Cuomo Continues To Triangulate, Destroying Schools As He Simultaneously Tries To Assuage Liberals On Economic Issues

Andrew Cuomo has governed as a triangulator since the beginning of his first term.

He mostly triangulated on social issues that appealed to lefties early on (gay marriage, for example) even as he governed as a center-right pol on economic issues (property tax cap, for example.)

But ever since that challenge from the left he got from Zephyr Teachout in 2014, coupled with his languishing job approval numbers (44% job approval last February in a Siena poll, 40% last month in a Siena poll), he's seemed more interested in triangulating on some economic issues too - especially ones that his mortal enemy, Bill de Blasio, might take some political benefit from.

Thus Cuomo, who insisted a $13 dollar an hour minimum wage was a "non-starter" in NY State when de Blasio was pushing for it, has since aligned himself with some of de Blasio's union and progressive base and pushed for a $15 dollar an hour minimum wage.

Today he upped the ante on that:

ALBANY — Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo plans to unilaterally create a $15 minimum wage for all state workers, making New York the first state to set such a high wage for a large group of public employees.

The increase, which Mr. Cuomo will announce on Tuesday, would place New York’s public employees far ahead of other states on minimum wage, and at the vanguard of a national movement to address stagnant wages for tens of millions of American workers.

Using executive authority, Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, would gradually increase the hourly rate: State workers in New York City would earn $15 an hour by the end of 2018; state workers outside of New York City would also see wages rise, though more slowly, with rates climbing to $15 by the end of 2021. All told, some 10,000 workers would see a bump in pay, according to the governor’s office, with the vast majority of those living upstate or outside the city.

The governor’s action comes on a day when fast-food workers across the country are striking for a uniform $15 hourly wage, a movement that Mr. Cuomo has championed in New York and even as a growing number of cities have acted to raise wages. But Mr. Cuomo’s action is the first time a governor has raised wages to $15 for so many state employees

The NY Times points out some of the political motive behind today's move:

Mr. Cuomo’s action comes on the heels of several other executive actions seemingly meant to appease and please the liberal wing of his party, which has faulted the governor in the past for his working too closely with Republicans, who hold the majority in the State Senate. In addition to the increase in the minimum wage for fast-food workers in New York — which Mr. Cuomo accomplished in July via a state wage board — Mr. Cuomo has also empowered the state attorney general, Eric T. Schneiderman, to look into police-related killings. And last month, he expanded protections for transgender people, building on a 1945 state law that barred discrimination on the basis of sex.

The Times reports that this move also comes as an offshoot to negotiations with CSEA and PEF, two state worker unions who have had fraught negotiations with Cuomo in the past:

An administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the action had not formally been announced said that Mr. Cuomo’s decision was based in part on pending negotiations with two large public-sector unions — Civil Service Employees Association and the New York State Public Employees Federation.

PEF has new leadership that some see as more Cuomo-friendly than the ousted leadership, so some of this may just be political payoff for a Cuomo ally.

But don't underestimate two others reasons why Cuomo's pushing this now.

First, it allows him to steal whatever progressive thunder de Blasio once had and relegate the mired mayor to the sidelines on yet another liberal issue (and let's note that even though 90% of the workers affected by this are outside NYC, Cuomo had his announcement in NYC today.)

Second, it allows Cuomo to continue to triangulate on another issue near and dear to his heart - the destruction of the teachers unions and public school system.

On the same day that Cuomo said he would issue an executive order raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour for state workers came this news on the education front:

In one of her most significant actions as state education commissioner, MaryEllen Elia has granted Buffalo Superintendent Kriner Cash unprecedented power to make changes at the district’s most struggling schools, bypassing the teachers union contract.

Those changes could include a longer school day and year, required teacher training and more control over staffing – all things Cash says are essential to improve student performance.

 In a 107-page ruling released Monday, Elia largely imposes Cash’s proposals with some modifications that call for giving teachers more notice of contractual changes and preference for other jobs, should they be displaced from their position. She also recommends that a committee created to assist with staffing at the receivership schools be limited to three or five people, and consist of an odd number to prevent deadlock between union and district representatives.

Those powers Elia is giving Kriner Cash to bust the Buffalo teachers union and essentially privatize "Buffalo's most struggling" public schools come courtesy of Cuomo's receivership program that was shoved through in the last state budget by the governor.

Cuomo, who last year promised to "break" the public school monopoly, has given NYSED the tools to do just that with this receivership law that allows them to take over schools and circumvent union contracts and what is happening in Buffalo is expected to happen elsewhere around the state too.

It's not an accident that even as Cuomo provides NYSED with the power to bust the teachers union he's rallying with other unions over a $15 dollar an hour minimum wage.

Cuomo, ever the pragmatist, is bending on some of his economic policies (like that $13 dollar an hour minimum wage he said couldn't happen in NY) - but this bending is so that he can continue to triangulate on other issues like his privatization/teachers union-busting agenda.

Cynical?

Sure, but that's just how this governor operates - and he learned it from the master, Bill Clinton, who was his boss back in the 1990's.

Wall Street-Backed Families For Excellent Schools Says Public Education Is Broken, System Needs To Be Destroyed

The Families For Excellent Schools propaganda sounds a lot like the propaganda from Regents Chancellor Tisch and Governor Cuomo:

A pro-charter parent group is calling on state leaders to reject the "defenders of the bureaucracy" by taking "bold" action to fix New York's broken education system.

Families for Excellent Schools, which was created in 2011 by several Wall Street bankers and other business leaders,, sent a letter Tuesday to Gov. Cuomo, Senate GOP Majority Leader Dean Skelos and Assembly Democratic Speaker Sheldon Silver that seeks to flip the argument made by anti-charter forces that the real problem with the system is the funding inequity between poor and rich schools.

The non-profit group's letter, which comes a day after several hundred public school parents, teacher union leaders and Democrat lawmakers rallied at the Capitol against charter schools and for more school funding, speaks of "unprecedented education suffering across New York State."

"What's worse, this is an education crisis that hurt sour highest-need students the most," the letter says. "Students from our inner cities, our students of color, our families near the poverty line."

...

"As Governor Cuomo said so eloquently in his inauguration address, public education in New York today has truly become the “great discriminator.” Our education system steals possibility from our young people every day. This cannot continue," the letter states. "The depth of the failing schools crisis requires bold, structural change at the state level. For decades, New York State has failed to deliver the substantive changes our students deserve."

Attacking anti-charter forces, the letter charges that "defenders of the bureaucracy will deny that our schools are failing or they will merely propose incremental changes that tinker at the edges of the problem: smaller class sizes, minutes added to the school day, and mandatory professional development. But incremental reform will not do. To fix a structurally broken system that for decades has failed to deliver for children will take more than a few tweaks."

What do these selfless advocates for the poor and powerless stuck in "failing" public schools want?

More school closures.

More charter schools.

Vouchers for private schools.

Fewer public schools.

Money taken from the public schools and given to charter schools.

In short, they want what Governor Cuomo wants - or perhaps I should say, Cuomo wants what they want since they own him after all they cash they've showered on him.

Want to bet the governor's State of the State address on January 21 shares some of the same rhetoric that this letter has in it?

Want to bet the governor's budget proposal gives the charter deformers exactly what they want?

Want to make a bet the teachers union leaders half-ass what is quickly becoming a fight to kill off public schools in New York State?

Think I'm being extreme in my rhetoric here?

I'm not.

The rhetoric out of Cuomo and his charter school donors/Wall Street owners is extreme without any gloss from me.

Cuomo wants to "break" the public school "monopoly."

Cuomo's charter school donors/Wall Street owners says the state is in "a public education crisis" that requires "bold, structural change at the state level" to solve:

"New York State is poised to lead the nation in boldly tackling this crisis," Families for Excellent Schools says in its letter. "Governor Cuomo and other leaders in education have started an important dialogue. You have asked the right questions and identified many of the right solutions. You now have the power to act. If our state is to take bold action that radically reduces the number of failing seats and expands access to excellent ones — be they district, charter, or parochial — we will all need your collective leadership.

"With your commitment to reform, New York can be the first state in the nation to address and solve its pervasive failing schools crisis. The forces of opposition will be great, but children and families in New York and across the nation have suffered for far too long. Our children cannot wait, our state cannot wait, and our nation cannot wait."

They want the public education system destroyed - Cuomo, Tisch, and the Wall Streeters and charter supporters who own them.

This is the End Game, folks.