Message To MaryEllen Elia Over Those Teachers She Wants To Work In "Struggling Schools"

From the Times Union:

State Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia called on teacher educators across the state Thursday to train future teachers who can rise to the challenges inside struggling urban schools.

"Right now, we have schools across this state that are chronically failing, and we need to have great teachers that will rise to the challenge of moving into those schools and supporting those children and communities," she told a crowd of more than 100 who had gathered in Saratoga Springs for the annual conference of the New York State Association of Teacher Educators and the New York Association of Colleges for Teacher Education.

Her message came just one day after these very schools testified before state legislators that they're bleeding teachers as they enter a new school year with more pressures than ever before. Under the state's new receivership law, 144 schools across 17 districts were labeled struggling or persistently struggling and given one or two years to turn things around or risk losing local control to an outside receiver approved by the state.

Between the short time frame to demonstrate improvement and the higher stakes around teacher evaluations this year, teachers are fleeing struggling schools for schools where things aren't so bad, officials said Wednesday at a hearing in Albany.

"We're in the process now of looking for teachers who have that heart, who really want to be in and support kids in urban settings," Elia said Thursday.

To do that, though, New York has to return to a position of respect and reverence for the profession, she said. As the state's population ages and teachers retire, New York will face a teacher shortage if it doesn't, she added.

"We need to really elevate teaching as a profession and articulate the importance of teachers across the state and what they do every day to support our students," she said. "There are many challenges in our schools across the state, and our teachers are going to be the ones who are going to make any change in what happens in those classrooms. We have to be very focused on supporting them, so that they can support our students for success."

We've been over this before, but let's do it again one more time since the message doesn't seem to enter that thick skull of Elia's.

Saying you want to "elevate the teaching profession" while simultaneously doing all you can to de-skill, de-professionalize and terrorize teachers in the system is not going to "elevate the teaching profession" nor help you find those teachers to work in "struggling schools."

Given that 50% of a teacher's rating is now based upon test scores, given that a teacher can be fired after two years of poor APPR ratings based upon test scores, given that students in those struggling schools often have low test scores and given that you, the governor and the Regents Chancellor are always blaming teachers for all the ills in the system, why would anybody in their right mind a) go into teaching at this juncture and b) teach in one of those "struggling schools"?

Here is a Perdido Street School reader on the toll the current "Blame Teachers" reform agenda has on the teaching profession Elia says she wants to "elevate":

More broadly, who'd want to become a teacher anywhere? I don't teach in a struggling school (though its close) and the decision to come in to teaching ranks as the biggest mistake of my life. Financially, psychologically, etc. A toll is taken on the psyche when your profession is labeled as the reason for almost all the negative issues going on in our society, relentlessly, no matter how ridiculous. The volume of it and the incessant nature makes one a bit twitchy. It was a stupid call. At least working at amazon, you are probably paid well for the few years you survive....and then you can go get another job.

The thing that isn't talked about so much, and should be, is that when a teacher is drummed out, for any reason really, they will never teach again in public school. It's an established, formalized, institutionalized, fully-legal blacklisting. So a public school teacher falling under the hatchet of reform faces a much steeper slope out of unemployment than does, say, a corporate person who gets fired. As always, the "accountability" and "disruption" on the corporate side is always somehow lighter than they want to impose on the public side. 

A fired teacher is DONE....the one thing they have prepared and trained for is no longer something they can tap on in their job search. (Unless they go to work at a desperate private school that will pay them like $19k a year.) Even admin....they leave or get booted somewhere, they get to become admin somewhere else (see Elia). No deep institutional, legal blacklisting for them! Even principals, AP's, Directors, etc in my district who have been let go for deep incompetence always get another job in Admin by the next school year in another district.

So that's a thing and it matters. For teachers, our options become way way way limited after being fired. We are the ultimate tightrope walkers...no safety nets.

James Eterno posted how teachers at his phasing out school were mostly rated "developing" and "ineffective" but all "magically" got "effective" ratings once they moved on to other schools that weren't being phased out:

In April the ICEUFT Blog published a piece in which we publicly admitted that for the 2013-14 school year state data showed that 88% of the teachers at the phasing out Jamaica High School were rated either developing or ineffective. At the time we stated sarcastically that we must be "the worst teachers on the planet." The blog also said these ratings were meaningless.

We concluded the post by making a not so bold prediction that for 2014-15, when teachers from Jamaica were sent to other schools where the student populations did not have as many needs as those at the phasing out Jamaica, we would see much better teacher ratings.

The data is now in for 2014-15 and another ICEUFTBLOG prediction has come true.  This year there were no adverse ratings from the 2013-14 Jamaica teachers who were still in the school system. We were perfect.  That is correct. 100% of the teachers who were at Jamaica in 2013-14, who became rotating Absent Teacher Reserves or were assigned to a school in the 2014-2015 school year, have been rated either effective or satisfactory. The only people who didn't receive these positive end of the year evaluations were the three who were fortunate enough to have retired.

How is it possible that we went from 88% of us receiving adverse ratings to 0% in just a year?  We were the same teachers. 

I am so sick of these educrats and politicians claiming they want to "elevate" teaching while they simultaneously pursue a conscious agenda to do the exact opposite.

Elia claims she wants to give these "struggling schools" more time and money to turn things around.

Alas, the receivership rules shoved through by Cuomo earlier this year and passed by the Heavy Hearts Club in the state legislature do not allow for that.

Same goes for the APPR teacher evaluation systems that rates teachers based upon 50% of student test scores - these systems have to be in place by November 15 or districts lose some funding.

We keep coming up against these arbitrary deadlines created by politicians and educrats (think Race to the Top) that are designed not to improve anything but simply put an ultimatum down and give the people running the system the opportunity to blow stuff up if their ultimatum isn't accomplished.

Elia can claim she wants to "elevate the profession" all she wants and say how she needs "great" teachers to teach in so-called "struggling schools," but the truth is this - any teacher who goes to teach in a "struggling school" risks a low performance rating (even NYCDOE Chancellor Farina knows this) and two years of a low rating and you're done for life, tarred as a "bad teacher."

Try working again as a teacher after you've gotten two "ineffective" ratings and been fired by your district after they pursued 3020a incompetence charges against you.

Education reformers like MaryEllen Elia have brought us this kind of environment and no matter how many times she says she wants to "elevate teaching," it's quite clear she and her fellow reformers want to do the exact opposite.

Can Roger Tilles' Reversal On Test Scores Tied To APPR Be Believed?

So-called big news out of Long Island:

Roger Tilles of Great Neck, now in his 11th year on the state Board of Regents, told a teachers conference in Port Jefferson that Albany faces the risk of growing opposition to the job evaluation system unless it reverses course.

“I oppose the use of standardized tests to evaluate teachers and principals,” Tilles said, drawing applause from about 400 teachers and school administrators at Earl L. Vandermeulen High School in Port Jefferson. “Not admitting a mistake is making a bigger mistake.”

Tilles voted for the system in June, now he's opposed to it?

What changed in the last two months that Tilles sees the light all of a sudden?

Here's my response to the Tilles "news":

@leoniehaimson @edbobgreen @LIOptOut @carolburris @NYSAPE So why'd he vote for it in June? http://t.co/mxkuHJnma0

— rbe (@perdidostschool) September 3, 2015

@teka21bat Tilles is slippery. Has said good stuff before, but his votes contradicts his words.

— rbe (@perdidostschool) September 3, 2015

I'm not the only skeptic out there - here's a commenter at Diane Ravitch's post on the Tilles news:

This is not a reversal. Roger Tilles has been consistent. He’s come out publicly against student test scores linked to APPR since 2011. It’s just that he keeps voting for it anyway. So don’t be fooled into believing this big announcement means anything. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/ny-regent-dont-link-teacher-evaluation-to-test-scores/2011/05/17/AFsJFr5G_blog.html

Here's another:

Ditto to the above comment. Nowhere does Tilles state that he will vote “no”. This is a PR/spin campaign ( the motivation for which that I cannot figure out). Perhaps public figures who are sell outs, who fall short of the mark need to try to convince themselves as well as the public that they are actually “good guys”???

I titled the post "Can Roger Tilles' Reversal On Test Scores Tied To APPR Be Believed?"

Given Tilles' track record of contradictory statements and actions, the answer is - no, he cannot and should not be believed.

Until I see differently, I fully expect Roger Tilles to vote the way Merryl Tisch tells him to.

Silence From Cuomo Water Carrier Hakeem Jeffries On Clinton Correctional Facility Prison Abuse

Two days ago Cuomo ally (and de Blasio critic) Hakeem Jeffries gave Governor Cuomo an award from the Urban League:

.@RepJeffries on behalf of @NatUrbanLeague presents award to @NYGovCuomo for leadership in criminal justice reform. pic.twitter.com/WuOeMxsdYI

— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) August 10, 2015

Yesterday the NY Times broke the news that 60+ prisoners who were housed at Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora where two prisoners escaped in June have filed complaints that they were beaten, choked, and tortured by correction officers.

The governor himself helped inaugurate the "tough guy" interactions at Clinton Correctional with this exchange with a prisoner whose cell was next to one of the escaped prisoners:

It would be several hours before the first details of the escape were made public. Around 11 a.m., Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo toured the honor block and inspected the holes the inmates had cut in the backs of their cells with hacksaw blades.

Governor’s Stare

The governor then stopped to question Mr. Alexander.

“Must have kept you awake with all that cutting, huh?” Mr. Cuomo asked, according to video of the exchange. Then, Mr. Alexander said, the governor “gave me his best tough-guy stare and walked off.”

Later, the governor said he would be “shocked” if any corrections officers had been involved.

That prisoner who Cuomo gave his "best tough-guy stare" to was taken into a broom closet a few hours after the governor left Clinton Correctional and beaten, choked and threatened with waterboarding by correctional officers:

Around 8 p.m., he was handcuffed and taken to a broom closet where, he said, three corrections officers whom he had never seen before interrogated him. An officer wearing a jacket with the initials C.I.U. — Crisis Intervention Unit — sat down and asked him, “Do you know the difference between this interview and those other interviews?” Mr. Alexander recalled.

This time, the officer warned, there were only uniformed guards in the room, Mr. Alexander said.

“The officer jumps up and grabs me by my throat, lifts me out of the chair, slams my head into the pipe along the wall,” he said. “Then he starts punching me in the face. The other two get up and start hitting me also in the ribs and stomach.”

With each punch, Mr. Alexander said, the officers shouted another question.

“The whole time he’s holding me up by my throat,” he added.

When Mr. Alexander repeatedly insisted that he had no information, one officer pointed to a plastic bag hanging on some pipes, asked if he knew what it was for and said, “You know what waterboarding is?” Mr. Alexander recalled.

The officer then put the bag over his head and started beating him again, Mr. Alexander said.

He said the interrogation lasted about 20 minutes, and he was then taken, bleeding, back to his cell.

Later, Mr. Alexander said, the same officer “began quietly taunting and threatening me, telling me, ‘Don’t worry, Fat Boy, we’ll be seeing you really soon.’ ”

There are serious allegations of systemic abuse by correctional officers and members of the Crisis Intervention Unit in the Times piece, but so far, other than outrage online in the form of social media tweets and comments left at the Times story, there has been silence from the "civil rights activists" who were allied with Cuomo in his push to give the Attorney General power to subsume power from local district attorneys in incidents of death caused by law enforcement authorities.

There is plenty of scorn to go around here, but I'm going straight at one of the more vocal Cuomo allies, Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, a Cuomo ally who just gave Sheriff Andy an award from the Urban League two days ago for his "leadership" on criminal justice reform.

It would seem to me that this story in the NY Times that details how 60+ allegations of abuse, beatings and torture took place in Clinton Correctional after the June escape of two prisoners would be a perfect time for Andrew Cuomo to show some "leadership" in criminal justice reform and get to the bottom of the matter, but since Cuomo seems to have set off the whole mess with his tone of "by any means necessary" and tough guy show at Dannemora, he's nowhere to be found on this.

And it would seem that this story in the NY Times would at least precipitate a public statement from Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, the man who has been quick to criticize Bill de Blasio for any real or alleged misstep on criminal justice reform issues.

I've left a few messages for Criminal Justice Reform Warrior Jeffries on twitter to see if he'd reply:

@RepJeffries Thoughts on systemic beating, torture of prisoners at Dannemora? http://t.co/updtPinnM5

— rbe (@perdidostschool) August 12, 2015

@RepJeffries One prisoner was beaten, choked by guards hours after Gov Cuomo "stared him down" http://t.co/updtPinnM5

— rbe (@perdidostschool) August 12, 2015

.@RepJeffries What award will you give Gov Cuomo for his leadership in the Dannemora prison beatings/torture mess?

— rbe (@perdidostschool) August 12, 2015

So far, silence from Jeffries, which isn't a surprise since these allegations involve his buddy, Andrew Cuomo, and not his rival, Bill de Blasio.

You can bet had the NY Times published a story about Rikers, Jeffries would have been on it quicker than you can say "National Urban League" award, but alas, this wasn't an opportunity for Jeffries to bash and weaken de Blasio or aggrandize Cuomo, so there has been no public statement about the issue so far from Jeffries.

I would assume Criminal Justice Reform Warrior Jeffries will eventually have to make some statement about the abuse allegations, that he won't be able to ignore them completely just because they seem to have been kicked off at the hands of his buddy, Sheriff Andy Cuomo, but who knows when that will be.

Jeffries has thrown his lot in with Andrew Cuomo and you can bet the Dark Lord in Albany (yes, that's a Cheney reference) will not suffer gladly any "friends" or "allies" who criticize the him over the prison abuse issue at Clinton Correctional.

Thus the "cricket sounds" out of Jeffries on the matter - and the same goes for many of Cuomo's other criminal justice reform allies.

Turns Out Brian Williams Misremembers A Lot Of Things

I'm sure you've heard by now how Brian Williams "misremembered" being in a helicopter that was forced down by enemy fire in Iraq in 2003.

It turns out, there's a lot more he misremembers:

The NBC news anchor, who apologized Wednesday for telling a false story about taking fire in a helicopter while covering Iraq, is being called out for possibly lying about his experience covering Hurricane Katrina, according to a report.

Williams claimed to have gotten dysentery from drinking flood water and seeing dead bodies float past his hotel in the New Orleans French Quarter while covering Hurricane Katrina.

However the The New Orleans Advocate noted that the French Quarter was not flooded and quoted a local health expert who did not recall anyone getting such a stomach ailment.

Williams recalled his bout with the bug in interview with Tom Brokaw last year, when he said: “I accidentally ingested some of the floodwater. I became very sick with dysentery."

The Advocate said a public health official never heard of people getting things like dysentery after the storm.

“I don’t recall a single, solitary case of gastroenteritis during Katrina or in the whole month afterward,” Dr. Brobson Lutz told The Advocate.

“I don’t know anybody that’s tried that [drinking flood water] to see, but my dogs drank it, and they didn’t have any problems.”

Williams said also during an interview in 2006 that he saw dead bodies float past his window in the French Quarter.

“When you look out of your hotel window in the French Quarter and watch a man float by face down, when you see bodies that you last saw in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, and swore to yourself that you would never see in your country,” Williams said in 2006.

But the French Quarter, the original high ground of New Orleans, was not impacted by the floodwaters that overwhelmed the vast majority of the city, The Advocate said.

He also said in his Brokaw interview: “Our hotel was overrun with gangs, I was rescued in the stairwell of a five-star hotel in New Orleans by a young police officer. We are friends to this day.”

NBC News brass don't want to hold Williams accountable, but former Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw does:

“Brokaw wants Williams’ head on a platter,” an NBC source said. “He is making a lot of noise at NBC that a lesser journalist or producer would have been immediately fired or suspended for a false report.”

Brokaw's own credibility is in question here, since he apparently knew the Iraq helicopter tale was a fable:

Brokaw, 74, was still the “Nightly News” anchor when Williams came back from his Iraq expedition — and an insider said he knew the story Williams later spouted was bunk.

“Tom Brokaw and [former NBC News President] Steve Capus knew this was a false story for a long time and have been extremely uncomfortable with it,” the source said.

NBC News execs had counseled him to stop telling the tale.

NBC put a guy who made shit up about his Iraq war reporting experience into the Nightly News anchor chair - heckuva job NBC!

While the elites at NBC are trying to save Williams' lying ass, some of the plebes feel differently:

NBC brass hasn’t been talking to lower-level employees about the situation, leaving people in a panic, the insider said.

“NBC bosses don’t understand how serious this is. Nobody in a leadership position is talking to the troops. Nobody has addressed it,” the source said.

One longtime NBC employee who has worked with Williams on several occasions had a few dirty words to describe the celebrated anchor, calling him a “real pompous piece of s–t.”

“He’s an a–hole,” he fumed. “He’s not a journalist. He’s a reader.

“Oh, the fireworks that are going off inside,” he said. “It’s embarrassing. He’s the face on NBC. He’s a liar.

“Everyone knew it.”

Can't wait for the next NBC Education Nation where the pompous Williams asks directs questions to Michelle Rhee about the importance of holding teachers accountable for their performance and behavior.

Same goes for Brokaw, who has been known to pontificate about teachers unions allowing poor performing teachers to remain in their profession.

Brokaw knew Williams was full of shit, NBC News brass knew he was full of shit, Williams himself knew he was full of shit - and yet, there was Brian Williams, hosting the NBC Nightly News last night.

Ah, yes - accountability is only for the little people.

Cuomo Raised SUNY Tuition By More Than 25% - Now He Cares About Students With Loan Debt?

From the NY Times:

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo will propose legislation to ease the debt burden of thousands of college graduates, an administration official said.

Under the governor’s proposal, to be unveiled in his State of the State address on Wednesday, the state would cover two years of loan payments for graduates of New York State colleges who make less than $50,000 a year, continue to live in the state and are enrolled in the federal Pay as You Earn program, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the proposal has not been released.

Roughly 60 percent of students who graduated from public and nonprofit colleges in New York in 2013 took on debt, and the average amount was $26,381, according to a report by the Institute for College Access and Success. The report did not include graduates from for-profit colleges, who generally accumulate more debt.

The governor’s office projects that up to 7,100 people would benefit in the program’s first year, increasing to 24,000 by 2020, as more students hear about the program and enroll in Pay as You Earn to qualify. The state would pay an average of $3,500 toward each participant’s loans.

Students who finish two- or four-year degree programs in 2015 or later would be eligible for the assistance. Students who do not graduate — who statistically are more likely to be from low-income families — would not be helped.

Sounds fabulous, right?

Cuomo's looking to help students burdened with excessive student loan debt and a tough job market, particularly for newly-minted graduates.

Except if he cares so much about students and loan debt, why did he push to raise SUNY tuition by 40% at the the university centers and 25% at the other SUNY campuses back in 2011?

Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Thursday proposed increasing tuition by more than 25 percent over five years at most State University of New York campuses and by more than 40 percent at the university centers over the same period — measures he said would help parents with college planning and boost SUNY to top academic levels nationally.

His proposal, in the form of a bill, would add $4,370 over five years to the annual tuition at the university centers in Buffalo, Binghamton, Albany and Stony Brook, and add $2,330 to the tuition at SUNY's other 60 campuses. The governor's bill also would create SUNY's first two-tiered system for tuition.

When students and their families complained about the tax hike plan, Cuomo told them to suck it up and deal with "financial reality."

Ultimately the governor and the legislature settled on this for the hike:

The State University of New York Board of Trustees today approved a policy that will increase tuition $300 a year for the next five years, along with SUNY’s 2011-12 financial plan. Lawmakers gave final passage last Friday to legislation that authorizes SUNY to make the hikes, removing the topic of tuition from the annual state budget process for the next several years. Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who agreed on legislation with the Senate and Assembly, has not signed the bill yet.

The increase will take effect this fall. Tuition for in-state undergraduate students at SUNY’s 29 state-operated campuses will increase from $4,970 to $5,270 this fall. Tuition for out-of-state undergraduate students will increase 10 percent a year over the five years.

The tuition hike total came to more than 25% over five years.  In addition, Cuomo refused to increase the percentage of state aid that covers costs at SUNY, so "SUNY students are paying an ever-increasing share of SUNY's costs, shifting the burden of public higher education to them and away from taxpayers."

Cuomo's refusal to do the state's part in covering SUNY costs sets up a need for future tuition and fee increases even after the five year, 25%+ hike is finished.

Now Cuomo releases this plan to help students with student loan burdens even as he has added to that burden by raising SUNY tuition more than 25% over five years and refused to raise the percentage of state aid to SUNY, thus setting up a need for future tuition and fee hikes.

Cuomo thinks people will have forgotten that he raised tuition 25%+ over five years and refused to do the state's share in covering SUNY costs, thus sowing the seeds of future hikes, and hail him as an advocate for students.

He may be right about that, I dunno.

But I'll do my best to remind some of them in my little corner of the blogosphere that while Cuomo's loan plan here is all well and fine, it would have been better if coupled with him coughing up more state aid for SUNY along with limiting the tuition hikes that have been instituted over the past five years.

So Long As Tests Are Used For High Stakes, Endless Test Prep In Schools Will Continue

Secretary of Education Privatization Arne Duncan plans to "draw a line in the sand" in a speech calling for a NCLB revision, demanding that students still be tested every year in math and reading (3rd-8th grade) and he's going to add three tests in science during those years.

But it is said Duncan will call for an end to "unnecessary tests" in his speech:

Duncan won't back away from policies the Obama administration has embraced from the get-go. Those include investing in teacher quality—and teacher evaluations; a state-federal partnership on accountability akin to the NCLB waivers the administration granted; and, yes, maintaining NCLB's annual summative tests. As he's said before, Duncan sees annual statewide assessments as an important part of the picture when it comes to ensuring that all students, especially disadvantaged kids, are making academic progress.

...

The secretary is open to changes in how standardized tests are used. The administration also wants to allow states to incorporate measures other than test scores into their accountability systems—flexibility that's largely already offered to states through the NCLB waivers (even though many haven't taken advantage of it).

And the secretary wants to ensure that states and districts aren't going overboard with a lot of unnecessary or redundant tests, something he's signaled before by applauding efforts by the Council of Chief State School Officers and the Council of the Great City Schools to help their members take a hard look at their assessment systems and weed out unnecessary or low-quality tests.

Okay, here's the deal.

So long as state tests are used for high stakes decisions to close schools, evaluate teachers, etc., an unhealthy emphasis on testing and test prep will remain in operation.

That's the deal.

Duncan and other ed deformers can say "Oh, we want to lessen testing by getting rid of unnecessary tests or "low-quality tests" (whatever the hell that means - as far as I an tell, they're all "low-quality"), but the truth is, so long as state tests are used to bludgeon teachers, close schools, etc., there will be an inordinate amount of time, energy, and resources spent on making sure as many students as possible pass the state tests.

That means the Era of Endless Test Prep will continue unabated in most schools despite Duncan's call for an end to "unnecessary tests."

And btw, the Education Privatization Secretary knows this, as do all the other reformers calling for an end to "unnecessary tests."

Duncan is trying to respond to the growing anti-testing movement, but he's simply paying lip service to it and not really listening.

Deformers need the testing to continue as high stakes because this is the weapon they use to destroy schools, teachers and public education.

You can see that in New York, where Cuomo complained about the Common Core roll-out and hammered NYSED and the Board of Regents over it, but still used the CCSS test scores as proof positive for why teachers suck and need to be fired.

Deformers need the tests to remain and they need the high stakes to remain to carry out their destructive plans to "break" the public school "monopoly."

It's a cynical ploy by Duncan and other deformers here to call for an end to "unnecessary tests" when they know that really won't change the obsessive testing culture in the system at all.

They need to be called on that cynical ploy.

Obama's Cynical Ploys On Education

From ABC News:

Free community college for all. 

Conversation-starter? Definitely. Political possibility? Not any time soon. 

President Obama unveiled the idea in a video posted to Facebook on Thursday night, then pitched it publicly at an event Friday in Knoxville, Tenn. 

"Community colleges should be free for those willing to work for it," Obama told a crowd at Pellissippi State Community College. "It's not a blank check, not a free lunch, but for those willing to do the work…it can be a game changer." 

The president called a community college education one of the "central pathways to the middle class." 

While certainly ambitious, the idea currently lacks a total price tag, proposed legislation, and Republican support on Capitol Hill. 

But the White House says that’s beside the point at this stage. 

The president merely hopes “to start a conversation,” Obama domestic policy adviser Cecilia Munoz told reporters. 

The administration said the plan would cost the federal government an estimated $60 billion over 10 years, in addition to tens of billions of dollars in commitments from the states. The Republican Congress would need to pass legislation approving funding. State governments would need to each act as well. 

Details on how the Obama envisions covering the federal cost remain a mystery.

Not a chance in hell this proposal is happening.

That's why the administration hasn't really put together a plan to make it happen - they know doing so would be a waste of time and resources.

It's a cynical PR ploy, that's all.

It's a shame that the president and his merry men and women in reform have decided to engage in cynical PR ploys because it's worthy idea that should and perhaps could be implemented (if the administration had laid the groundwork for it.)

But Obama, Duncan and the rest of the administration have made enemies on both sides of the political spectrum, especially on education issues.

On Monday, Duncan is supposed to call for the "repeal" of No Child Left Behind (though he'll demand many of the onerous parts of the law - like annual testing in grades 3-8 - remain.)

That too is a cynical ploy.

It's not a "repeal" when you demand much of the old law stay when you "repeal" it.

Next time Obama accuses his critics of not being serious about stuff, remember the community college plan he suggested that he has no intention of trying to enact but does want to use to juice his numbers with young people.

Same goes for his NCLB "repeal" that keeps much of the onerous (and odious) parts of the law in place.

When Will Teachers Union Leaders Stop Trusting Andrew Cuomo?

NYSUT's press release/reaction to Cuomo's veto of the teacher evaluation shield law:

The governor reneged on an agreement. With this veto, the governor has decided that teachers are the only ones who should be held accountable for the state’s failed implementation of the Common Core. We can’t understand why he is refusing to sign his own bill. What has changed? Could it be that the governor is doing the bidding of billionaire hedge fund managers — many of whom, like Paul Tudor Jones, don’t even live in New York state? This governor has to decide whether he’s going to support the goals of students, parents and teachers or those of billionaires who want to destroy public education in order to privatize it and profit from it.”

Meanwhile, educators from across the state — joined by parents, students and community members — will gather outside the Executive Mansion on Eagle Street in downtown Albany beginning at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday to stand together against attacks on public education and teachers, and to call on the governor to listen to all stakeholders before bringing forth another wave of misguided educational policies designed to dismantle public education.

The demonstration coincides with the governor’s annual New Year’s open house and will include an invitation to the governor to attend public forums on public education so that he can hear, unfiltered, the concerns of parents, students and educators about his so-called reforms.

Going forward, there must be no "deals" with Cuomo from teachers union leadership.

It's clear Cuomo's word is worthless.

He reneged on the promises he made to the Working Families Party in return for their ballot nod.

He reneged on his promise to fight for a Democratic State Senate.

He reneged on the teacher evaluation shield bill.

That's three strikes - Cuomo's out.

Do the teachers union leaders understand this?

They're talking a good game for now.

But we'll see if they follow up their words with more actions than just press releases and calls for a demonstration outside the governor's mansion one day before hand.

Teachers Unions Discover Andrew Cuomo Is A Cheat And A Liar

Jessica Bakeman at Capital NY has a piece out this morning suggesting Governor Cuomo never attended to amend his teacher evaluation law to "shield" teachers who were harmed by the Common Core test scores even though he called for such a shield bill himself.

She reports that NYSED changed the release date for teacher evaluation ratings this year, moving it from October to December, something which Cuomo used to beat back the bill he himself had called for:

Cuomo said last week during a cabinet meeting at the Capitol that new data regarding the results of the second year of the evaluation system, which included New York City for the first time, caused him to reconsider signing the bill.

“I think we should reevaluate the evaluation system in light of this data, and I don’t know that those changes would make a significant difference to this data," Cuomo said when asked if he would sign the bill.

It turned out to be convenient for Cuomo that the Education Department released the data—which showed that the vast majority of teachers were high performing under the system—the day before the “safety net” bill was sent to Cuomo’s desk.

Last year, the education department released the results from the first round of teacher evaluations in October. This year, officials presented the data two months later, allowing Cuomo to explain his plans to veto the bill after re-election by arguing that new information had changed his mind.

The bill was among the last to be sent for Cuomo’s approval after the recent session; more than 600 bills were delivered to the governor before this one, and a recent Capital analysis showed that the later a bill is sent to Cuomo’s desk, the more likely he is to veto it. If he vetoes the bill, it will be a first for Cuomo; so far, he has signed all 67 of the program bills that made it to his desk.

Did Cuomo's office coordinate with NYSED to have the release date of the evalation system ratings coincide with the exact time that the "shield bill" was being sent to his desk to sign?

It certainly was a fortuitous change in ratings release, wasn't it?

And Bakeman spends much of the article reporting how Cuomo really didn't want to change anything about the evaluation system at all.

Teachers union leaders tell her they're mad over this:

Leaders of local teachers’ unions are offended by what they argue is a reversal on Cuomo’s part.

“He should be a man of his word and honor his commitments to sign the bill,” said Phil Rumore, Buffalo Teachers Federation president and another active member in the W.F.P.

Adam Urbanski, president of the Rochester Teachers Association, said Cuomo is using teachers’ union as scapegoats for New York’s education problems in order to pander to pro-charter school billionaire hedge funders who have donated millions to the governor’s campaign.

“Even if he prevails, he is no closer to the solution, because the real problem is not teachers and their unions,” Urbanski said. “The real problem is concentration of poverty and wrong-headed policies that are clueless about how teaching and learning really work.”

NYSUT did not respond to requests for comment but released a statement last week quoting the governor’s previous comments on the “safety net” bill.

“This is the governor’s own bill,” the union said. “He proposed it, and it was negotiated in good faith.”

NYSUT is wrong, of course.

As the Bakeman article makes clear, Cuomo did NOT negotiate the "shield bill" in good faith.

It was a pre-election head fake, that's all.

And this does have consequences for teachers, despite Cuomo's and State Senator John Flanagan's insistence that it doesn't:

And Cuomo’s delay in signing this bill was especially impactful because the legislation, which would have taken effect immediately upon its signing, had implications for the start of the school year. Some teachers and principals are months into completing intensive professional development plans individualized for their improvement that they wouldn’t be required to undergo if Cuomo had signed the bill by September.

The lesson the teachers union leaders MUST finally learn here:

Andrew Cuomo does not negotiate in good faith - he is a cheat and a liar and they should not trust him in any negotiation.

His track record is there for all to see.

Just ask the teachers who got dinged on the Common Core test scores and now have to live with the "intensive professional development plans individualized for their improvement."

Cuomo Press Flack To Teachers: Don't Be Upset, The Governor's Just Asking Questions!

NYSUT and the UFT responded to Governor Cuomo's letter to Regents Chancellor Tisch and NYSED Commissioner King which sets out his anti-public school privatization agenda.

First, NYSUT:

The governor says he wants to put students first,” Magee said. “If that were even remotely true, he would listen carefully and act on the advice of the real experts — parents, educators and students — about what’s best for public education,” she said. “Instead, New Yorkers get clueless, incendiary questions that do the bidding of New York City hedge fund billionaires who have letterhead and campaign donations, but know absolutely nothing about how public education works. If the governor wants a battle, he can take the clueless New York City billionaires. We’ll take the parents, teachers, higher education faculty and students in every ZIP code of the state.”

Then the UFT:

“This letter comes right out of the playbook of the hedge funders for whom education “reform” has become a pet cause and who poured money into the Cuomo re-election campaign,” Mulgrew said. “The Governor owes these people big time, but unfortunately the children of New York will end up paying his debts.”

Cuomo's press flack - one of the few people still working for the governor as the rest of his administration seems to be quitting by the day - responded:

“New York state spends the most money per pupil, while continuously ending up in the middle of the pack on results,” she said. “It is mind-boggling that asking questions to start a dialogue on improving our public education system would provoke a hostile response, unless you view your responsibility as protecting a broken status quo at the expense of New York’s children.”

Oh, sure - the governor's only "asking questions" to "start a dialogue."

@NickReisman Cuomo's not "starting a discussion." He already knows the answers he wants to hear for those questions.
— realitybasededucator (@perdidostschool) December 19, 2014

@NickReisman Nick, have you ever heard Cuomo ask a public question he didn't already know the answer to?
— realitybasededucator (@perdidostschool) December 19, 2014

This isn't a dialogue starter Cuomo issued today - it's a blueprint for his plan to "break" the public school "monopoly."

In case you missed it, here's what he plans to "reform" and/or address in the coming legislative session:

1. The evaluation system
2. The 3020a disciplinary process
3. The ATR pool in NYC
4. Teacher certification
5. Probationary period for teachers
6. Making it easy to close schools
7. Increase in charter schools, especially in NYC
8. Adding more technology to the system, including online classes
9. Consolidating districts
10. Reforming the Regents appointment process
11. Making the hiring of NYSED Commissioner King's replacement transparent

Notice that two items that had a lot of parents upset over the last year aren't on Cuomo's list - that would be testing and Common Core.

Funny how that goes - apparently the dialogue Cuomo wants to have about education won't include the two topics parents in New York State want to dialogue about most.

Oh, but don't worry says the Cuomo press flack.

This is just a dialogue-starter.

Governor Cuomo Blames National Weather Service For Slowness Of State Response To Buffalo Storm

It's never Il Duce's fault, is it?

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) - Dozens of western New Yorkers are complaining about the conditions in their communities. Viewers are asking, “Why is help taking so long and why wasn’t my community more prepared?” Saturday night in Lackawanna, Governor Andrew Cuomo said it’s because the National Weather Service got it wrong.

4 Warn Weather meteorologists predicted the lake effect storm well in advance, but Cuomo said he is not satisfied with how it was forecasted, so the state is getting its own equipment to provide more data.

“Apparently they’ve been doing some of the main streets but none of the side streets, you’ve got cars in front of you stuck, cars in back stuck, nothing’s going on,” said Tony Darmstedter, of Lackawanna.

During a tour of Lackawanna on Satruday, Cuomo said there’s a reason the city is still snowed in.

Cuomo said, “I think Lackawanna by design was probably hit harder than any other community compounded by narrow streets, compounded by abandoned cars in those narrow streets.”

As far as why they weren’t prepared, the governor says the National Weather Service is to blame. He said, “It came down earlier than forecasted and it came at a higher volume than they forecasted.”

His solution? The state is getting its own weather system and each county will soon be able to monitor its own weather. The state is using $15 million of federal funding granted after Superstorm Sandy.

“I went through this with Storm Irene, Storm Lee, Hurricane Sandy, none of them were predicted where they were predicted and how they actually happened.  Accurate weather prediction is a big deal now, it’s taken on a new context now with this extreme weather,” said Cuomo.

A commenter on the WIVB story notes:

Umm... it was predicted well ahead of time that this snow was going to produce a lot of lake effect in a short period. I don't know where Cuomo has his head, but all news forecasts predicted snow in the feet, not inches.

I should probably stop comparing Andrew Cuomo to Benito Mussolini by calling him Il Duce.

To be fair to Mussolini, he did get the trains to run on time.

Cuomo can't get anything in the state to run right.

Clinton Gets Orwellian In Defense Of Cuomo

Ross Barkan at Politicker:

Recasting Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s race as a bellwether of the left’s ongoing struggle with conservatives nationwide, former President Bill Clinton told a crowd of union members tonight that Mr. Cuomo would be a bulwark against the “last gasp of trickle-down economics.”

“He has made this a more progressive, more fair, more forward looking state–and it’s turned out to be good for the economy,” Mr. Clinton said at the headquarters of 1199 SEIU, the powerful healthcare workers union, in Manhattan. “This team of Andrew and Kathy [Hochul] will do more.”

He said that Mr. Cuomo, facing a conservative, under-funded rival in Republican Rob Astorino, was all that stood between progressives and a possible Reagan revolution-like redux: “This election is about the last gasp of trickle-down economics,” he charged.

What the hell is Clinton talking about?

Cuomo has demonized the "extreme left" and pushed again and again for tax cuts for rich people and corporations while attacking unions and unionized workers.

What's "Democratic" about this record?

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo , whose center-right policies have alienated him from much of his party’s progressive base, attacks the “extreme left of the Democratic Party” in his new memoir, according to a report in the New York Times.

While his father Mario Cuomo’s 1984 address at the Democratic National Convention served as a liberal rallying cry, Andrew Cuomo has repeatedly found himself starkly at odds with the liberal wing of the party. Although the governor signed marriage equality and gun safety legislation into law and has staked out a robustly pro-choice position, he has also slashed corporate taxes, capped property taxes, maneuvered to keep his own party from controlling the New York State Senate, lent conditional support to fracking, and earned plaudits from the right-wing National Review for his conservative economic agenda. There’s also the federal probe into Cuomo’s disbanding of his much-heralded anti-corruption commission, which Cuomo had touted as evidence of his commitment to good government.

Capitalizing on progressive discontent with Cuomo’s policies and his sudden dissolution of the Moreland anti-corruption commission, challenger Zephyr Teachout managed to secure 34 percent of the vote against Cuomo in New York’s Democratic primary last month.

Given his center-right track record, it’s hardly unsurprising that Cuomo is no fonder of the left than the left is of him. According to the Times – which got its hands on a copy of his new memoir, All Things Possible: Setbacks and Success in Politics and Life – Cuomo rips the “extreme left” in the book, particularly for what he depicts as its hostility to the rich. Leftists, Cuomo writes, “speak of punitively raising taxes on the rich and transferring the money to the poor” and seek to “demonize those who are very wealthy.”

Dunno why Cuomo felt the need to bring Clinton in as closer for the campaign - the latest Marist poll shows Cuomo up 36 percentage points, with 56% support in the election - so he's going to win on Tuesday no matter what.

But for Clinton and Cuomo to make believe like he;s some great progressive - please!

No Wonder Andrew Cuomo And Billy Joel Are Friends

From the NY Post:

The Piano Man is really The Electronic Keyboard Man.

A tipster who peaked under the lid of Billy Joel’s Steinway grand piano tells me there are no strings inside. The 88 ivories are connected to an electronic synthesizer.

“The fans don’t know it. They love him and pack the place, but the grand ‘piano’ he has onstage is just a shell with no guts,” said my source.

A Joel spokeswoman said, “The piano is not empty inside, there are aspects of both acoustic and synthesized keyboard. There has been no ‘acoustic’ rock and roll or pop pianists probably for the last century.”

The spokeswoman added, “An acoustic piano has to be electronically conveyed otherwise it would never be heard in an acoustically challenging environment like sports arenas or stadiums.”

The excuse tendered by Joel's spokeswoman is dubious - an acoustic piano can be mic'd so it can be heard in a live performance.

But Joel isn't having his acoustic piano mic'd.

He's hiding a synthesizer inside an acoustic piano shell.

In other words, the "Piano Man" is playing a synthesizer while making people think he's playing a piano (and that's assuming he's doing much live playing at all - many artists "live" performances these days are pre-recorded.)

No wonder Joel and Cuomo are such great pals - they're both consumed by appearances that contradict reality and when caught on it, they (or their spokespeople) sling some horsehockey to fool people.

How's That Deal With Cuomo Working Out?

It took all of a few days before Andrew Cuomo made it quite clear that he does not intend to live up to his end of the bargain he made with Working Families Party for their endorsement:

ALBANY -- Republicans Thursday mocked Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo for vowing to help Democrats take over the State Senate, and then, days later, touting his ties with GOP legislators.

Republicans called it a "180-degree flip-flop."

A Democratic spokesman said there was no inconsistency about the governor highlighting his record getting legislation through and promoting party candidates.

On Saturday, Cuomo, a Democrat, blasted Republicans as "ultra cons," or conservatives, and said they should be removed from power in the Senate. He did so as a condition to win the endorsement of the liberal Working Families Party.

Then, on a western New York swing Wednesday, Cuomo appeared at a news conference with a Republican senator and touted that he'd "reversed that partisanship that existed in Albany."

Asked if residents now represented by Republicans should worry about losing influence, he said no.

"How can anyone trust this guy?" the state Republican Committee said in a news release.

"Andrew Cuomo is trying to have it both ways, playing to his liberal base downstate while feigning bipartisanship upstate."

The state Republican Committee got this story EXACTLY right - how can anyone trust this guy?

First he's working behind the scenes to ensure Republicans control the State Senate so he can get his Wall Street-friendly policies through, then when he takes heat from the left, he pledges to help Democrats take back the State Senate, then he goes upstate and tells Republican, "Nahh, don't worry about what I said on that hostage video I did for Working Families Party last weekend, I have no intention of doing what I said I would do in that video.

How can anyone trust anything this guy says?

And how bad does that deal the WFP made with Cuomo look now that he has made a mockery of it?

Cuomo Administration: Middle Class Is $300,000 A Year, Upper Middle Is $500,000

The Cuomo administration explaining its "middle class tax cuts":

In defense of new regressive tax cuts in the most economically unequal state in America, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s top aide tonight told the Journal News that those making $500,000 a year are merely “upper middle class” and those making $300,000 a year are “middle class.” In fact, the median household income in New York is $53,046 and in wealthy Westchester County it is $79,585. According to Citizens for Tax Justice, those making $500,000 a year salary are among the top 1 percent of New York’s earners. - Sirota

Yeah, middle class is $300,000 a year, upper middle class is $500,000 a year.

They must be talking about Eva Moskowitz, who makes over $475,000 a year.

Not too many people in that "middle class" tax bracket.

Andrew Cuomo, class warrior, cutting taxes for his wealthy campaign donors, then claiming he's helping out the "middle class."

When Does Cuomo Criticize Charter School Operators For Their Salaries?

From Ken Lovett at the Daily News:

ALBANY — A leading activist for the poor who has ripped Gov. Cuomo over the issue of income inequality actually makes more money than the governor.

Michael Kink, executive director of the union-backed Strong Economy for All Coalition, pulls in at least $183,000 a year, sources close to him say.

Kink’s salary tops Cuomo’s $179,000 annual pay. It also dwarfs the less than $110,000 made by a fellow activist for the poor, Ronald Deutsch, executive director of New Yorkers for Fiscal Fairness. Critics point out Kink is in the top 10% of income earners in New York — even as he lives in Massachusetts.

“Mike Kink doesn’t represent the grass roots anymore than the Wall Street fat cats he obsesses about do,” an Albany insider said.

Okay, so long as we're going at people's salaries, Governor Charter School, let's talk charter school operators' salaries:

Cuomo has long gone after district superintendents for making $200,000+.

Now he's going after non-profit heads for making near $200,000.

Let me know when he attacks Deborah Kenny for making almost $500,000 for running a couple of schools.

Or Eva for making $475,000+.

Cuomo Says Public Education Needs "Disrupting," Common Core Is Just The Thing To Do It

Governor Cuomo today:

Under fire from Republican Rob Astorino, the Westchester County executive running for governor and who has called it the “Cuomo Common Core,” the governor was quick to point out that he has nothing to do with the education department. 

“The education system across the board needs serious reform and has for a long time,” he said. 

He added: “To the extent this is a moment to bring change to the system—and remember how hard change is, especially for a large system like the education system—I welcome it.”

He defended the Common Core standards, likening them to charter schools as a way of improving on the failing status quo. 

While people might say the changes are disruptive to the status quo, Cuomo argued that, “by the way, the status quo needs disrupting.”

It's the same tired crap we hear from the education reformers all the time - public education is failing, it's in need of major disruption, that's why drastic reforms like CCSS and school privatization are needed.

As Diane Ravitch and others have pointed out over and over, these talking points are tired and false to boot.

But that doesn't stop Cuomo from parroting them.

One other thing I'd like to point out - he keeps saying he has nothing to do with education policy, but he keeps sticking his nose into education policy, via the APPR law or his Common Core panel.

At what point does a reporter stop being nice and polite about questioning him over this and just point out how full of crap he is when he says he has no say in ed policy in this state?

Governor Cuomo Says There Should Be A Superhero Named After Him

Try not to take a sip of any liquid while reading this:

Super Mario, meet Super Andrew.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo today suggested a new superhero based on his stint as governor, while taking a break from budget negotiations in Albany to announce a deal to film a new series based on the Marvel comics characters in New York.

“It just occurred to me as I was sitting here, there’s a sequel here … I can see it: Boy from Queens goes to Albany to fight the evil empire and bring justice to the people of the state,” joked Mr. Cuomo, who made the announcement at the Good Morning America studios in Times Square.

“It is a very, very big deal. It’s also very cool, especially for a guy like me who deals with what he deals with all day long. To be in the world of Superheroes is pretty cool,” he gushed.

The deal between Netflix and Marvel will bring the “flawed heroes of Hell’s Kitchen” characters to the popular online streaming service. The series, set to begin filming in September 2014, will include four live-action shows focused on Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist, and will culminate in a mini series starring all four characters teaming like in “The Avengers,” said Bob Iger, the chairman and CEO of the Walt Disney Company.

The deal will drive $200 million in revenue to the state and create 400 full-time jobs–marking the largest film or television production commitment in New York State history, said Mr. Iger, who credited the deal to the state’s generous tax credit system, which gave away nearly $500 million last year.

Speaking to reporters after the announcement, Mr. Cuomo–who said that he already had a cape at the ready–eagerly repeated his pitch to the gathered crowd.

“I think that work, right? Boy from Queens. Think about it. Goes to Albany, fights the evil empire on behalf of the people of the state to bring justice back. In the end, the sun shines again,” he said.

Asked by Politicker to identify his superpower, he didn’t hesitate.

“Oh, superior intellect!” he said with a laugh, pointing to his head.

The fevered ego this man has to have to "joke" about this sort of thing, framing his "joke" with the story of the kid from Queens who fights the Big Bad Corrupt Criminal Class in Albany.

It's a joke all right.

As we have demonstrated again and again here at Perdido Street School, Cuomo is as corrupt as anybody else in Albany.

He takes millions from gambling consortia and expands gambling around the state.

He takes hundreds of thousands from real estate developers and they get tax breaks in return.

He takes nearly a million from the charter school industry and gives them their favored education reforms in return.

And he goes to Hollywood for campaign fundraisers and hands tax breaks back to the movie studios so that they actually get paid by taxpayers to make movies or TV shows here in the state.

If Albany needs a superhero to come in and clean up the corruption, Sheriff Andy sure the hell isn't it.

Cuomo Full Of Crap Over Super Bowl Jobs

Dan Goldberg at Capital NY:

The day before the Super Bowl, Governor Andrew Cuomo sent out a press release touting the economic impacts of the big game.

It said that an estimated 1.5 million people visited Super Bowl Boulevard during four days and that spending by visitors will generate an estimated $280-300 million in economic activity in New York State. Those numbers came from Empire State Development.

The very last sentence of the press release reads: “Additionally, Super Bowl XLVIII is estimated to generate more than 2,400 full- time equivalent jobs, which will generate millions of dollars in tax revenue for New York State.”

There is no attribution for this number and repeated requests to the governor's press office asking for an explanation went unanswered.

Adding 2,400 full-time equivalent jobs would be quite a feat. Which is to say it's probably wrong. 

“That's a pretty crazy number,” said Victor Matheson, an economics professor at the College of the Holy Cross. “That's almost certainly wrong.”

Matheson studied the job impact on Super Bowl host city's between 1969 and 1997 and found that, on average, the host gained 537 full-time equivalent jobs. And it's important to remember, Matheson said, studies like his looked at the “metro area” which would include New Jersey so some of those 537 jobs are outside of New York.

“2,400 is what economists would believe sports boosters would overestimate,” Matheson said.

So where did Cuomo's number come from?

Hard to know for sure, but there is a study from Conventions Sports & Leisure International, which offers consulting services to the convention, sport, entertainment and visitor industries, that said the Orange Bowl Festival would create 2,400 full-time equivalent jobs.

A full-time equivalent job is usually defined as 40 hours over a five-day work week, so two 20-hour jobs can count as one full-time job.

Where did that 2,400 number Cuomo hawked come from?

Why, out of his ass, of course.

He made it up.

Just the way he makes a lot of things up.

Cuomo inhabits his own reality, where numbers do things only he can see.

He does the same with his education stats.

Cuomo Says "It Ain't About The Money" When It Comes To Education

Cuomo in the WSJ:

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday said the theory behind a new lawsuit seeking more money for New York schools was flawed because he said more money didn’t equal better academic results.

“We spend more than any other state in the country,” he said. “It ain’t about the money. It’s about how you spend it – and the results.”

Newsday reports on one set of results that sound pretty good:

New York placed seventh nationally in the percentage of public high school students succeeding on Advanced Placement exams in 2013, moving one step up compared with 2012, according to a College Board report released Tuesday.

Maryland was at the top, with 29.6 percent of students there who took the exams scoring a 3 or better, followed by Connecticut, Virginia, Massachusetts, Florida and California. The top score on the tests is 5.

New York came in at 25.4 percent, above the 23.5 percent of 2012, when the state ranked eighth nationwide, the Manhattan-based College Board said.

Overall in New York, more high school students are succeeding on the exams than in 2003, with 44,909 scoring a 3 or better in 2013 compared with 29,479 in 2003 -- an increase of more than 50 percent.

...

New York's trends showed a nearly 5,500-student increase in the number of students from low-income households succeeding on the exam in the past decade -- from 3,635 in 2003 to 9,133 in 2013. More than twice the number of African-American and Hispanic students in New York succeeded on an AP exam in 2013 compared with a decade earlier. The number of Asian public high school students in New York earning more than a 3 on an AP test nearly doubled during that time.

But Cuomo always says New York ranks first in money spent on education,in the middle of the pack in results:

"For many years New York State spent seven, eight, nine, 10 percent more every year. Incredibly exorbitant, excessive amounts, and it was never enough. We spend more money per student than any state in the nation."

Despite that, he said, the state's schools are "decidedly in the middle of the country in terms of achievement and results."

"So it's not about more money gets us more results, because if that was the case our students would be doing better than any students in the country," he said.

When it comes to students taking AP exams, New York State is not "decidedly in the middle of the country in terms of achievement and results."

It's actually in the top 15% of states.

Between using the word "ain't," threatening people and screwing up with his percentages, it seems Governor Cuomo needs to go back to school and learn proper English, math and how to relate to people.

But Cuomo has a story to sell here, which is that NY schools suck, NY teachers suck, and the system needs his iron fist to make it suck less.