Will Randi/Mike Oust Another NYSUT President?

In April 2014, former NYSUT President Richard Iannuzzi was ousted by AFT President Randi Weingarten and UFT President Michael Mulgrew in a coup that saw the entire leadership of NYSUT, other than Executive Vice President Andy Pallotta, whacked from office.

Today Ken Lovett at the Daily News reports another NYSUT leadership whacking could be in the offing:

The recent surprise retirement of the state teacher union’s top lobbyist came amid pressure from Michael Mulgrew, head of the city teachers union, sources said.

Mulgrew, whose members make up a major segment of the state union, is said to have grown disenchanted with Steve Allinger during the legislative session.

Mulgrew didn’t deny he played a role in Allinger’s departure.

“We have to get work done, move fast, and everyone has to be on the same page,” he said.

Union insiders say the Allinger situation is part of a larger schism that has left state teachers union President Karen Magee isolated from the rest of her union leadership halfway through her first term.

Sources said Mulgrew is also unhappy with Magee, though he denied it.

The two unions, Mulgrew said, “are moving together in a much more coordinated effort than we were before. All (Magee’s) positions have been good. She’s taking the right path on things.”

It was NYSUT that was telling members of the Legislature NOT vote for Cuomo's poison pill budget that increased the test score component in APPR to 50% and gave the state the power to takeover schools with a "receivership" program, while Mulgrew and the UFT were telling them it was okay if they did vote for it.

If Magee's isolated from the rest of her union leadership (i.e., Andy Pallotta, Mikey's Man at NYSUT), it can't be because Mulgrew thinks she's not standing up enough against Cuomo and his ed deform juggernaut.

Hell, nobody rolled over to Cuomo more than Mulgrew and the UFT in the last legislative session.

In any event, it sure didn't long for another UFT-engineered whacking at NYSUT, did it?

UFT Warns Over Friedrichs But Still Doesn't Get The Real Danger

UFT President Michael Mulgrew on the Friedrichs case:

The U.S. labor movement today faces perhaps the gravest threat to its existence since the creation of our modern system of labor law and collective bargaining in 1935.

In Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, now before the U.S. Supreme Court, the plaintiffs challenge the “fair share” requirement that public-sector workers in unionized jobs who choose not to join their union must still pay their fair share of the cost of union representation and services.

They argue that agency fees should be abolished because money is speech, and requiring nonmembers to pay fees to unions therefore violates their First Amendment rights. That is patently false. Agency-fee payers can choose not to have their fees spent on unions’ political activities.

Let us be clear: Friedrichs isn’t about the First Amendment; it is about undermining this country’s labor unions because we are the last great defenders of working people and the middle class. The far-right forces behind the lawsuit despise unions because it is our collective voice and collective action that prevent them from further enriching themselves at ordinary Americans’ expense. They don’t just want to abolish agency fees; they want to abolish our unions and undo the decades of progress we have made.

Let us be clear: Mulgrew's upset not because Friedrichs threatens to undermine the "last great defenders of working people and the middle class" in this country but because it threatens to undermine the gravy train that the current leadership of the AFT/UFT/NYSUT ride on.

The AFT/UFT/NYSUT leadership stopped defending the rank and file years ago, have sold us out at every turn to the education reformers, are complicit in much of the harm done to the teaching profession (including the use of VAM, which AFT President Weingarten once championed along with Chancellor Joel Klein when Weingarten was UFT President, and teacher evaluations tied to test scores, which UFT President Mulgrew happily agreed to in 2012), and exist simply to aggrandize their own egos and enrich their own purses.

With the Friedrichs decision looming, you'd think the AFT/UFT/NYSUT leadership would become more responsive to rank and file, especially since they might have to beg members to stay with the union and continue to pay dues post-Friedrichs.

But instead, they continue to do whatever the hell they want, from endorsing Hillary Clinton long before the presidential primary season started to telling New York State legislators who voted for Cuomo's poison pill budget that imposed a receivership law for "failing" schools and upped test scores to 50% of a teacher's evaluation that it was all right for doing so.

And they spend their time attacking critics to their leadership, as happened this past week when NYSUT Executive Vice President Andy Pallotta asked the NY attorney general to look into a blog post written by a teacher that dared to criticize NYSUT for selling members out.

Quite frankly, I see the words someone wrote that Mike Mulgrew signed his name to about Friedrichs and I roll my eyes because I know that they know that they don't give a shit about any of the stuff Mulgrew says he does.

Al they care about is maintaining power, maintaining control, and maintaining the gravy train.

It's a shame they're not taking the Friedrichs threat seriously and thinking about ways to become more responsive and responsible union leaders.

Alas, it seems that the leadership of the AFT/UFT/NYSUT is incapable of that.

NYSUT Pushback On APPR Is Meaningless Without Accountability For Pols Who Vote For Cuomo Reforms

From Liz Benjamin at State of Politics:

The Regents are scheduled to meet next week (Sept. 16-17) to, among other things, vote on the emergency regulations establishing the new evaluation system, which is largely (though not entirely) based on the results of Common Core tests from which a whopping 20 percent of students opted out this year – with NYSUT’s urging and support.

NYSUT has set up an email and fax campaign so its members can bombard the Regents with letters between now and next week, urging them to “do everything in your power to stop the over-testing of students and end the insane practice of evaluating educators based on a single standardized test.”

Nick Reisman at State of Politics writes that NYSUT is also putting together a Campbell Brown protest:

The New York State United Teachers union plans to stage a formal protest of former CNN anchor Campbell Brown’s appearance at the Business Council’s annual meeting on Sept. 16.
At the same time, the statewide union is urging state lawmakers in a letter to not attend the meeting, including the opening reception and dinner that Brown, a vocal proponent of the education reform movement, is expected to attend.

“We ask that you cancel any plans to attend the opening reception and dinner of the New York State Business Council Annual meeting, and stand with public school students, parents and educators,” NYSUT wrote in a letter to state lawmakers, obtained by Capital Tonight. “Please support our great public schools, students and educators and do not cross this picket line.”

In the letter — which was signed by both NYSUT Vice President Andy Pallotta and Alliance for Quality Education Executive Director Billy Easton — Brown is billed as someone who opposes “full funding of our public schools, promote high stakes testings and supports the continued privatization of public schools.”

The letter writing campaign and protests are all well and good, but so long as there are no political prices to be paid by lawmakers who vote with "heavy hearts" for the Cuomo education reform agenda, there isn't much tangible effect to this stuff.

When Mulgrew told Assembly Heavy Hearts that there would be no price paid for voting "Aye" on the Cuomo education reform agenda in the last budget, the message was sent:

Don't worry - we don't really mean it when we say we're fighting against the Cuomo education reform agenda.

With Heavy Hearts, Assembly Dems Sell Out Once Again

With heavy hearts and forked tongues, most Assembly Dems voted yes on the end-of-session legislation that sold out tenants, NYC schools, and teachers, but Assemblyman Charles Barron had some choice comments on the floor:

ALBANY—There so much in the bill it was hard to debate. So after Republicans in the Assembly highlighted some of the more unseemly aspects of the omnibus “big ugly” bill that tied up the loose ends of the state legislative session late Thursday night, members of the Democrat-dominated chamber approved it by a 122-13 vote.

...

Despite reservations and private grumbling—and the denunciation of tenant advocacy groups—most Democratic members of the chamber kept their complaints out of the floor debate. Only a few, including Assemblyman Charles Barron of Brooklyn, rose to outline concerns.

“There's too much of the protection for the tenants that was watered down,” he said. “I am disappointed. I know you feel in negotiations that you go as far as you think you can go. You can talk about the Republican Senate, the Republican governor. For me, the governor is a disgrace, what he's allowed to get away with.”

Indeed the governor is a disgrace, both as a human being and in what he is allowed to get away with, but frankly, some of that second category could be mitigated if the Heavy Hearts Club in the Assembly stood up to him.

Alas, they are cowards and sellouts and so, once again, in the end, Cuomo gets his way on legislation and policy.

Same old story, over and over and over again...

The Cuomo Matrix Mess

The new teacher evaluation plan in New York is so complicated, it seems nobody can get their head around the details:

Part of the issue was the complicated grid or "matrix" in which test results play a role in an educator's final evaluation. Tisch at one point told Regents members to draw a box and rectangle as an aid to help visualize the various options.

"My head is spinning,'' Regent Kathleen Cashin later said.

Great - when the "matrix" makes the head of one of the members of the Board of Regents spin, you know it will go swimmingly for the rest of us.

The Times-Union has an editorial today that points out what a mess this rushed implementation is going to be:

Brace yourselves, New Yorkers. The state seems to be on its way to another botched rollout of a so-called education reform.

It's happening in the rush to implement a teacher evaluation system under a law passed just over two months ago. It gave the Board of Regents only until June 30 to come up with a whole new system for evaluating teachers. This was Gov. Andrew Cuomo's answer to the last evaluation system, which called for what many parents said was too much testing and which resulted, in Mr. Cuomo's view, in too many teachers being rated effective.

Under the timetable set by Mr. Cuomo and reluctantly embraced by lawmakers, school districts will have until Nov. 15 to negotiate local evaluation systems under the Regents' model and have them approved by the State Education Department. Districts that miss the deadline risk losing this year's state aid increases.

We've seen this kind of rush before. The results weren't pretty.

We saw it with Common Core, which is inextricably linked to the phrase "botched rollout" for how New York imposed the new standards before curriculum materials were ready and tested students on material that many hadn't been taught.

We saw it with the last teacher evaluation system, introduced around the same time as Common Core. With it came more tests, sparking outrage from parents and teachers about wasting class time on questionable measurements of teacher effectiveness. Upward of 200,000 students boycotted the latest standardized tests, with their parents' blessing.

Now we are seeing what threatens to be a repeat of this upheaval.

Even supporters of teacher evaluations say the idea of judging teachers based on a single high-stakes test, as the law now requires, is flawed. They argue that to gauge student progress, multiple tests are needed over time. But parents and teachers say there's too much testing. Tests are useful, many educators say, only if teachers get data in time to address weaknesses. But that isn't the plan here.

There ought to be time to weigh these concerns. Instead, schools seem poised to plunge headlong into an initiative that sounds like it's simply not thoroughly vetted. And how can we expect children to thrive and learn in such an atmosphere of adult discord?

The TU editorial board calls for a slowdown, that the latest iteration of New York's teacher evaluation system needs to be better thought-out before it gets rolled out or it'll be just another "botched" implementation - like the Common Core, like the last evaluation rollout.

Quite frankly, I hope Cuomo keeps the pressure on the regents and SED to get this evaluation system in place in as many districts as possible this coming November.

Because Cuomo owns this matrix mess, this is his arbitrary deadline, his imposed timeline.

When this thing falls in on itself - and make no mistake, the regents' inability to get their heads around the matrix means it will fall in on itself sooner rather than later - Cuomo will own the mess.

The members of the Board of Regents made that clear yesterday, the heavy hearts in the Assembly who voted for Cuomo's education reform budget that mandated this garbage have made that clear and parents and teachers who have been fighting Cuomo on his "reforms" have made that clear.

This is Cuomo's matrix mess, his deadline, his timeline, his mandates.


There will be nobody to blame for the fallout but himself.

Indication That Assembly Heavy Hearts Are Ready To Cave On Cuomo's Education Tax Credit

For weeks now, Assembly Dems have held the line on the education tax credit Cuomo has been pushing so heavily, but we're getting an indication today that the heavy hearts in the Assembly are set to surrender:

Assemblyman John McDonald, a Democrat who represents parts of Albany and the surrounding area, was forthcoming in a Sunday night statement on where he sees the rest of the session headed.

...

As for the education tax credit, McDonald sees the real linkage with potential changes to the implementation of the teacher evaluation system. McDonald backs moving those deadlines for evaluation adoption back.

“The ETC does enjoy more support in the Democratic Assembly than many believe but this also needs to be reviewed to ensure that the large donors do not consume the benefits,” he said.

Changes to the evaluation system in exchange for an education tax credit that pulls millions from the public education system, pays back Cuomo's wealthy donors with an insanely generous tax credit and sets the stage for even more "voucher" programs in the future to put the finishing touches on public education.

How's that for a surrender?

It's a big one, especially when you consider that the evaluation system is a mess and will collapse in on itself in two years or less.

We'll see if this is how the education tax credit standoff ends - you keep hearing how the aggressive pro-tax credit campaign has backfired and given some backbone to the heavy hearts in the Assembly.

But these are the same Assembly Dems who voted "aye" on the Cuomo education reform budget, albeit with heavy hearts, so it remains to be seen just how strong those backbones are.

Can you have a strong backbone and a heavy heart at the same time?

Cuomo Still Trying To Link Rent Regulations To His Education Tax Credit

Because an autocrat only knows one way to govern:

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said on Thursday that he was trying to get two contentious legislative issues — rent regulations and a tax credit meant to expand access to private schools — approved by the Assembly and the Senate by linking the fates of both.

In an interview with The New York Times, Mr. Cuomo said he was trying to play “a mediation role” in the final days of this year’s legislative session, which is scheduled to end Wednesday.

“Part of my job is to get both parties to agree to a solution, right?” Mr. Cuomo said, explaining that the Senate “badly” wants the education tax credit, and the Assembly “badly wants rent regulations increased.”

“I badly want both,” he said. “The mutual interest is: Well, why don’t you do both? The Senate will do this for the Assembly, and the Assembly does the other.”

“It’s not that I support one or the other — I support both,” the governor added. “It’s just, if there is going to be a compromise reached that meets the needs of both houses, those are the two primary needs at this time.”

So far, the Assembly continues to say no to the linkage:

On Thursday night, the Assembly speaker, Carl E. Heastie, a Bronx Democrat, rejected Mr. Cuomo’s argument that the two issues be tied together. Referring to the rent laws, he said, “Millions of hard-working people and their families depend on these laws, and we just feel in this case rent should stand on its own merit.”

And so it goes - at least until the next shoe drops in the ongoing Albany corruption case.

More later.

Assembly Dems Say Aggressive Campaign By Education Tax Credit Supporters Has Backfired

State of Politics:

Lawmakers continue to reject the notion of linking major issues together, such as an extension of rent control to the creation of a tax credit designed to encourage donations to public schools and private school scholarship programs.

Democrats in the Assembly, in particular, do not expect there to be a vote on the tax credit, and many privately say the aggressive campaign by supporters through mailers and robocalls has backfired.

There have been some pretty strong ads run against some Assembly Dems who are so far holding the line on the tax credit.

Often that kind of aggressive campaign works, but after the heavy hearts in the Assembly rolled over on Cuomo's education reforms in the budget, they seem to be less susceptible to pressure on the tax credit.

That in itself is interesting.

I suspect all the calls, email, tweets and Facebook messages some of the heavy hearts got after the budget fiasco has got them wanting to hold the line on the tax credit.

Again, we'll see.

Still some time to go before it's all said and done.

Assembly Dems Say They Won't Let Cuomo Impose His Will On Them

State of Politics:

Assembly Democrats insist they won’t get squeezed like they were in the budget talks, when Gov. Andrew Cuomo was able to link an increase in school aid to education reform measures many lawmakers didn’t want to approve.

But as Cuomo finds ways to force state lawmakers into backing the education tax credit by a variety of linkages and packages, Democratic lawmakers say the dynamic is different.
“I think there’s an important distinction between the budget negotiations and what’s going on now,” said Assemblyman James Skoufis in a Capital Tonight interview.

...

“We as a Legislature in the budget negotiations were up against a wall,” Skoufis said. “The option that could have taken place was, we pass everything the governor wants or we shut down the government. In this case, we don’t have that option, that sort of false dichotomy where we don’t want to choose either of them.”

...

“We’re not being forced into a corner to accept things we don’t want unlike the situation that presented itself during the budget negotiations,” he said.

Ever since the heavy hearts caved to Cuomo in the budget negotiations and gave him nearly everything he wanted in his education reform agenda, I remain skeptical when I hear Assembly Dems say they'll hold tough against the governor.

Nonetheless, if they roll now at the end of the legislative session when Cuomo doesn't have the same leverage on them as he did during budget negotiations, they're essentially saying they have no power any longer and the governor gets to impose whatever he wants whenever he wants.

We'll see - never underestimate Democrats to surrender or snatch defeat when victory can be had.

Heastie: Little Support In Assembly For Cuomo Education Tax Bill

The heavy hearts in the Assembly appear to be holding the line on Cuomo's education tax credit proposal:

The education investment tax credit remains a difficult lift for the Democratic-led Assembly in the final days of the legislative session, Speaker Carl Heastie said on Tuesday to reporters.

“It still is a very, very difficult subject in the conference,” Heastie said. “That hasn’t changed much over the last couple of weeks with the campaign being waged by supporters of the investment tax credit.”

Indeed, the assertive push from tax credit supporters aimed to push lawmakers to back the bill appears to have hardened some of the resistance to the measure in the chamber, where majority lawmakers have drawn support from the New York State United Teachers union.

Heastie says the bill won't get a floor vote unless a majority of the Democratic conference supports it.

We'll see if the heavy hearts continue to stand strong against this.

If I had to guess, I'd say many heavy hearts are happy to stand firm on this because it gives them some cover for the cave-in on the odious Cuomo education reforms in the budget.

NY Board Of Regents To Parents And Teachers: Screw You!

In naming MaryEllen Elia, a former superintendent of Hillsborough, Florida schools to be NYSED commissioner today, the New York State Board of Regents sent parents and teachers in a strong message:

Full speed ahead on reforminess.

Oh, and screw you if you don't like it.

Elia, who was nicknamed EVILia by some parents for her attitude toward special needs children, was divisive in her former gig in Hillsborough and was ultimately shown the door by the school board  in a 4-3 vote.

Besides earning the ire of some parents, Elia has the reputation of creating a fear-based workplace, and retaliating against employees she considered enemies.

She also won $100K for her school district from the Gates Foundation by promising to fire the "bottom" 5% of teachers every year.

In short, she's John King on steroids.

Even today, she doubled down on reforminess, using the dog whistle language reformers so love to hear:

“Everything that happens for students happens in a classroom because of great teachers,” Elia said after her selection. “And I think the biggest thing we can all do is work to improve and support teachers to get better every day.”

Everything that happens for students in a classroom is because of great teachers?

Really?

What about great resources, a great curriculum, small class sizes, great district and school leadership?

Nope - only teachers matter.

That's reformy speak for "I'll be firing as many teachers as I can" - which is why StudentsFirstNY praised her today.

Elia also doubled down in support of the Common Core and testing:

At a press conference following her appointment Elia said she supports CommonCore and believes that with better communication, people will support testing and what it offers.

The Board of Regents voted unanimously to appoint Elia as NYSED commissioner.

That the regents chose so divisive a personage, somebody with the reputation of bullying subordinates and dismissing criticism from parents and employees in her time at Hillsborough, sends a very clear message to parents and teachers in New York State.

Your input on education policy is not wanted - it's full speed ahead on reforminess whether you like it or not.

The only response is here is a barrage of emails, calls and visits to legislators to let them know you ultimately hold them responsible for this appointment and you will make sure they pay a political price next election for supporting the Board of Regents in this decision.

Siena Poll Shows Voters Don't Support Cuomo's Tax Credit For Private Schools

There's a new Siena poll out today showing Cuomo falling to his lowest job approval number in a Siena poll (41%-59%)

The poll also shows Cuomo with falling favorability ratings, down 8 points since the last Siena poll.

On the education initiative Cuomo's putting a lot weight behind - tax giveaways to private schools - voters disapprove 49%-44%.

More later on the poll.

But suffice to say, it's more evidence the heavy hearts in the Assembly can stand up to him on this - if they have the guts.

Assembly Heavy Hearts Mad At Cuomo For Playing Unfair

Ken Lovett in the Daily News:

State Assembly Democrats are livid at Gov. Cuomo for what one says is an "obnoxious" public campaign designed to pressure them into passing a controversial education investment tax credit that would largely benefit private and parochial schools.

The Dems are fuming that fellow Democrat Cuomo has singled them out at recent appearances and in ad run by a group that features the governor’s speech while often giving the Senate GOP a pass for blocking “core progressive issues” like campaign-finance reform, the creation of a state DREAM Act and a paid family leave law. In those cases the governor often blames the Legislature as a whole, but not the Republicans specifically, the Dems grouse.

"His campaign for the tax credit is obnoxious," said one. " He has no problem going to bat for taxpayer dollars for private schools. But he's nowhere to be found on core progressive issues like the DREAM Act or paid family leave. Why isn't he calling on Senators who oppose those issues to be voted out?

Why isn't Cuomo calling on Senators who oppose core progressive issues like the DREAM Act or paid family leave?

Because he doesn't care about those things.

Why don't the heavy hearts in the Assembly MAKE him pay politically for paying lip service to progressive issues while sticking it to them on issues like the tax vouchers for private schools and charters?

Cuomo understands force - that's all.

Complaining in the Daily News about how he's playing unfair over the voucher issue?

That's only going to make him double down.

Going at him publicly over his hypocrisy cutting funding for cancer screenings even as he touts a cancer screening that caught Sandra Lee's ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) condition?

That he'll understand.

NY Times: Opt Out Becomes An Anti-Testing Rallying Cry In New York

The NY Times has a piece out with the theme "The Opt Out Movement Comes Of Age":

In 440 of the state’s 721 districts, The Times found that at least 165,000 students opted out of at least one test, based on information from districts and local news reports. That figure is four times the number of pupils who had refused the tests in those districts last year. In at least 60 districts, refusers outnumbered the test takers.

In the other 250-plus districts, including New York City’s, by far the state’s largest, data was either unavailable or officials did not respond.

Just two years ago, 95 percent student participation in tests, the minimum standard called for by federal requirements, was nearly universal; this year, among districts with available information, only a few reported meeting that standard. In Fairport, near Rochester, for example, participation dropped from 96 percent to 33 percent in a single year.

Read the rest of the piece - it certainly is favorable coverage:

As the vanguard of an anti-testing fervor that has spread across the country, New York’s opt-out movement already has become a political force. Just two months ago, lawmakers from both parties, at the behest of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, a Democrat, increased the role of test scores in teacher evaluations and tenure decisions. 

Those same legislators are now tripping over one another to introduce bills that guarantee the right to refuse to take tests. The high numbers will also push state and federal officials to make an uncomfortable decision: whether to use their power to financially punish districts with low participation rates. 

“We’ve written letters to legislators for years, until we were blue in the face, and they didn’t listen,” said Eric Mihelbergel, a founding member of New York State Allies for Public Education, a test-refusal group. “But they’re listening now, now that we’re opting our kids out.”

Indeed they are listening.

I'm not yet convinced we're getting any real change from policymakers and lawmakers, but the sheer number of opt outs this year got their attention and if real change to the Endless Testing regime doesn't come soon, then political prices must be paid by the politicians who continue to support it.

Has Merryl Tisch Lost Control Of The Board Of Regents?

A commenter at Capital NY on the Regents/SED reform meeting yesterday:

Dr. Tisch was the person who supported the Governor on the new APPR law, yet now she says it there is not enough time to do it properly. Tisch has lost control of the Board of Regents and it is long past the time for her to resign the Chancellor's post. It is refreshing to see some Regents speaking out against Tisch - good job Regents Rosa, Cashin, Tilles, Young, Johnson, Ouderkirk, for not be intimidated by Dr. Tisch.

Indeed, something seems to be happening to Merryl Tisch.

Perhaps some pressure from around her?

Can you imagine a statement like this out of her mouth in years past?

Later, Tisch told reporters districts will inevitably get mixed messages about how to proceed, because many board members simply doesn’t want to implement the law as written.

“Districts are having reform fatigue,” she said. “I don’t find that superintendents don’t want to cooperate. That’s not it. I think they’re getting a lot of mixed messages from the field. So, for instance, we’re saying we’re going to put regulations in place. And then, in the same breath, we’re saying the day after those regulations are in place, we are going to work to develop a new system that has more validity and more reliability. What are districts supposed to do with that type of messaging?”

I'm not convinced we're still not getting lip service from members of the Board of Regents or the legislature when they make public statements criticizing the Cuomo APPR evaluation system.

I'm also not convinced Tisch has lost control of the board.

That said, it was extraordinary to see the open criticism of the Cuomo APPR law at the Regents/SED meeting.

Well see if it leads to anything.

The Charter Cap

The NY Post reports charter entrepreneurs and advocates want the extension of NYC mayoral control (something Mayor de Blasio wants) tied to the elimination of the charter school cap (something de Blasio doesn't want.)

The Post also reports that charter advocates have an up-hill battle this year to get the cap raised:

The Democratic-controlled Assembly has already drafted a bill to give the mayor three more years of oversight over the city’s school system.

But there’s no sentiment there to add 100 more charter schools, as Gov. Cuomo has proposed and the mayor has opposed.

One insider declared bluntly that there was “no chance” of that happening.

“There is still plenty of room under the cap,” said Michael Whyland, a spokesman for ­Assembly Democrats.

Normally I'd say charter entrepreneurs get what they want whenever they want, so the cap hike is a done deal.

But this is a strange year.

First off, both the Assembly speaker and the Senate majority leader have been hauled out on criminal charges and replaced with newbies who have less control of their conferences.

Second, Governor Cuomo, a huge advocate of charter schools in the past, is weakened, enjoying the lowest job approval numbers of his governorship (just 37% approval), and is taking some time away from his duties next week to help his consort Sandra Lee through cancer surgery.

Cuomo has put some of his diminished political capital to a backdoor tax voucher plan for private schools and charter schools, leaving less political capital to fight for a cap hike.

Third, much of the legislative session was hijacked by US Attorney Preet Bharara, with Bharara arresting former Assembly Speaker Silver right after Cuomo's state of the state/budget speech, then arresting former Senate Majority Leader Skelos about a month after the budget deadline.

There is very little time left before the end of the session and much of the air in the legislative session has been taken out by the arrests, wiretaps, leaks and other corruption-related matters.

This is not to say that there won't be a late inning deal to raise the charter cap or at least shift how the cap works so that some of the upstate slots can be moved down to NYC and make Eva Moskowitz very, very happy.

But whereas in past years I'd say the likelihood of that was 100%, this time around, given all the damage from the corruption cases and given the rumors that swirl that Governor Cuomo is next on the fed list for arrest, the legislature getting anything done on the cap is far from certain.

Rumor has it that many items that were left outstanding during the budget negotiations (like rent control, 421-a tax abatements, mayoral control) will simply get a one-year extender and be addressed more fully next year.

If that's the case, then it's hard to see how the cap gets addressed in any substantive way this year, especially since there's still 25 slots left in NYC and hundreds more left in the rest of the state.

We'll see - the charter entrepreneurs want what they want and they have plenty of money to throw around to get it.

And we should never expect the heavy hearts in the Assembly to stand fast when there's always an opportunity to cave on an issue and blame it on somebody else.

Delaying A Test-Centric Evaluation System Isn't An Improvement

From Joseph Spector at Politics on the Hudson:

Assembly Democrats have introduced legislation that would delay the development and implementation of new teacher evaluations, as well as no longer tie school aid to the new standards.

...

With the legislative session slated to end June 17, Assembly Democrats in particular want to delay implementation of the new teacher evaluations that is required of the state Board of Regents by June 30.

The bill, sponsored by Assembly Education Committee chairwoman Cathy Nolan, D-Queens, would extend the deadline from June 30 to Nov. 17, and it would also extend the deadline for schools to put the new measures into place for a year — from Nov. 15 to Nov. 15, 2016.
...

The bill would also make a number of changes to the evaluation process, many of which were sought by the powerful teachers unions:

• Change the definition of “state-designed supplemental assessment” to include “other locally selected measures of student achievement” to be approved by the state Education Department.

• Modify the teacher observation category to allow, instead of require, districts to use the independent trained evaluator process as part of a voluntary demonstration project established by the state.

• Add $8.4 million to print more test forms for grades 3-8 state tests and eliminate “stand-alone” multiple choice field tests and release tests questions and answers by June 1 of each year.

• Require state-provided growth models for teachers in grades 4-8 to consider “certain student characteristics,” such as students with disabilities, English-language learners and poverty status.

• Create a content review committee to review the English and math tests for grades 3-8.

• Mandate the education commissioner  to review Common Core education standards and make recommendations for changes.

As I wrote yesterday, I don't think extending the deadline of the evaluation system, providing more money for testing or setting up a kangaroo committee at SED to review the tests for grade appropriateness is substantive.

As for the independent evaluators Cuomo insisted on, I always thought that part of the plan would fall apart because it is, in the end, expensive and unworkable.

Having the SED commissioner (whomever that is) review the Common Core standards?

Given how they'll only hire a pro-Common Core ed deformer as the new SED commissioner to replace only pro-Common Core ed deformer John King, that "change" to the education reform agenda is meaningless too.

It's just like making SED create a kangaroo court to review the state tests - might as well give them a big rubber stamp now and get the whole thing over with.

I dunno, I see NYSUT crowing about this on twitter, but I'm not very impressed.

Quite frankly, Bianca Tanis summed the whole thing up for me in one tweet:

@marty10707 @NYSAPE Can't name one protection for kids.No reduct in test time,no parent notification of right to refuse,no protect for SWDs

— Bianca Tanis (@BiancaTanis) May 14, 2015

That's right - the essential "Testing First" nature of the system remains in place despite these proposed changes from the heavy hearts in the Assembly.

I maintain that delaying something bad like Cuomo's "test-centric" evaluation system isn't an improvement over getting rid of it entirely.

John Flanagan Says Teacher Evaluation Law Getting Looked At During Final Weeks Of The Legislative Session

Not sure what this news is worth:

With six weeks to go in the state’s legislative session, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and top lawmakers met in private Wednesday to talk about what issues they can feasibly tackle.

...

Among the topics discussed Wednesday: Potential changes to the state’s latest education reforms, which were passed as part of the state budget on April 1 and have sparked outrage among teachers and parents.

“We still have six weeks to go, and if there’s things we think we can fix, we’ll look at that,” Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, D-Bronx, told reporters after the meeting.

Flanagan, the former head of the Senate Education Committee, said teacher evaluations were part of the discussion with Cuomo.

...

“We’re looking at this from a parent viewpoint,” Flanagan said. “I think at the end of the day, everyone refers to it about teacher evaluations. It’s about students and parents. Certainly, teachers play a critical role. But when we do anything, I think it will be on a laser-like focus on how to help parents and students.”

State of Politcs reports this:

A bill introduced this month in the Democratic-led Assembly would alter the education measures approved in the $142 billion state budget. 

The measure would revise key deadlines for teacher evaluations, alter the funding linkage for the adoption of new evaluation criteria on the local level and provide modifications to the evaluation language itself. 

The bill comes after Gov. Andrew Cuomo pushed for the education reform measures in the budget, linking the policy to an overall boost in education aid, which most Democrats in the Assembly reluctantly accepted.

You can go to State of Politics and get the details.

I'm skeptical anything substantive is happening here.

Seems to me the heavy hearts in the legislature want parents and teachers to think they're taking action on concerns over the state's education regime, but I don't think extending the deadline of the evaluation system, providing more money for testing or setting up a kangaroo committee at SED to review the tests for grade appropriateness is substantive.

It simply delays some parts of the reform agenda and provides cover for other parts, but it doesn't actually address the concerns over the effects of high stakes testing on children, teachers or schools.

Will The Heavy Hearts In The Assembly Hold The Line On Cuomo's Voucher Bill?

From State of Politics:

The EITC is now going through some rebranding with the introduction of the new bill: It’s now called the Parental Choice in Education Act. 

The measure would provide up to $150 million in annual tax credits aimed at low-income families who want to send their children to non-public schools, scholarships for children in households with qualifying incomes to attend a public school outside of their district or private school and incentives for public districts to provide new programming, like after-school programs.

Early indications are, there are not enough heavy hearts in the Assembly to bring the rebranded voucher bill to the floor for a vote

Even if supporters can muster the needed votes, Heastie indicated that bringing the bill to the floor would require a majority of the Democratic conference’s support.

“It’s been our position that there is a majority for a reason and we feel that to really move bills in this house we should have a consensus of enough Democrats to pass the bill,” he said.

Of course these are heavy hearts we're talking about, so a little heavy pressure on them could make them pass this thing just the way they passed the odious budget this past April.

One unmknown here - Cuomo's consort Sandra Lee is undergoing cancer treatment and Cuomo says he's stepping away from some of his gubernatorial duties to support her.

The question is, with the legislative session ending in June and Cuomo allegedly stepping away from hands-on governance for a couple of weeks to deal with a family issue, how much pressure will he try and put on the heavy hearts?

Rhinebeck School District Officials: SED, State Pols In Denial Over Opt-Out

From the Daily Freeman:

RHINEBECK, N.Y. >> School district officials are convinced that state lawmakers and education officials are in denial about the high rate of refusals for standardized tests and the reasons parents are upset.

The comments were made during a Board of Education meeting Tuesday. Trustee Dierdre Burns contended that state Education Department officials are refusing to take the problem seriously and have developed alternative methods to compensate for low-test participation.

“I thought their reaction to it ... was almost comical,” she said. “It’s like intellectually embarrassing this idea that teachers now have to write student learning objectives after the year is over ... (in a) convoluted effort to come up with data instead of asking the question how do we create school systems that (are) improving education.”

Burns was also critical of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s comments that the test scores “are meaningless to the student” and said it was an example of how lawmakers are missing the message from parents.

“The government’s response to opt out is just completely undemocratic,” Burns said. “We have an issue in the state, and you don’t just run roughshod over what people are trying to communicate through opting out. You should try to address what this means.”

Gee, government in Andrew Cuomo's New York responds to the high rate of refusals for standardized tests in an undemocratic way that completely what people are trying to communicate through opting.

Who'd a thunk that would have been the response?

Well, anybody paying attention to how the SED, the Regents, the state legislature or Governor Cuomo has handled education policy these last few years for starters.

They really don't care what people think or how unpopular the education policies are, so long as they can maintain power and keep all that yummy yummy ed deform/hedge fundie money coming in.

Now it's true some Albany pols have acted a tad nervously after they voted for Cuomo's ed deform budget with heavy hearts and heard an earful from parents and teachers.

And it's also true that they're paying lip service to addressing the concerns of parents and teachers during the waning days of the legislative session.

But very few pols are talking about getting at the root of the problem - the test-driven system bolstered by the Endless Testing regime and the teacher evaluation system that ensures what gets tested and evaluated (and thus what gets taught.)

They'll tinker at the edges of that, but they won't dismantle it because it would make all of their hedge fundie and Wall Street donor friends sad and that's the last thing most politicians want to do.

We have to keep the pressure on the Abany pols to make sure they know there WILL be a political price paid for supporting the Endless Testing regime.