs up in arms over the agenda.

But it certainly would put a little bit of a damper on the tumult and fury King set off with his imperious act in Poughkeepsie the other night.

We'll see if he even shows up to October 15 meeting and then, if he does, how he handles criticism.

As of now, King is making things worse for himself and his compatriots in reform at SED and the Board of Regents.

In Which I Use The Danielson Rubric To Evaluate John King's Effectiveness

NYSED Commissioner John King has deemed the Danielson rubric the evaluator tool of choice for teacher observations in New York City.

I have deemed the Danielson rubric the evaluator tool of choice for NYSED Commissioner observations in Poughkeepsie.

On Thursday, NYSED Commissioner King came to Spackenkill High School auditorium to preach the Gospel of the Common Core in a state PTA-sponsored event.

Four more Town Hall meetings with the King were scheduled for next week, but after this first one went horribly, horribly wrong for Commissioner King, the other events have been canceled.

As Sean Crowley posts here, King is used to being feted for his "greatness" in front of friendly, reformy audiences, not used to being challenged to his face over his agenda, his policies or his hypocrisy for sending his kids to Montessori school where they can avoid the Common Core bludgeon and test in every subject in every grade every month all the year through schedule that he has forced on every child who attends public school.

King couldn't take the heat when the crowd turned on him and decided to run back to Albany and hide in his NYSED office once more.

Now as I watched this brief snippet of King try and quell a disquieted and angry audience at Spackenkill High School the other night, I thought it was the perfect opportunity to use the Danielson rubric on the man who brought this "tool" to so many of the rest of us around the state.

First, it's time for some low-inference note-taking for a brief, informal drop-in on the Man Who Thinks He's King:



All right, now first, notice this whole thing is commissioner-centered.

This part of the lesson is supposed to be audience-centered - a question and comment session in which the audience, after being forced to listen to Commissioner King lecture to them over the wonders of the Common Core and testing in every subject in every grade all the year through, gets to make statements and ask questions of the commissioner.

But King gets angry when audience members challenge him and fails to let audience members make their points without cutting them off.

Then he starts to eat away the clock by talking slowly about how his kid going to Montessori school is not fair game for critics when he should instead be listening to the audience sharing their concerns over the Common Core, as the lesson plan for this Town Hall called for.

Also note his mismanagement of the audience - when he doesn't get the reaction he wants from his lecture, he threatens to shut the whole session down, take his microphone and lectern and return to Albany mid-Town Hall.

Using the Danielson rubric on Commissioner King, we can see that he is already "ineffective" on Domain 1, Competency b ("Demonstrating Knowledge of Audience Members") because he didn't realize that coming out into public to preach the Gospel of the Common Core, he might just receive some audience feedback he wasn't going to like.

 King is used to friendly, reformy audiences only, where he is applauded for his "greatness" and his "reforminess," but a good NYSED Commissioner would know that not every person in the state is going to be on board with his radical agenda and would have the knowledge and skills to handle those folks.

It is clear from the video that King had neither the knowledge or skills to handle these critics and therefore receives an "ineffective" rating in this competency.

He also receives an "ineffective" rating in both competency 1e ("Designing Coherent Instruction") and 1f ("Designing Audience Assessments"), as it seems his entire strategy for winning over the crowd was to pontificate to them on how wonderful the Common Core and the Common Core tests are and he became frustrated with the audience when the "assessment" showed they had not learned the lesson he had come to impart to them.

Their challenging him over and over and over during the audience-centered part of the lesson and his inability to handle the challenges showed how "ineffective" he had been at both of these competences.

Next up, he clearly was "ineffective" in Domain 2, Competency a ("Creating An Environment Of Respect And Rapport").

It is clear from the video that he has thinly-veiled disdain for the audience, does not care what they think or feel one bit (you might even say "Doesn't give a shit what they think or feel") and they, in turn, have no respect for him and treat him with disdain and hostility.

Effective commissioners treat all stakeholders with respect and dignity, listen to their concerns with an open mind and try and address those concerns as best they can while maintaining poise.

King is incapable of listening to others, incapable of treating his audience with the respect they deserve by hearing - really hearing - what they have to say, and clearly came just to offer some p.r. talking points for the NYSED agenda in what he thought was going to be a friendly environment.

Thus, he is "ineffective" on 2a.

He also is deemed "ineffective" on 2b ("Establishing A Culture For Learning") since it's obvious from the tape nothing was learned by either audience or commissioner except that the commissioner has a thin skin and can't handle criticism.

King is also "ineffective" on 2c ("Classroom Procedures") and 2d ("Managing Student Behavior").

Effective commissioners ensure that Town Hall meetings with the King are smoothly functioning and no time is wasted and taken away from the learning.

But King wasted as much time as he could in his talk with the audience, trying to run out the clock and take questions and comments from as few audience members as possible.

As for student behavior, it's clear from the tape he has no idea how to handle an unruly audience (or an unruly class, for that matter.)

When he threatens to shut down the Town Hall rather than listen to the grumblings of the audience at some his responses, he shows himself to be both an "ineffective commissioner" in the present and an "ineffective teacher" from his past.

According to Danielson, effective commissioners and effective teachers know how to engage their audience and avoid hostility and unruliness at all costs.

It is clear King knows how to do neither.

Now since this was an informal observation, we only looked at a brief part of the lesson and thus cannot address all parts of the Danielson rubric this time around.

We were going to measure King's effectiveness at the next four Town Hall meetings with the King, but King canceled those after the first one didn't go well, so we will not be able to do any further Danielson observations on King in a Town Hall setting.

Because King decided to cancel the future Town Halls rather than deal with the criticism coming his way, he is given an "ineffective commissioner" rating overall and will receive a Commissioner Improvement Plan ("CIP") that will require him to go to therapy for one full year to learn how to be a human being, attend conflict management classes to learn how to handle disagreements with others, and read the works of Alfie Kohn and Diane Ravitch to understand just what is wrong with his corporate education reform agenda.

If King shows no improvement after these measures and receives one more "ineffective commissioner" rating overall, he will be fired from his position and stripped of any opportunity to live off the wingnut welfare or corporate reform largesse other deformers like Rhee and Klein lap up after their time in "public service" ends.

NYSED Commissioner John King: A Profile In Cowardice

Reaction to NYSED Commissioner John King's canceling of his Common Core Gospel Tour:

.@tfarley1969 @Stoptesting15 @carolburris @LIOptOut only if Shelly & Regents paying attention he's lost confidence of parents & teachers
— leonie haimson (@leoniehaimson) October 12, 2013

King has definitely lost the confidence of parents and teachers.

Up until this week, he had more than maintained the confidence of those in the corridors of power in Albany and NYC.

It will be interesting to see if that remains so after his Profile in Cowardice.

Not only did he fail to convert anybody at his Common Core Gospel Tour in Poughkeepsie the other night, he made things worse by talking down to the audience and just generally acting like the rookie teacher with classroom management issues he was back in his teaching days.

No wonder he split the public school system after one year for charter school heaven.

No worries about classroom management there - you just toss out the malcontents, right?

In any case, King's canceling of the remaining stops on the Common Core Gospel Tour expose him as a coward and an ineffective defender of the corporate education reform agenda.

Will the powers that be stick with him after his running from the fight or will this week signal the beginning of the end of Commissioner John King's reign?

I suspect if he becomes an object of ridicule and mockery to parents and teachers, they will have to send him packing in the end.

It behooves us to make that very thing happen.

NYSED Commissioner John King Shows His Cowardice

NYSED Commissioner King was slated to do a mini-tour spreading the Gospel of the Common Core all across NY State.

The tour was co-sponsored by the reform-friendly New York State PTA and was meant to give Commissioner King a friendly forum to come and sell the Common Core gospel to the people.

Only problem is, the people didn't want to hear John King preach Common Core.

They wanted to let him know how disturbed they are by the state's testing agenda, by the changes wrought by the Common Core, by the imperiousness with which these have been handed down by the Board of Regents and the SED.



After getting beaten up for his hypocrisy, after being confronted by parents angry over the radical changes he has brought to the system, after being forced to listen to people who told him in no uncertain terms to his face that they do not buy his reform agenda, King called an end to his Common Core Gospel Core:

Dear PTA Members and Friends,

The NY State Education Commissioner’s office has requested suspending the remaining Town Hall meetings on the Common Core scheduled for:

Tuesday, October 15-Garden City HS, 170 Rockaway Ave, Garden City

Wednesday, October 16- Shenendehowa HS West, 970 Rt 146 Clifton Park

Thursday, October 24- Williamsville North HS, 1595 Hopkins Rd Williamsville

Wednesday, October 30-New Hartford SHS, 33 Oxford Rd,New Hartford

While our goal was to provide an opportunity to learn and share, based on review of the initial October 10 meeting, the Commissioner concluded the outcome was not constructive for those taking the time to attend. Please know that NYS PTA will continue to work with all education and child advocacy partners to keep our members updated and informed on education, health, safety and welfare issues affecting children and families.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and express our sincere appreciation to those who have given their time to assist with organizing this initiative.

New York State PTA

What a coward.

Here he had the chance to go and learn from people what the problems with the Common Core standards and the SED testing regime are, here he had a chance to see how the peasantry are feeling about how the plutocracy is handling education policy, and this functionary for the plutocracy couldn't take the heat and called it quits on his future Town Hall meetings.

King happily meets with his fellow education reformers like David Coleman and Paul Vallas to hear tributes to his greatness and has no problem meeting with reformy groups like the Gates Foundation-funded Educators4Excellence.

But parents who tell him the damage he is doing to their children and their children's schools?

Teachers who tell him the damage he is doing to their students and their schools?

Nah - he doesn't want to hear from them.

He doesn't have the guts to hear from them.

That's clear from his canceling the Common Core Gospel Tour after one session.

Why Won't NYSED Commissioner John King Face Parents Over His Education Agenda?

Via NYC Eye, we learn that the first of four hearings on the NYSED/Regents education reform agenda was held on Long Island, and it did not go well for the deformers from the state:

The growing focus on testing in New York’s schools is sickening students, bewildering parents and threatening to undermine public confidence in the state’s education system, speaker after speaker said Tuesday at a public hearing on the state’s “reform” agenda.

Jeanette Deutermann, a mother of two from Bellmore, said she had to take one son to the doctor last year because he was so stressed out by test preparation.

“I don’t care about the data; I don’t care about the statistics,” she said. “I care that I want my son to like to learn.”

Deutermann, who started a Facebook page for parents on Long Island wanting to pull their children from state-directed tests, was addressing the state Senate’s Education Committee. The committee Tuesday held the first of four planned hearings on the state’s ongoing reforms: the Common Core learning standards; new teacher evaluations; tougher state tests; new student data systems; and more.

And how did NYSED Commissioner John King take hearing parents criticize his education reform agenda?

He didn't take it all - he was too big a coward (or just too "big") to attend the hearing, so he sent his deputy, Ken Wagner, instead:

The soft-spoken Wagner, a well-liked former school psychologist, was on the defensive from the start. Standing in for Education Commissioner John King, he was peppered with questions about the state’s rush to roll out new standards and tests.

“There always has to be a year one,” he said. Wagner conceded the state has to more effectively explain its goals to teachers and parents.

The problem here is that John King and his merry education reformers at the NYSED don't think they have to explain anything to anybody.

As yesterday's Politico story on the rising opposition to Common Core makes clear, many education reformers haven't bothered to try and get buy-in from stakeholders like parents and teachers and instead have gone ahead with an autocratic imposition of the Common Core standards, the associated tests and "assessments," and the data tracking and teacher evaluation systems that go with all of this.

Only now, the education reformers are learning that people don't like having the wool pulled over their eyes, they don't like having questionable education reforms imposed on their children, and they don't like the arrogance with which the reformers have treated students, parents and teachers.

That arrogance was on display this week when NYSED Commissioner John King let his deputy commissioner take the heat for his agenda.

I can't say I'm surprised by this, of course.

King will show up at education reform symposiums where he can be feted by his fellow education reformers, but he's not going into a room full of people wanting to question him over evaluations, inBloom, Pearson and the rest of the education reform mess he has brought us.

He doesn't have the guts to do that.

What are you scared of, John?

Why don't you meet the parents and teachers face to face for some discussion over your reform agenda?

There are still three more meetings.

Clear your schedule and come defend your agenda in person instead of hiding behind your deputy.

Weiner's Full Of Baloney Over Homophobic Remark

Anthony's Weiner lack of moral courage and principles continues to reverberate in the mayoral race.

On Thursday, the Washington Post reported that Weiner told a voter who called his rival Christine Quinn a "dyke" that it was okay that she had used the slur.

Here's the exchange:

The offense occurred in The Washington Post, which published a lengthy story Thursday on the mayor’s race that included this scene that described Mr. Weiner’s interaction with a voter on the campaign trail:

“You a registered Democrat?” he asked an elderly woman wheeling a shopping cart by him.

“I am,” she said. “And I’m not voting for uh, what’s her name? The dyke.”

“Okay. I just need you to sign the petition to get me on the ballot,” said Weiner, who then noticed the incredulous reaction of a reporter and added, “and you really shouldn’t talk that way about people.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” the woman said.

“It’s okay,” Weiner responded. “It’s not your fault.”

Notice that it wasn't until Weiner noticed that the reporter covering Weiner on the campaign trail looked horrified at the exchange that he said anything negative to the woman.

It's pretty obvious from the exchange that he wouldn't have said an admonishing word at all had the reporter not been there.

This is a telling moment in the Weiner campaign for City Hall.

When Weiner first sent out his infamous Twitter photo, his initial reaction was to lie to the press and try to cover up the truth.

He didn't give up on the cover up until it became completely untenable to continue trying to tell lies.

That Weiner never felt the inclination to tell the truth about the incident until he absolutely had to tells you a lot about him as a person - namely that is dishonest at the core.

This homophobic slur incident is another excellent insight into Weiner as a human being.

His initial reaction, after the woman called Quinn a "dyke," was to ignore the slur and get her signature on his petition.

He didn't care a whit that she had used a homophobic slur.

It wasn't until he realized the reporter had seen how he didn't care a whit about the slur that he realized he had to react and lightly admonish the woman.

Just as his initial reaction in Twittergate was to lie, his initial reaction here was to ignore the slur and get what he needed from the woman - a signature on his petition.

Weiner has since apologized to Quinn directly, even calling her to tell her his side of the story, but as in Twittergate, his words are meaningless.

His actions are much more telling.

PROFILE IN COWARDICE: Cuomo Wants Silver Gone, Doesn't Want His Fingerprints On The Knife

Hard not to read this Times story that way:

CAROLINA, P.R. — Andrew M. Cuomo will not be sworn in as governor for seven weeks, but his jockeying with the Legislature has already begun.

...

Many saw Mr. Cuomo’s influence at play in an article published on Sunday in The New York Post, which speculated on how the governor-elect might join with rank-and-file lawmakers to unseat Mr. Silver, the longest-serving speaker in state history and Mr. Cuomo’s chief rival for influence in Albany.

Aides to Mr. Cuomo are quoted anonymously in the article as saying that Mr. Cuomo would prefer to work with Mr. Silver rather than challenge him as speaker. A spokesman said on Monday that the governor-elect was not behind the story.

Asked what sort of signal he wanted to send to Mr. Silver, Mr. Cuomo, a politician highly practiced in the art of the strategic press leak, insisted he was “not a big signal-sender.”

“I’m looking forward to working with the leadership of the Assembly,” Mr. Cuomo said, not mentioning Mr. Silver by name.

Asked whether he would discourage lawmakers from mounting a coup against Mr. Silver, Mr. Cuomo did not answer the question. Instead, he parried by citing another article in The Post, published on Monday, in which Mr. Silver expressed support for the idea of closing next year’s $8 billion budget gap without raising taxes.

“To the extent that today’s article suggests that Sheldon Silver supports that position, that’s great,” Mr. Cuomo said. “That’s what I’ve been talking about for months. I welcome his support and I welcome the support of the Assembly.”

While some have speculated that the 33-member caucus of black and Latino lawmakers in the Assembly could band together with upstate Democrats to select a new speaker, it is not clear what appetite actually exists for a coup against Mr. Silver. He is valued by many Assembly lawmakers for defending their institutional prerogatives and for bearing the brunt of editorial-page criticism of the Legislature on matters of spending and ethics reform.

“Maybe there are people there that like to play politics behind closed doors and I think they should be more transparent,” said Assemblyman Félix W. Ortiz, chairman of the chamber’s Puerto Rican-Hispanic Task Force. “Why do they have to hide?”

Cuomo shows himself to be the gutless bully he is.

If Cuomo wants Shelly gone, then he should say so - in public.

With his own lips.

He should stop hiding behind anonymous leaks and planted articles.

Especially when the planted stories are as obvious as this one.

One last thing: Little Andy better watch the hubris.

He's strutting his stuff now, but if he wants to take on Silver, he better know that everybody else who has taken Shelly on in the past has lost.

Obama Refuses To Take Responsibility For Sherrod Firing

It seems when it comes to President Accountability, the buck stops somewhere else:

President Obama said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack erred in pushing out Shirley Sherrod over allegations of racism that later proved unsubstantiated, but the real culprit, he told ABC News, was the media.

"He jumped the gun," Obama said of Vilsack, "partly because we now live in this media culture where something goes up on YouTube or a blog and everybody scrambles."

Obama's charge was broadcast by ABC News Thursday night, excerpted from a longer interview scheduled to run Friday on "Good Morning America."

"I've told my team and I told my agencies that we have to make sure that we're focusing on doing the right thing instead of what looks to be politically necessary at that very moment. We have to take our time and, and think these issues through," Obama said.

"If there's a lesson to be drawn from this episode," the President continued, it's to avoid "jumping to conclusions and pointing fingers at each other."

For her part, Sherrod blamed the White House for overreacting to criticism, whether that criticism is honest or not. "This administration is definitely too sensitive to what the right is saying," she told CBS News Thursday morning. "I definitely think the right has actually edited speeches that have been made to try and get their point over, when they know it's a lie."

The tone is set by the man at the top, of course.

So when people in any organization react a certain way, it is because the people running that organization - or the top guy running that organization - have set up a culture that encourages that.

The person running the Obama administration is Barack Obama, not Tom Vilsack.

He is responsible for Sherrod's firing.

He has people in his administration freaked out enough over race baiting that they fire people without even getting the whole truth.

The same thing happened to Van Jones.

So Barack Obama is full of shit when he blames the media culture or the people under him for causing this problem.

He caused the problem.

The wingnut media bullshit existed long before he was elected.

The response to it is not to cave to Andrew Breitbart, Glenn Beck or Matt Drudge.

The response is to say: THESE "JOURNALISTS" ROUTINELY PUBLISH HORSESHIT AND CALL IT NEWS, SO WE WILL NOT OVERREACT TO STORIES THAT COME FROM THEM. WE WILL LOOK INTO EACH INCIDENT AND JUDGE IT ACCORDINGLY. AND WHEN IT BECOMES CLEAR BREITBART, BECK, DRUDGE OR SOME OTHER WINGNUT CHOWHEAD HAS PUBLISHED LIES, PROPAGANDA OR HORSESHIT, WE WILL EXPOSE IT AS SUCH.

That was the proper response to the Shirley Sherrod story.

Since Secretary of Monsanto, er, Agriculture, Tom Ballsack responded instead with panic and fright and fired the woman without even getting the full story, we must assume that that is the culture that Barack Obama, has set up for his administration.

Judging by his arrogant refusal to take responsibility after the case for the mistakes, I think that assumption is dead right.

Give Her A Call, Obama

Shirley Sherrod wants to hear from Hopey/Changey:

She says she doesn't want the president to apologize to her for having her fired, just wants to

talk with him about what happened and to tell him about her experience living in the south, where he has never lived.

"I'd like to talk to him about the experiences of people like me, people at the grassroots level, people who live out here in rural America people, who live in the South. I know he does not have that kind of experience," Sherrod said.

That's exactly right, he does NOT have the same experience as her.

Nonetheless, not having the experience to know what is important about some issue has NEVER stopped this man from deciding that he DOES know what is happening.

Take public education, for example.

Obama thinks closing schools, firing teachers and principals, tying teacher evaluations and pay to test scores and adding tests in every subject at every level twice to four times a year will improve education.

Silly little man. Go back to smoking cigarettes and playing basketball with your education secretary, because you are making public education a HORRORSHOW with your policies.

Just as you did in Shirley Sherrod's case by ordering Vilsack to fire her before you knew the real circumstances of the case.

I know you don't have the guts to actually say that's what happened, but it's pretty clear from the case that the White House ordered the Secretary of Monsanto, er Agriculture, to fire her.

And the top person in the White House would be you.

So give her a call, admit what you did, admit how you didn't know what the fuck you were doing in the case but took action anyway and totally fucked things up.

And while you're at it, give me a call and we can talk about how you're fucking up public education.

Maybe we can salvage some things before it's too late.

Obama Caves To Andrew Breitbart and Right-Wing, Forces Resignation Of Innocent USDA Employee

It is becoming apparent more and more that this White House stands up for nothing except Race to the Top funds for firing teachers and closing schools.

This story - a Profile in Cowardice if ever there was one - should make you sick:

Hoo boy. Conservatives apparently aren't going to back down from ever more overt appeals to racial resentment this summer. BigGovernment.com "broke" a story yesterday about a speech given a few months ago by Shirley Sherrod, USDA Georgia Director of Rural Development, at an NAACP Freedom Fund dinner. In it, Sherrod tells a story from 24 years ago about not helping a white farmer as much as she could have because she was "struggling with the fact that so many black people had lost their farm land."

The point of this story, told in a public venue, was that she quickly realized that she had done wrong. "That's when it was revealed to me that it's about poor versus those who have. It's not so much about white...it is about white and black but it's not, you know...it opened my eyes." This could easily be a heartwarming, three-hankie movie on Lifetime, but no matter:

Sherrod told CNN on Tuesday that she was told repeatedly to resign Monday afternoon after the clip surfaced. "They harassed me," she said. "I got three calls from the White House. At one point they asked me to pull over to the side of the road and do it because you are going to be on Glenn Beck tonight."

Sherrod said the calls came from Cheryl Cook, USDA deputy undersecretary for rural development. "The administration was not interested in hearing the truth. They didn't want to hear the truth," she said.

Sherrod said she and the white farmer she referred to in the video, Roger Spooner, became friends. Spooner's wife, Eloise, confirmed to CNN that she and her husband considered Sherrod friends. "She helped us save our farm by getting in there and doing everything she could do," Eloise Spooner said. "They haven't treated her right."

Sherrod said she told the story to make the point that at the time she thought that white farmers had the advantages because of their race but she learned that was not the case. "The point was to get them to understand that we need to look beyond race," Sherrod said.

In a second video, BigGovernment.com says "Ms. Sherrod confirms every Tea Partier's worst nightmare." Although this is ostensibly a reference to a joke she made about no one ever getting fired from a government job, that's not really every tea partier's worst nightmare, is it? On the other hand, a vindictive black government bureaucrat deciding to screw you over because you're white? Yeah, I'd say that qualifies.

This is just appallingly ugly, and the White House's cowardly response is pretty ugly too. This is shaping up to be a long, gruesome summer, boys and girls.

What a coward Barack Obama is.

Nothing makes him run and cry like a little nastiness via Glenn Beck or some other right wing smear merchant.

Not interested in defending a government employee who seems to be innocent of the allegations made by the right wing, the White House instead threatened her to do the expedient thing and resign.

Guess the only people they feel qualified to stand up to are teachers unions and teachers.

I am going to repeat what I said earlier this week:

Not enough bad stuff can happen to the people running this White House.

UPDATE: Monsanto Whore/Obama Agriculture Secretary Tom Ballsack, er, Vilsack, says it doesn't matter if the government employee fired for charges of racism is innocent of those charges. Her ability to do her job has already been impaired by the Breitbart video, so she had to be fired:

When the department heard about the video yesterday afternoon, they immediately put Sherrod on administrative leave, according to the official. Then, officials called Vilsack, who asked if Sherrod was willing to resign. According to the official, Sherrod said yes.

The official said Sherrod had a chance to explain herself. But her explanation -- that her story is "about getting beyond the issue of race" -- had little effect.

"The comments create a situation that make it really hard for her to do her job," said the official, explaining as Vilsack did in an earlier statement that the agency is struggling to overcome a perception of racism. And it doesn't matter that Sherrod apparently ended up helping the white farmer. "The issue is the comments that she made."

Vilsack, speaking to CNN, said he was concerned about future allegations of racism against Sherrod.

"When you're the state rural development director your principle job is to try to develop job growth in the state of Georgia," he said.

"Unfortunately, the statements and the context of the statements created a circumstance where in the future if people were not satisfied with the decisions that the rural development director made, they could attribute the decision to a wide variety of reasons that weren't necessarily related to the job," he said.

The White House says the decision was completely Vilsack's, but they back him up 100%.

Uh, huh.

Leaving aside the total dickishness of Monsanto Whore Vilsack firing the employee even before investigating the charges, I must ask why the woman who was fired said on CNN she got THREE PHONE CALLS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE TELLING HER TO RESIGN.

So why is the White House lying about this?

Come on, Barack, you applauded the firing of the teachers in RI.

Own up to the firing of Ms. Sherrod too.

The only thing worse than a wanker is a cowardly one who won't own up to it.