Cuomo To Mandate All CUNY And SUNY Students Do Internships

Because what all students need is to be forced to do free labor in order to get a college degree, Governor Cuomo is going to mandate "experiential learning" for all CUNY and SUNY grads:

Part Q - Make experiential learning a graduation requirement at SUNY and CUNY

Purpose:

This bill would make experiential learning a mandatory requirement for graduation at the State University of New York and the City University of New York to ensure our public institutions of higher education connect students to employers and jobs.

Summary of Provisions and Statement in Support:

This bill would amend Education Law to require the Boards of Trustees of the State University of New York and the City University of New York to each pass a resolution  making experiential learning or applied learning activities a mandatory requirement for graduation.

To gain employment after graduation, it is no longer sufficient for a student simply to attain a degree or certificate in a specific field. Rather, students must also demonstrate work readiness and prior relevant experience to prospective employers. Experiential learning such as cooperative education ("co-op") and internships provide a win-win-win for New York's businesses, colleges, and -- most importantly -- students.

Budget Implications:

Enactment of this bill is necessary to implement the 2015-16 Executive Budget.

Effective Date: This bill would take effect April 1, 2015

Even better, notice this language:

Enactment of this bill is necessary to implement the 2015-16 Executive Budget.

Experiential learning may be a great idea but there's no reason why it needs to be mandated by the governor and shoved into the budget with a "Yay or Nay" vote from the Legislature.

Let each SUNY and CUNY program make it's own decisions on "experiential learning" and enact (or not) their own proposals accordingly.

The Stony Brook Statesman covered this story yesterday SUNY students are NOT happy with this AT ALL:

Gov. Andrew Cuomo is pushing for experiential learning through internships and/or part-time jobs as a new graduation requirement for all SUNY students in his proposed SUNY budget for next year.

Frederick Walter, the former president of the Stony Brook University Senate who currently serves on the SUNY Senate, said Stony Brook is ahead of the curve as the current Stony Brook Curriculum calls for experiential learning upon graduation; however, how the Governor describes experiential learning and how Stony Brook University does are completely different.

The SBC asks that students at some point learn through experience, whether it be through internships, jobs, research, scholarly activity or service learning, among other experiences. Cuomo’s plan would mandate experiential learning through internships.

According to Walter, an internship would definitely help a business or journalism major, but certain students would not benefit from working as an office intern, but they rather need experience in study labs doing research and experimentations.

Issues with experiential learning being mandated by the Governor go beyond a lack of an explanation of exactly what experiential learning is. There are over 60 SUNY campuses, not counting CUNY schools, which also fall under the list of SUNY campuses.

As Walter pointed out, this mandate would be “a system-wide thing. There are 400,000 students in the SUNY system. It is huge…there aren’t enough companies in the state of N.Y. offering internships.” Not only that, but with over 60 unique schools, mandating the same requirements for all would be foolish, Walter said.

Stony Brook University professor and Director of the Center for News Literacy Dean Miller noted additional issues. Experiential learning should be a requirement “only if students have access to it” and “so many students can’t afford internships because so many of them are unpaid,” he said.

Some are wondering just where Cuomo got his education expertise:

Requiring all students to gain an internship would force certain disadvantaged students into picking up unpaid spots, which is “lunacy,” Miller said. 

Cuomo has faced opposition for trying to mandate this.

Walter said many SUNY Senate members wonder why the governor is mandating curriculum, as no governor has done so previously. 

Cuomo is a politician not a professor, therefore he does not fully understand what he is mandating.

The response from Cuomo?

The Governor’s Press Office did not comment.

Since when does the governor get to act like dictator in New York State and mandate whatever he wants in the budget?

Since Pataki took the Legislature to court and won that power:

Cuomo is also potentially testing the limits with which policy matters can be included in appropriations bills, a matter that was first considered in the landmark ruling Pataki v. Silver.

That ruling allowed governor’s significant leeway in budget-making powers, which Gov. David Paterson used to his own advantage in ramming major spending cuts through the “extender” process when the budget was passed its April 1 due date.

Cuomo's shoving more and more policy into the budget in order to push legislation that he wants that might be more problematic if the Legislature were to vote on it straight up.

This "experiential learning" mandate is particularly problematic because, as the Stony Brook Statesman notes, there are 400,000 students in the SUNY system.

There are another 480,000 CUNY students - that means there an awful lot of internships students are going to be looking for in order too graduate if Cuomo gets his way.

If you thought Cuomo's education reform plans for K-12 are insane, take heart - so are his education reform plans for CUNY and SUNY.

Isn't it time we take back our democratic form of government from the autocratic Governor Cuomo?

Farleigh Dickinson Poll Finds Only 17% Of Americans Support Common Core

The support trajectory for Common Core drops dramatically:

As millions of students across the country prepare to take the PARCC (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers) exam or the Smarter Balanced Assessment, the most recent national survey from Fairleigh Dickinson University’s PublicMind finds that the educational reform behind these standardized tests remains a mystery to many Americans and faces widespread disapproval.

 Currently, 40 percent of Americans say they disapprove of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), often referred to as just the “Common Core,” with 42 percent who are unsure and 17 percent who favor the standards. The goal of the Core is to establish national standards for learning so that all students, regardless of where they live, leave high school with the skills necessary to enter college or the labor force.

Reformers will use this as pushback:

The survey finds that most Americans say that they don’t know very much about the Common Core standards, and they seem to be right: misconceptions about the content of the standards are widespread – almost half of Americans (44%) think that sex education are part of them – and are strongly connected with opposition to them.

...


A lack of information is evident from misconceptions about what topics are included in the standards. In the survey, Americans were also asked if four specific topics – sexual education, global warming, evolution, and the American Revolution – are included in the Common Core. In reality, none of these are part of the Common Core standards, which only include topics in math and reading. Still, two-thirds of Americans say that at least one of these is in the standards, with 37 percent saying that three or four of them are.

But who's at fault for the "lack of information" around Common Core?

Deformers thought they could shove through dramatic eduction reform without the public being clued in - new standards, new tests, teacher evaluations tied to those tests, all in some way connected to the stimulus package, Race to the Top, No Child Left Behind waivers - so if there are widespread misconceptions around the Common Core, well, then next time don't shove all this stuff through at once without public discussion and buy-in beforehand.

Elites think they know best but one thing they don't seem to know anything about is how the rest of us respond when shit gets shoved down our throats.

Quite frankly, I don't care if the Core is killed for the right reasons or the wrong reasons anymore.

I just want to see the Core killed.

And with so many people against Common Core, so few in favor and Common Core proponents seemingly unable to persuade the "Don't Know Enough" categories despite all the money they throw into their propaganda, I'd have to say the Common Core is going to die an early death.

Alas, like so many of the zombie lies that pervade education reform (schools are in crisis, teachers are lazy, merit pay works), the Core may re-emerge later on with a new name and new branding.

"Grassroots" Charter Groups Outspend Teachers Unions By Millions In Lobbying, Campaign Contributions

Who's the special interest here?

ALBANY—Supporters and opponents of education reform, primarily charter school expansion, spent more than $30 million combined attempting to influence New York State politics in 2014, a Capital analysis of lobbyist reports and campaign finance data found.

Charter school groups and their supporters spent $16 million on lobbying, campaign contributions to state-level candidates and parties and independent expenditure campaigns last year. Charter schools spent nearly $700,000 on lobbying. Education unions and labor-funded advocates spent $11.77 million, according to the analysis.

...

In defending their spending and high-profile backers, education reform leaders have often portrayed teachers’ unions as deep-pocketed behemoths representing special interests. But the spending reality is that in 2014, the pro-charter and reform groups outspent unions by a considerable margin.

...   

Each side was led by a group that accounted for more than half of its cause’s spending. While final lobbying totals for 2014 are not yet available, it is likely Families for Excellent Schools, which spent $9.7 million, and the New York State United Teachers, which spent $8.9 million, will finish as the year’s two highest-spending interest groups.

F.E.S., which has helped organize several massive pro-charter rallies over the past year, spent all its money on lobbying efforts, the Capital analysis found.

The second highest spending pro-charter group was StudentsFirstNY, which spent $272,279 lobbying and organized New Yorkers for a Balanced Albany, an independent expenditure committee that spent $4.2 million supporting a Republican takeover of the New York State Senate. StudentsFirstNY has led the push to support Cuomo’s education agenda which, if implemented, would be disastrous for unions and beneficial to charters.

NYSUT spent $3.2 million on lobbying, $4.55 million helping Democratic state legislative candidates through an independent expenditure committee and $200,000 in support of a referendum for a $2 billion bond to boost technology in schools. The union also gave $936,042 in direct contributions, including $202,300 to the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee and its housekeeping account, $101,883 to the Democratic Assembly Campaign Committee, $95,000 to the Working Families Party and $50,000 to Senator Liz Krueger’s leadership committee.

$16 million to $11.77 million - yet the charter groups like to portray themselves as the underdogs, the "grassroots" operations going up against the "powerful" teachers unions:

"What's striking in these numbers is that a few dozen Wall Street financiers and billionaire hedge fund managers are able to far outspend more than 600,000 educators who believe in the promise of public education and voluntarily give a few bucks out of each paycheck to ensure they have a voice,” said Carl Korn, NYSUT’s spokesman.

Again I ask, who's the special interest here?

And who's the criminal?

Sheldon Silver was indicted yesterday on three criminals counts for making $4 million dollars over 15 years in bribery and kickback schemes.

Yet just last year alone, both sides of the education reform debate threw around millions in campaign donations, with some of the individuals behind education reform groups giving even more money on their own.

And just why are they giving all this money?

Supporters of education-focused groups also donated money to individual political candidates and parties. While it’s difficult to know whether those contributions were motivated by the donors’ positions on education policy, it’s possible the donors used fundraisers as opportunities to share with candidates their views on education. But their spending is worth noting, given their financial commitment to influencing education policy.

Silver's facing 60 years in prison and forfeiture of his Grand Street apartment, his Catskills summer home, his pension and his bank accounts in his criminal case.

The politicians on the other end of all the education reform largesse - most of it coming from just a few individuals with a lot of money to burn - are facing more campaign donations, free food and free booze and all they have to do in return is, you know, just listen to what education reformers want done at the state level.

Take Ruben Diaz, for example, who has carried water for the pro-charter, anti-public school agenda of Families for Excellent Schools.

This week he blasted teachers, said the NYCDOE dumps the "worst teachers" into his district, and called on the Legislature to pass Governor Cuomo's education reform agenda that looks to fire thousands of teachers, close hundreds of schools and turn whole districts over to privatization.

Back in December, Diaz hosted a Christmas party that was paid for on the education reform dime:

CHARTER GROUP TO SPONSOR DIAZ XMAS PARTY—Capital’s Eliza Shapiro: Families for Excellent Schools is co-sponsoring State Senator Ruben Diaz Sr.'s Christmas party, according to an invite sent Friday by Diaz's office. The party, which will take place Dec. 19 at a steakhouse in the Bronx, is also sponsored by the food delivery company Fresh Direct. A spokesman for F.E.S. declined to say how much the group is paying to co-sponsor the event. Diaz, a Bronx Democrat, has been a longtime supporter of charter schools. In a brief interview on Friday, Diaz initially said of F.E.S., "I don't even know who they are," but then said he had worked with "every single group" in support of charter schools, including F.E.S. No children are allowed at the party. F.E.S. spent nearly $9 million in the first ten months of 2014. http://bit.ly/1BEuNqt

Apparently this isn't bribery, but the kickback scheme Shelly Silver engaged in is.

Funny how that goes.

These "grassroots" education groups, funded with millions of dollars of hedge fund and banker money from a few individuals, are buying politicians to push their agenda, yet it's the "powerful" teachers unions and individual teachers who are the "special interests" and Sheldon Silver who's the criminal.

Facing 60 Years In Prison, When Does Sheldon Silver Look To Deal?

The Albany Project:

Shelly is looking at 60 years and he’s not facing the same kind of technical charges that doomed the prosecutions of other (allegedly) corrupt New York legislators like Joe Bruno. He’s facing straight up criminal charges, the kind that the feds almost always get convictions for. And 60 years is no joke for a guy as old as Silver is.

This where things start to get awfully interesting. Silver is old. He’s rich, though the feds have seized almost $4 million from him that they allege Silver got through kickbacks and bribes. He’s got no desire to die in a federal prison. Sheldon Silver is the Rosetta Stone of Albany corruption. He was king of the corrupt hill for decades. He knows where all the bodies are buried and who put them there. And he’s already given up his biggest and best bargaining chip by stepping down as speaker.

He’s in deep shit this time.

So…how long before Shelly’s lawyers try to cut a deal?

The Times story says don't expect a deal any time soon:

Two charges included in the complaint — a mail fraud conspiracy count and an extortion conspiracy count — were not in the indictment. The reason was not immediately clear.

The indictment of Mr. Silver, a Lower East Side Democrat who remains a member of the Assembly, suggests there is little prospect of plea discussions at this stage in the case, and moves the matter toward a possible trial. He will be formally arraigned on the indictment in the coming days.

As the Albany Project notes, Silver's lost the speakership, so a most valuable bargaining chip is already gone.

I'm skeptical the feds would be interested in trading significant time for Silver's tales of malfeasance further down the food chain.

If Silver's looking to get a good deal, he's going to have to give something good, something higher up the food chain.

You know - like this:

If Silver provides new details about Cuomo’s role in the negotiations that led to the commission’s demise, especially if the speaker reveals that Cuomo or his top negotiators were aware of the criminality underlying Silver’s desire to kill the commission, Cuomo’s vulnerability to an obstruction of justice charge increases.

Or this:

If Silver is willing to testify that Cuomo knowingly entered a deal to kill off the commission because they were getting close to the Speaker, an obstruction of justice charge would be enough to bring Cuomo down. But what if it went even further? What if the Governor’s office was involved in some of the same deals that Silver is charged with orchestrating? If Silver knows of any such things he has a powerful motivation to roll over. The man is 70 years old and he has absolutely zero desire to die in prison. If there’s anything that will convince the Feds to cut a deal where he gets off with a very short sentence or home arrest, it would be a charge against a bigger fish that would definitely stick. And in the New York pool, the only bigger fish is Cuomo.

Just something to keep an eye on as we roll through the legislative session.

Cuomo wants you to think there's nothing to see here, like he's got it all in hand.

But you can bet he waiting and worrying, wondering what Shelly's going to do too.

Trading Places: Education Edition

A commenter at Perdido Street School blog responds to Ruben Diaz Sr.'s assertion that the NYCDOE dumps the "worst teachers" into the Bronx:

NYCDOE dumps "the worst teachers" in the city into the Bronx? Seriously Lord Cuomo? In your blackest heart of hearts do you really believe this? And you really believe that the "best teachers" can close the learning gap produced by generational poverty and the hopelessness it breeds?

Then take this simple suggestion: A "Trading Places" pilot program that would save a lot of time, money, and energy. Take the best 8th grade math and ELA teachers in your Byram Hills district and switch them with the "worst" math and ELA teachers in the Bronx. Give it two years to be fair - and watch the miracle happen. Those "worst" teachers from the Bronx will suddenly find themselves on the highly effective list. What simple way to improve teacher performance. And its free. Oh, and those Byram Hills teachers - you can simply fill their resignations with some TFAers.

A fantastic idea, and one that I think we should push.

Switch the "bad teachers" from the "failing schools" with the "excellent teachers" from the "excellent schools" and let's see how things look after two years.

Even have a dollar to put up for the bet.

What say you, Mortimer?

Randolph?

Ruben?

Andy?

Care for an experiment?

15 Towns Look To Secede From Andrew Cuomo's New York

15 towns in the impoverished Southern Tier of New York are fed up and ready to head to Pennsylvania:

Conklin, NY (WBNG Binghamton) The local economy is pushing one organization in Upstate New York to pose a question: Is it possible to secede to Pennsylvania?

The Upstate New York Towns Association is researching this very topic. The group says a few factors pushing its research are high property taxes, low sales tax revenue and the recent decision to ban hydraulic fracturing in New York.

...

There are 15 towns interested in the secession, according to the Towns Association. These towns are in Broome, Delaware, Tioga and Sullivan counties. The association declined to name the towns without their permission and also declined to comment on specifics at this time. As of now, research is ongoing. The group will be updating Action News with all of their findings in the coming weeks.

The association said it's comparing taxes and the cost of doing business in the two states. It says the facts show there is a huge difference between the two.

Also being considered are things like workers comp, surcharges, unemployment and health insurance. The association's understanding is that the secession would have to be approved by the New York State Legislature, the Pennsylvania State Legislature and the U. S. government.

"We're comparing the taxes in Pennsylvania compared to those in New York," said Finch. "There's a great, great difference. Right now, we are being deprived of work, jobs and incomes."

Cuomo banned fracking, which, considering the environmental risks, I thought was a good idea, but then did nothing to help the region of the state that was in most desperate need of the economic boom fracking would have brought.

These towns are never going to be able to secede from New York, but perhaps a call for secession will force Cuomo to focus some state aid on the region.

Or maybe not - Cuomo doesn't seem to much care about anything but his own agenda and priorities.

Cuomo Calls For Privatization Of "Failing" Schools

From the NY Post:

Gov. Cuomo, at another Bronx event, said 44 of the 178 schools in the state labeled as failing are in the borough. And 20 of those have been in the dismal category for a decade.

“You want to talk about a failure of government?” Cuomo said. “You want to talk about a scandal in government? To me that’s the scandal. It’s a total abrogation of the responsibility of government.”

He said schools that fail three straight years should be taken over by “a not-for-profit, another school district or a turnaround expert.”

Cuomo's call came after Ruben Diaz Sr., the only crook of the Four Amigos not in prison, said the NYCDOE dumps the "worst teachers" into his borough and called for Cuomo's education reform agenda, including a raising of the charter cap, to be passed in order to remedy that situation.

The Bronx has the highest rate of poverty in the nation, and there is plenty of research to show that the higher the rate of poverty, the more schools struggle.

Let's say Cuomo and Diaz get their way and huge swaths of the public school system are privatized, charters sprout up all over the place and "turnaround experts" pop up in every neighborhood to work their magic on failing schools.

Do Cuomo and Diaz really think the problems facing the public schools in the Bronx will be alleviated?

If so they should look at New Orleans to see how large-scale turnaround efforts go:

Post-Hurricane Katrina the Louisiana Department of Education (LDE) took over more than 107 public schools in New Orleans claiming that they were failing. Post–Katrina Education Reform has drastically rebuilt the public education system into practically an all charter system creating the largest percentage of charter schools than any city in the country. In developing reforms to rebuild New Orleans public schools, the state attracted more than three billion dollars from the philanthropic community, charter school proponents, foreign countries and the federal government. Over the last six years, numerous reports have been written citing the RSD with unprecedented success while proclaiming it as the national model for turning around urban school districts. Despite these reports of the miracle s in New Orleans, the reality is that the reform school district in New Orleans (Recovery School District) is one of the worst performing school districts in the state of Louisiana. In its recent assessment, the Louisiana State Department of Education ranked the Recovery School District academically 69th out of 70 school districts in Louisiana. Despite the billions of dollars, despite all of the media spin, and despite claims from state education officials, the education reforms in New Orleans have failed (Deshotels) 

But I don't think Cuomo and Diaz really believe in turnaround miracles - this just about the payoffs they're getting from the charter industry and their hedge fund and Wall Street backers to privatize as many schools as they can

Because both Cuomo and Diaz are on the charter payroll, that's for sure.

And there's lot of money to be made working that angle.

You Just Can't Keep A Crooked Charter School Down

Remember Dr Ted Morris Jr., BA, MA, PhD, and MSW, and his Greater Works Charter School?

Remember how the charter application was pulled back after Morris was revealed as a con man who lied about his degrees and his work experience?

Well, the school's back - and it's going to be bigger than ever:

The former trustees of Greater Works Charter School are applying again to open a charter school in Rochester, this time under a different name and without their disgraced 22-year-old leader.

Greater Works was approved by the state to open in 2015-16 before it was revealed that its lead applicant, 22-year-old Ted Morris Jr., had fabricated most of his academic and professional experience.

Morris resigned, and the remaining trustees withdrew their application. The New York State Education Department, which failed to catch the lies in the first place, later instituted new safeguards to verify applicants' credentials.

The remaining trustees, led by Keuka College education professor Peter Kozik, said at the time that they planned to re-submit their application without Morris, and they started that process in January with a formal letter of intent. The name of the venture has been changed to ROC Charter School.

The vision of the prospective school is somewhat different — for instance, the school would eventually serve grades 7-12 rather than just 9-12.

The letter of intent acknowledges the problems with Greater Works, but Kozik said the Morris affair, while unexpected, did not throw the remaining trustees far off their path.

"We didn't lose much momentum at all," he said. "There was really no sense of our progress being slowed."

Oh, goodie - the trustees didn't lose much momentum despite having worked with a con artist front man they met on the Internet to open a charter school with little-to-no financial backing from anybody but the state tax coffers.

And if approved by NYSED and the Board of Regents, they'll be ready for the charter school boom Governor Cuomo plans for his second term.

Good times in the charter world!

Nothing can keep a crooked charter school down.

Regents Blink On Mandatory Field Testing - For Now

From LoHud:

In response to a barrage of criticism from parents and educators about excessive testing, the Board of Regents is tabling a vote on a resolution that would have made standalone field tests in grades 3-8 mandatory.

The resolution would have prevented school districts from refusing to administer the controversial tests, which try out questions that may be included on future exams. The measure was scheduled to be voted on Feb. 25.

Instead, the board is requesting $8.4 million in the state budget to enable the Education Department to print more versions of the regular tests with the field test questions embedded in them.

"Pending action on that request, the board will not act on the proposed regulation at this time," said Education Department spokeswoman Jeanne Beattie.

And what caused the blink?

This:

The proposed regulation, making the standalone filed tests mandatory, caused a public outcry, and thousands of letters were sent to the Education Department in opposition to the plan during the 45-day public comment period, which ended Jan. 20.

It seems even the unaccountable members of the NY Board of Regents are starting to feel some pressure on their education reform agenda.

Still, as NYSAPE notes, this may not be the end of the mandatory field testing push from the Regents:

Anna Shah of the NYS Allies for Public Education, an advocacy group that includes about 50 parent and educator groups, said she found the tabling of the resolution problematic.

...

Shah said the Education Department had made no effort to post the public comments or respond to inquiries from the public on any of the their concerns.

Asking for a large amount in funding from the state is just a way for the Education Department to avoid answering questions, she said.

"The $8.4 million is a pipe dream," said Shah. "They are just making a show of a good-faith effort."

And when that good-faith effort gets shot down by the pols in charge, we may see mandatory field testing shoved through anyway.

Public Schools Outperform Charter Schools In Minnesota

From the Star-Tribune:

Students in most Minnesota charter schools are failing to hit learning targets and are not achieving adequate academic growth, according to a Star Tribune analysis of school performance data.

The analysis of 128 of the state’s 157 charter schools show that the gulf between the academic success of its white and minority students widened at nearly two-thirds of those schools last year. Slightly more than half of charter schools students were proficient in reading, dramatically worse than traditional public schools, where 72 percent were proficient.

Between 2011 and 2014, 20 charter schools failed every year to meet the state’s expectations for academic growth each year, signaling that some of Minnesota’s most vulnerable students had stagnated academically.

A top official with the Minnesota Department of Education says she is troubled by the data, which runs counter to “the public narrative” that charter schools are generally superior to public schools. ... 

“Schools promised they were going to help turn around things for these very challenging student populations,” said Kyle Serrette, director of education for the New York City-based Center for Popular Democracy. “Now, here we are 20 years later and they’re realizing that they have the same troubles of public schools systems.”

More than half of schools analyzed from 2011 to 2014 were also failing to meet the department’s expectations for academic growth, the gains made from year to year in reading and math.

... 

Just like traditional public schools, the highest-performing charter schools tend to serve students from more affluent families, the analysis shows.

Some of the comments are interesting as well:

I wish the media would do more investigation into charter schools. A friend teaches in one that doesn't have a school nurse, so they have the IT guy administer meds to students. Seems like that would violate some sort of regulation somewhere.

...

I'm sorry but I just have to comment here.  I am a former LoveWorks Academy teacher.  First of all, several years back, this school actually got into trouble because they had unlicensed teachers; problem number 1.  Also, the people running that school, are not qualified to do so. Executive Director? No qualifications to be in that position; no principal/administrative license, no teaching license, nothing.  Teachers had administrators who did not even have a current teaching license, or had never even taught elementary school evaluating them and telling them how to "teach" properly.  For example, I actually had an "administrator" tell me after an evaluation that I should be giving students candy after each right answer they give, and that classroom management is like "training a dog" (direct quote).

My main goal every single day was to motivate those kids and to get them to progress; but every day the teachers were shot down.  Admin and behavior specialists constantly took the sides of the kids and never followed through with expectations.  Teachers had strict consequences in their classrooms, but anytime students were sent out of the room because of severe behavior issues, it was handled poorly by our behavior specialist and the students would just come back to the room to continue to disrupt.  In a way, this article is accurate.  No, teachers aren't teaching what they should be, but it's because they can't.  I was constantly breaking up fights; I was shoved by students trying to leave my classroom, called names like "wench" and "bitch", and was regularly yelled at by students and told to shut up.  Did I ever get any back up from administration? NO.  I was told to keep the kids in the classroom and to only send them down for severe behavior.  And when I did send kids out, I was questioned by the behavior specialist because the kids would of course make up a story to favor them, and admin would of course take their side, no question.

I am not, by any means saying this is all charter schools.  However, is it any wonder LoveWorks had over half of their staff leave on their own accord?

...

As a number of other posters have pointed out, the basic problems are not in the schools; the basic problems are social issues.  I've never been able to figure out why the schools are expected to leap the tall buildings of our many social problems with a single bound, and somehow get many students struggling with the consequences of those social issues to the same level of achievement as those who have all the advantages of stable homes, safe neighborhoods, and first and foremost, parents (and maybe a whole culture) committed to education.  Granted, the schools need to do their best for every child, but to blame them for outcomes so many of whose determinants are beyond their control doesn't help the situation.  Perhaps now that we can clearly see that charter schools which are supposed to be designed to help these kids aren't doing better than the public schools, we can widen the discussion to include the real problems.

...

 

But wait, I thought charter schools were the answer to everyone's problems? No??

Looks like charters are not doing as well as you would be led to believe they would be doing in the state that is the birthplace of the charter movement.

It will be interesting to see what happens in New York as Governor Cuomo and the charter operators continue to increase the number of charters, because at some point New York's charters are going to find it hard to select the best students for their schools, push out/counsel out the low-performers dragging down their stats and staff their schools with enough 20-somethings willing to work 12 hour days and be available for homework help for 3 hours after the workday is over.

Success Academy Registers As Lobbying Entity

Nick Reisman at State of Politics:

A day after a top aide to Gov. Andrew Cuomo signaled plans to broadly overhaul the state’s education structure, Success Academy Charter Schools CEO Eva Moskowitz registered the organization as a lobby entity, a filing with state ethics regulators shows.

Moskowitz is a prominent figure in the charter school advocacy world and registering the group to lobby was likely done out of an abundance of caution as the coming legislative session was expected to be dominated by education issues.

The lobbying period will cover Jan. 1 of this year through the end of the current Legislature now seated, 2016.

Advocates are required to register as lobbying when they expect their activities to cost more than $5,000.

In the past, Success Academy Charter Schools have relied on several prominent lobbying shops in Albany and New York City, including Albany Strategic Advisors, Dan Klores Communications, Patricia Lynch Associates and Bender Cantone Consulting.

The NY Times reported that Governor Cuomo himself helped organize a Success Academy lobbying effort last year - and raked in donations from charter backers:

It was a frigid February day in Albany, and leaders of New York City’s charter school movement were anxious. They had gone to the capital to court lawmakers, but despite a boisterous showing by parents, there seemed to be little clarity about the future of their schools.

Then, as they were preparing to head home, an intermediary called with a message: Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo wanted to meet.

To their surprise, Mr. Cuomo offered them 45 minutes of his time, in a private conference room. He told them he shared their concern about Mayor Bill de Blasio’s ambivalence toward charter schools and offered to help, according to a person who attended but did not want to be identified as having compromised the privacy of the meeting.

In the days that followed, the governor’s interest seemed to intensify. He instructed charter advocates to organize a large rally in Albany, the person said. The advocates delivered, bringing thousands of parents and students, many of them black, Hispanic, and from low-income communities, to the capital in early March, and eclipsing a pivotal rally for Mr. de Blasio taking place at virtually the same time.

The moment proved to be a turning point, laying the groundwork for a deal reached last weekend that gave New York City charter schools some of the most sweeping protections in the nation, including a right to space inside public buildings. And interviews with state and city officials as well as education leaders make it clear that far from being a mere cheerleader, the governor was a potent force at every turn, seizing on missteps by the mayor, a fellow Democrat, and driving legislation from start to finish.

Mr. Cuomo’s office declined on Wednesday to comment on his role.

As the governor worked to solidify support in Albany, his efforts were amplified by an aggressive public relations and lobbying effort financed by a group of charter school backers from the worlds of hedge funds and Wall Street, some of whom have also poured substantial sums into Mr. Cuomo’s campaign (he is up for re-election this fall). The push included a campaign-style advertising blitz that cost more than $5 million and attacked Mr. de Blasio for denying space to three charter schools.

A lot was riding on the debate for Mr. Cuomo. A number of his largest financial backers, some of the biggest names on Wall Street, also happened to be staunch supporters of charter schools. According to campaign finance records, Mr. Cuomo’s re-election campaign has received hundreds of thousands of dollars from charter school supporters, including William A. Ackman, Carl C. Icahn, Bruce Kovner and Daniel Nir.

Kenneth G. Langone, a founder of Home Depot who sits on a prominent charter school board, gave $50,000 to Mr. Cuomo’s campaign last year. He said that when the governor asked him to lead a group of Republicans supporting his re-election, he agreed because of Mr. Cuomo’s support for charter schools.

“Every time I am with the governor, I talk to him about charter schools,” Mr. Langone said in an interview. “He gets it.”

Daniel S. Loeb, the founder of the hedge fund Third Point and the chairman of Success Academy’s board, began leaning on Wall Street executives for donations. Later this month, he will host a fund-raiser for Success Academy at Cipriani in Midtown Manhattan; tickets run as high as $100,000 a table.

It is not an accident that Success Academy registered as a lobbying entity one day after a Cuomo aide sent a broadside against the public education system.

You can bet there's some coordination between the charter industry and the Cuomo administration every step of the way this budget season already, just as there was last year when Cuomo championed the Eva Moskowitz Rent Bill, and that coordination will go all the way until Eva Moskowitz gets everything she wants this legislative session.

Cuomo Creates Pension Crisis In NY

From Bloomberg News:

ALBANY – New Yorkers are living longer, which is good news for the state’s 19.7 million residents. For Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, it’s triggering a budget headache.

...


 The longer lives raised the $176.8 billion fund’s liability, boosting the 2016 pension bill to $355 million more than Cuomo had projected.

The added cost has Cuomo tapping a program allowing the state and its municipalities to borrow part of their annual pension bill from the fund with interest. Since 2011, Cuomo has used the tool to defer about $3.2 billion in payments. While he’d planned to exit the program in 2016, the budget he introduced last month includes borrowing $395 million for that year.

“Amortization takes volatility out of the state’s pension contribution costs and helps us maintain stability,” Morris Peters, a spokesman for Cuomo’s budget division, said via email.

Since Cuomo took office in 2011, he’s closed more than $12 billion in budget gaps, capped annual spending growth at 2 percent and won the state’s first four consecutive on-time budgets since 1977. The moves spurred Standard & Poor’s to award the state a AA+ mark in July, its highest since 1972. 

Yet the company also said the pension borrowing is swelling the state’s unfunded retirement liability.

And what's the goal of creating unfunded retirement liability?

Destroying the public pension system, of course:

While only seven states had stronger pensions than New York as of 2013, its funding ratio isn’t as robust as it once was. The fourth-most-populous state had 87.3 percent of assets to meet obligations, down from 105.9 percent in 2008, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

See the trajectory?

From 105.9% of assets to meet obligations in 2008 to 87.3% now.

Sure, there was the Great Recession during that time frame, but that economic downturn ended years ago and Cuomo's still draining the pension system of strength.

See New Jersey for what happens when governors underfund pension systems.

An accident that the NY pension system has been drained during King Andrew I of Wall Street's reign?

Nahh.

It's classic neo-liberalism.

Create the problem (underfund the pension system), set hair on fire over the problem (scream long and loud that the pension system is going broke), declare that we simply MUST make changes (i.e., cut pensions for current and future employees, retirees), repeat until system is busted

Cuomo Says Closing Schools Is As Important As Closing Prisons

No, seriously:

Gov. Andrew Cuomo received an award on Sunday evening lauding him for his successful efforts to close 13 prisons across the state.

Cuomo called the prison closures — which he first started in 2011 — a “prouder accomplishment I can’t have.”

...

In a brief speech accepting the award, Cuomo tied the effort to reform the state’s prison system to a broader effort not just to overhaul the state’s criminal justice system, but also his push to overhaul educating in New York.

“We have failing public schools in this state that we know we have been failing for 10 years and we continue to send students to failing public schools,” Cuomo said. “A school in a poor community has a different set of issues than a school in a richer school districts. Recognize that a school is more than a school, get the mentoring, pay for the tutoring, get the health assistance they need because a school is more than a school.”

I'm rarely rendered speechless by something a politician does or says, but here's once when I am.

I mean, how do you react to a politician, accepting an award for closing prisons, pivoting from that award to push for school closures too?

Albany Strikes Back Against US Attorney Preet Bharara

Legislators are whining about US Attorney Preet Bharara's grandstanding tactics as federal prosecutor, particularly his penchant for press conferences and media interviews, but only two had the guts to go public with their criticism:

More than a dozen state legislators, legislative officials and other insiders interviewed by the Daily News give credit to Preet Bharara for targeting Albany wrongdoing but are fuming over what they say is the powerful prosecutor’s publicity seeking, tarring of the entire Legislature, and wading into governance issues far beyond the scope of his office.

“You want to target corruption? God bless you,” said state Sen. Diane Savino (D-S.I.). “That’s what you’re supposed to do. But the fact there’s some corruption in the Legislature does not mean we all are corrupt. And the rest of us don’t appreciate the comparison.”

 Assemblyman Nick Perry (D-Brooklyn) is one of many who agreed. “It’s totally unfair — not just to us, but to our families — to sort of cast a wide net of mud and dirt across the whole spectrum of elected officials that serve New York,” Perry said.

Savino, the IDC traitor, is coming off calling City Council Speaker Mark-Viverito an "idiot," so she's having a helluva media week herself.

But back to criticism of Bharara:

Is he grandstanding?

Absolutely.

Does he make it all about himself?

Absolutely.

Does he enjoy taunting the criminals up in Albany?

Absolutely.

Is all this worrisome?

Absolutely:

“He’s nothing but a politician with a badge,” said one Assembly Democrat. “He should be doing everything he can to root out corruption, but he should not be threatening and grandstanding, telling the world to ‘stay tuned’ and tarring everybody with a criminal brush. It’s inappropriate.”

To me, the most damaging criticism of Bharara is not the grandstanding or taunting (though I think that criticism is fair and accurate) but his failure to take on any of the systemic corruption on Wall Street.

As Michael Fiorillo has pointed out again and again in comments here at Perdido Street School blog, Bharara's only targets on Wall Street have been insider traders and Bernie Madoff - not one of the criminals who nearly crashed the economy in 2008 with their misdeeds, enriching themselves in the process, was indicted by either US Attorney Preet Bharara or the Attorney General at the time, one Andrew M. Cuomo.

Matt Taibbi had similar criticism of Bharara years ago in his seminal piece "Why Isn't Wall Street In Jail?" which aims at the close relationships between the "top cops" on Wall Street and the targets they're supposed to be policing:

Criminal justice, as it pertains to the Goldmans and Morgan Stanleys of the world, is not adversarial combat, with cops and crooks duking it out in interrogation rooms and courthouses. Instead, it's a cocktail party between friends and colleagues who from month to month and year to year are constantly switching sides and trading hats. At the Hilton conference, regulators and banker-lawyers rubbed elbows during a series of speeches and panel discussions, away from the rabble. "They were chummier in that environment," says Aguirre, who plunked down $2,200 to attend the conference.

Aguirre saw a lot of familiar faces at the conference, for a simple reason: Many of the SEC regulators he had worked with during his failed attempt to investigate John Mack had made a million-dollar pass through the Revolving Door, going to work for the very same firms they used to police. Aguirre didn't see Paul Berger, an associate director of enforcement who had rebuffed his attempts to interview Mack — maybe because Berger was tied up at his lucrative new job at Debevoise & Plimpton, the same law firm that Morgan Stanley employed to intervene in the Mack case. But he did see Mary Jo White, the former U.S. attorney, who was still at Debevoise & Plimpton. He also saw Linda Thomsen, the former SEC director of enforcement who had been so helpful to White. Thomsen had gone on to represent Wall Street as a partner at the prestigious firm of Davis Polk & Wardwell.

Two of the government's top cops were there as well: Preet Bharara, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Robert Khuzami, the SEC's current director of enforcement. Bharara had been recommended for his post by Chuck Schumer, Wall Street's favorite senator. And both he and Khuzami had served with Mary Jo White at the U.S. attorney's office, before Mary Jo went on to become a partner at Debevoise. What's more, when Khuzami had served as general counsel for Deutsche Bank, he had been hired by none other than Dick Walker, who had been enforcement director at the SEC when it slow-rolled the pivotal fraud case against Rite Aid.

"It wasn't just one rotation of the revolving door," says Aguirre. "It just kept spinning. Every single person had rotated in and out of government and private service."

The Revolving Door isn't just a footnote in financial law enforcement; over the past decade, more than a dozen high-ranking SEC officials have gone on to lucrative jobs at Wall Street banks or white-shoe law firms, where partnerships are worth millions. That makes SEC officials like Paul Berger and Linda Thomsen the equivalent of college basketball stars waiting for their first NBA contract. Are you really going to give up a shot at the Knicks or the Lakers just to find out whether a Wall Street big shot like John Mack was guilty of insider trading? "You take one of these jobs," says Turner, the former chief accountant for the SEC, "and you're fit for life."

Fit — and happy. The banter between the speakers at the New York conference says everything you need to know about the level of chumminess and mutual admiration that exists between these supposed adversaries of the justice system. At one point in the conference, Mary Jo White introduced Bharara, her old pal from the U.S. attorney's office.

"I want to first say how pleased I am to be here," Bharara responded. Then, addressing White, he added, "You've spawned all of us. It's almost 11 years ago to the day that Mary Jo White called me and asked me if I would become an assistant U.S. attorney. So thank you, Dr. Frankenstein."

Next, addressing the crowd of high-priced lawyers from Wall Street, Bharara made an interesting joke. "I also want to take a moment to applaud the entire staff of the SEC for the really amazing things they have done over the past year," he said. "They've done a real service to the country, to the financial community, and not to mention a lot of your law practices."

Haw! The line drew snickers from the conference of millionaire lawyers. But the real fireworks came when Khuzami, the SEC's director of enforcement, talked about a new "cooperation initiative" the agency had recently unveiled, in which executives are being offered incentives to report fraud they have witnessed or committed. From now on, Khuzami said, when corporate lawyers like the ones he was addressing want to know if their Wall Street clients are going to be charged by the Justice Department before deciding whether to come forward, all they have to do is ask the SEC.

"We are going to try to get those individuals answers," Khuzami announced, as to "whether or not there is criminal interest in the case — so that defense counsel can have as much information as possible in deciding whether or not to choose to sign up their client."

Aguirre, listening in the crowd, couldn't believe Khuzami's brazenness. The SEC's enforcement director was saying, in essence, that firms like Goldman Sachs and AIG and Lehman Brothers will henceforth be able to get the SEC to act as a middleman between them and the Justice Department, negotiating fines as a way out of jail time. Khuzami was basically outlining a four-step system for banks and their executives to buy their way out of prison. "First, the SEC and Wall Street player make an agreement on a fine that the player will pay to the SEC," Aguirre says. "Then the Justice Department commits itself to pass, so that the player knows he's 'safe.' Third, the player pays the SEC — and fourth, the player gets a pass from the Justice Department."


When I ask a former federal prosecutor about the propriety of a sitting SEC director of enforcement talking out loud about helping corporate defendants "get answers" regarding the status of their criminal cases, he initially doesn't believe it. Then I send him a transcript of the comment. "I am very, very surprised by Khuzami's statement, which does seem to me to be contrary to past practice — and not a good thing," the former prosecutor says.

I'm happy to tout Bharara's work on the blog when he's giving Cuomo headaches and heart attacks, when he's holding pressers the day after big Cuomo announcements to steal Cuomo's press coverage, and I certainly am hoping that Barara takes out the last two of the "Three Men In A Room" he mocked at an NYU law speech a few weeks ago (Skelos and Cuomo.)

But I am under no impression that Bharara is actually looking to clean up the systemic corruption in New York, for if he were, he'd been carting the criminals at Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase out in handcuffs the same way he's carting out the criminals in Albany.

Bharara is undoubtedly running for political office, despite his terse responses to the question of his political future ("No."), and as a former Chuck Schumer aide, Bharara is also undoubtedly as political as anybody else in the system.

The last few prosecutors we've had run for political office in this state (Cuomo, Spitzer and Giuliani) have all been holy terrors as politicians, problematic in their own ways.

I'm not looking forward to finding out just what kind of politician Preet Bharara is going to be if and when he announces a run for something in the future.

But I think we will find that out.

Given his smarts, his ego, his political wiliness, and his ability to garner splashy headlines, I have little doubt that he'll be successful at getting elected.

And I'm sure all those Wall Street folks Bharara and his fellow "top cops" at the SEC and the DOJ refuse to prosecute will be just as happy to have a guy like him governor as they are at having their pal Sheriff Andy in office.

To them it's all the same just so long as whomever is in power leaves them pretty much alone.

Cuomo's Out To Destroy Public Education - Why Aren't The Teachers Unions Trying To Destroy Him Politically?

Temperatures in the Garden State aren't the only thing hitting bottom:

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s approval ratings have hit an all-time low, according to a new poll.

In a Rutgers University-Eagleton poll released on Friday, 53 percent of New Jersey voters view Christie unfavorably and just 37 percent hold a favorable view of the governor — down 7 percentage points in two months.

The possible 2016 GOP candidate’s job approval ratings are facing similar blows. Fifty-two percent of New Jersey voters disapprove of the job Christie is doing while 42 percent approve. In December, 48 percent of voters approved of Christie’s job performance.

Those questioned for the poll were able to elaborate on why exactly they hold unfavorable opinions of their governor. When asked, 20 percent cited his “attitude, personality and behavior,” while 15 percent specifically mentioned Bridgegate and 10 percent mentioned his national ambitions to possibly run for president in 2016 as affecting his ability to govern the state.

Christie's pal in NY State, Governor Andrew Cuomo, isn't much better when it comes to job approval - he enjoys a 47% job approval rating (51% disapprove.)

But Cuomo's got a favorability rating of 60%, as measured in the last Siena poll.

It will be interesting to see what happens to Cuomo's numbers after a bruising budget battle over ethics and education reform.

Cuomo's going to try and smear the Legislature as corrupt and unwilling to accept his ethics reforms package even as he himself is corrupt and refuses to put into place any ethics reforms that would affect him (e.g., closing the LLC loophole that allows him to raise money from the same source through multiple shell entities.)

Cuomo's also continuing his war against teachers and public schools, vowing to destroy both.

It's unfortunate that the teachers unions are fighting a half-assed battle against Cuomo, because if they really went at him, running ads like this or this against him, they could drive his numbers down and make him pay a real political price for his war of attrition against public education.

I don't quite get the strategy the unions are using here - Cuomo's out to destroy us, but for some reason, they've decided to only go so far in their pushback against him.

They ought to be running ads like the ones I linked to above, or this one:

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo is a hypocrite.

Cuomo says he wants to go after tax deadbeats in New York State, taking away driver's licenses of anybody who owes more than $5000 to the state in income tax.

But the governor won't let the tax assessor into his home to assess the improvements that his girlfriend made to their house as detailed in various media reports including on The Today Show, thus saving himself thousands of dollars in extra taxes a year.

Cuomo says he wants to go after corrupt politicians in Albany and has threatened to shut down the government if the Legislature doesn't accept his ethics reforms package wholesale.

But he refuses to accept any ethics reforms that would affect him as governor - including a loophole that allows him to raise campaign donations beyond the legal limit through shell entities created just for that purpose.

Cuomo also says he wants to break the public school system and has vowed to shut down the government if the Legislature doesn't accept 100% of his education reform agenda that promotes charter schools and state takeover of school districts.

But Cuomo has raised millions of dollars from campaign donors who will directly benefit from these education reforms, including from for-profit charter school operators who are licking their lips at the money they will make once Cuomo hands them entire school districts to run.

Governor Andrew Cuomo talks a good game when it comes to tax issues, ethics reform, and public education.

But when you watch what he does on these issues rather just listen to what he says, you see that he is as corrupt and hypocritical as anybody else in the cesspool that is Albany politics.

Cuomo's people already allegedly asked for the "attack" ads the unions are running against him to be pulled, though the unions haven't done so and continue to run them.

That's an indication that running ads against him is doing some damage to him, driving some of his internal numbers down.

But Cuomo's playing for keeps while the teachers unions are playing with kid gloves on, jabbing at him over school funding in ads that are pretty lame without REALLY going at him on issues that could make him cry "Uncle" in a matter of weeks.
 
As I posted yesterday, I suspect the unions aren't really looking to win this fight, that they're putting on a show for their members while selling us out behind the scenes (thus the secret Mulgrew/Magee meeting with Cuomo aides last week.)

It's a shame, too, because with a little work, Cuomo's numbers could be down near Christie's and we could make him regret he ever told a Forbes crowd and the Daily News editorial board that he planned to destroy public schools in his second term.

Reading The Tea Leaves On The Skelos Scandal

Wayne Barrett at City and State:

With all the focus on Shelly Silver and his Assembly apparatchiks, let’s not forget New York’s state Senate, where four of the last five majority leaders have been indicted and the fifth, Dean Skelos, is reportedly under investigation.

The first, Joe Bruno, got his conviction overturned because the U.S. Supreme Court significantly narrowed the “honest services” he owed his constituents, excluding the $3.2 million in conflict-of-interest consulting fees he collected from clients with public business before him. Pedro Espada was forced to resign as leader the same day he was indicted for embezzling hundreds of thousands from a state-funded nonprofit, using $49,000, for example, to make a down payment on a Bentley. Malcolm Smith, who thought cash bribes were the quickest way to buy himself a ballot line for mayor, is now facing 45 years in prison. And John Sampson, who succeeded Smith, will soon go to trial for stealing $400,000 from foreclosure accounts and trying to get a list of the witnesses against him so he could, as he put it, “take them out.” He wasn’t looking for dates.

...

Jonathan Dienst, the Emmy-Award winning WNBC reporter who broke the Skelos story, says Bharara is investigating the majority leader’s ties to the real estate industry. The Real Deal says that the law firm that pays Skelos up to $250,000 a year, Ruskin Moscou, “is not part of the investigation,” which, if true, gives the probe an air of mystery.

Could be conflicts of interest, could be nepotism and bribery.

Read the whole piece, then marvel at the corruption that rots New York politics.

What are the chances that Skelos avoids indictment, considering that the last four majority leaders have been indicted, the US attorney has asked us all to "Stay tuned" when asked about his next plans for cleaning up political corruption and two separate reports (one from NBC 4, one from the NY Post) indicated the feds are looking at Skelos.

Get some popcorn, folks, because it's quite possible that, with Skelos under investigation and Tom Libous, the second in command for the Senate GOP, already under indictment, we could see a whole new team fielded by Republicans as the current one gets carted off to prison.

Michael Mulgrew Shows Us Which Sides He's On

Michael Fiorillo's reaction to UFT President Mulgrew's defense of standardized testing:

Do I really need to pay over a thousand dollars a year to listen to someone who misrepresents me and acts like a ventriloquist's doll for Bill Gates, Eli Broad, Michael Bloomberg and all the other so-called reform privateers? To say that tests should drive instruction, as Mr. Robeson did, is to repeat their phrasing word for word.

The needs of children, not tests, should drive instruction.

The reviving of democracy, not tests, should drive instruction.

Education as a means of providing choices, and the ability to rationally judge them, not tests, should drive instruction.

Yesterday's DA provided yet more proof, as if it was necessary, that the Weingrew regime fully accepts the premises of the so-called reformers, which pivot on high stakes testing. These people are there to manage and pacify us while the deal goes down.

How these folks think they can maintain their dues machine once the union is so weakened and discredited (and make no mistake, any union where 80% of the active membership doesn't vote, where archipelagos of schools have no Chapter Leader, and where the contract is ignored with impunity, is racing there) that it can be drowned in the bathtub.

That is exactly what Gates and company will do when Weingrew have outlived their usefulness: stop taking their phone calls and send them on their way to their double pensions.

Apparently, they've signed a loyalty oath to Bill Gates, not that it will help when he's used them up.

Perhaps they're operating under the assumption of the crooked bankers and mortgage brokers leading up to the financial crisis of 2008: IBGYBG, or "I'll Be Gone, You'll Be Gone."

If you had any hope that the UFT is going to do anything other than slowly sell you out year by year, it ought to be snuffed out by the words and deeds of our union leaders.

They defend testing and Common Core with a lot more passion than they do the teaching profession or teachers.

As Michael said in his comment, these people are there to manage and pacify us while the deal goes down.

The Weingrew shills cry "unity" when you criticize their tactics, criticize their strategies - all "unity" means to them is, shut up and let the leadership sell you out.

UFT Continues To Put On Dog And Pony Show Against Cuomo, But Signals They Expect Defeat

Despite the widespread opposition to Cuomo's ed reform agenda, the UFT is getting the message out that this fight against the Cuomo reform budget is essentially lost because he can stick whatever he wants into budget extenders and force the Legislature to take it wholesale or shut the government down.

A colleague at the UFT dog/pony show against the Cuomo reforms that was held in Brooklyn last night said that was the takeaway from the forum.

Mulgrew has issued the same message at the DA.

That's the voice of surrender.

I'll have more on this later, but for now, let's just say, if a governor with 47% job approval rating and the fewest votes of any reelected governor since FDR in 1930 says take my agenda 100% or I'll force a shutdown, he is vulnerable politically to charges of authoritarianism and overreach.

This is especially so since the heavy-handed tactics aren't sitting well with members of either party in either the Assembly or the Senate.

Alas, it does not seem the UFT wants to take Cuomo on at that level in this fight.

Instead they keep reminding members about the budget extender tactics Cuomo can push, saying that, in the end, it's pretty much a done deal.

One might almost wonder if the real deal was done last Friday when Mulgrew and Magee secretly met Cuomo's people for "discussions" and now they're just playing out the string to make things look right for the rank and file.

But a guy who wants to punch anyone who takes his Common Core away and says the union can't fight against standardized tests because parents wants tests would never sell us out in private while putting on a dog/pony show in public, would he?

I mean, they wouldn't just be putting on a show for us, right?

Of course they are.

If they really meant business, they'd be running ads saying

"Governor Cuomo says he wants the Legislature to accept his unpopular education reform agenda wholesale or he'll force a government shutdown.  When did we elect a king in New York State?  This governor has a 47% job approval rating and was reelected with the fewest votes since FDR in 1930 - he doesn't get to dictate to the people of this state and their elected representatives like he's the Sun King."

But they're not running ads like that.

Instead they're telling the rank and file at these UFT forums and the DA how hard the fight is going to be, how much power the governor has through the budget extender, signaling that defeat is coming.

Of course the fight against Cuomo is hard - the UFT and NYSUT are barely fighting it, running lame ads, doing all they can to avoid REALLY taking Cuomo on.

Try running the ad I just wrote above across the state and see how the governor reacts.

Even better, run it for a few weeks and see what happens to his poll numbers.

I'm going to tell you, folks, the more I hear out of Mulgrew and the UFT, the more I think the "compromise" with Cuomo has either already been done or is close to being done and the forums and the rhetoric are just part of the show to fool the R&F into thinking the war's still on.

The fact is, the war between the unions and Cuomo was NEVER on because these people running the unions don't want a war.

They like testing, they like Common Core and they like reform.

They're simply negotiating the terms of exploitation and surrender while sucking up their double pensions and other union perks and putting on a show for the rest of us.

UFT President Michael Mulgrew Discovers Nixon's Silent Testing Majority

Mike Mulgrew and his Unity caucus speak for all parents:

Mike Schirtzer rises, raises motion for next month on behalf of MORE, to support I Refuse Movement. Circulates it. Mulgrew says it needs a simple majority to be placed on agenda. 

Mike says has been passed by several locals, that testing regime is out of hand, and that we should oppose high stakes testing. Says test prep saps joy from teaching, helps neither us nor our students. Kills creativity, critical thinking so we can do non stop test prep. Says we must starve the beast, that MOSL is junk science. Says if we’re gonna go to war against Cuomo, let’s take high stakes testing away from him.

...

Sterling Robeson rises to speak against resolution, says we are against overtesting, but that we need tools to help drive instruction. Says parents need tests to ensure that they’re getting the “education they deserve.” Says we’ve supported this issue “from teachers of Chicago,” and in early grades. Says we’ve enforced it and reemphasized it over and over. States there is difference between opting out and refusing. Says it tells folks to tell their kids to refuse. Although there are pieces that are appealing to us, it goes to far. Urges this motion be defeated.

Mulgrew holds vote, I did not hear him declare outcome (it was clearly voted down, I would say 2-1) takes point of personal privilege, says he understands passion around this issue. Says resolution is out of order because it asks us to make decision about NYSUT. Speaks of how parents want tests. Says we’re in a fight and have to be smart about it, that we ought not to take a boilerplate resolution that was put together in other places. Says we should be against high stake.

No surprise on this, of course - it's the same rationale the AFT used for pushing for testing to remain in the NCLB Jr. bill being cobbled together in Washington.

Thing is, I'm sure there are some parents who think standardized tests are useful and important.

And then there are a whole bunch of them who think they're harmful, especially when attached to high stakes.

That second group is much louder than the first - and, if protests and social media activity are any gauge, it's growing by the day

Perhaps Mulgrew knows something I don't know and he sees Nixon's "Silent Testing Majority" out there supporting high stakes tests.

But more than likely the UFT President has his marching orders from the AFT President who takes her marching orders from the moneyed interests she so respects (a la Bill Gates and the like) that testing must be defended no matter what.

Thing is, they're on the wrong side of history on this, as are many of the civil rights groups that defend high stakes testing as the only way to assure quality education for all (some of those groups are also on the Gates payroll, btw, so they have other interests besides looking out for civil rights.)

The opt out movement and the anti-testing movement will continue to grow, and if Cuomo gets his way on his reform agenda and gets to tie 50% of a teacher's rating to tests, he's just throwing wood on the bonfire.

The testing obsession has reached a tipping point with large numbers of parents (as has Common Core) and Mike Mulgrew's defense of it won't save the Endless Testing regime any more than his promise to punch anybody who takes away his Common Core will save CCSS.

Report: NYC Charter Schools Violate Federal, State Law With Disciplinary Codes

Orange jumpsuits anybody?

Most of New York City’s charter schools have disciplinary codes that do not meet either state or federal requirements, according to a report by a children’s advocacy organization that is to be released on Thursday.

...

In preparing the report, the group surveyed the disciplinary policies of 155 charter organizations — large networks as well as smaller, independent schools — out of 183 such organizations that operated in New York City during the 2013-14 school year. (The 155 organizations had 164 disciplinary policies between them because some set different standards for different grade levels, Advocates for Children said.)

Some charter schools have drawn criticism for having high suspension rates and a strict approach to discipline that pushes children out of the classroom unnecessarily. But many charter advocates have said it is crucial to maintain order so children can learn.

The Advocates for Children report cites complaints from parents who said their children had been suspended from charter schools over minor offenses such as wearing the wrong shoes or laughing while serving detention. Ultimately, though, the group said the main issue was legal.

Half of the policies examined by Advocates for Children let charter schools suspend or expel students for being late or cutting class — punishments the group said violated state law. At three dozen schools, there were no special rules covering the suspension or expulsion of children with disabilities, which the group said violated federal law. And in 25 instances, charter schools could suspend students for long periods without a hearing, which the group said violated the United States and New York State Constitutions, as well as state law.

Of course the pushback from the charter operators and supporters is that charter schools are not public schools so they don't have to abide by the same state and federal laws that public schools do.

You see, charter schools are only public schools when it comes time to take public money, get co-located in a public school building or have their rent paid by NYC for private space if no co-location space is available.

For everything else - from the disciplinary codes to the ability of city or state agencies to audit them to the teacher evaluation law - they're private entities that do not have to abide by the same rules and regulations public schools do.

It's fabulous being a charter school operator in Governor Andrew M. Cuomo's New York State.

You get the best of both worlds - all the benefits without any of the responsibilities, obligations, rules or regulations.

And so, it's perfectly all right for a charter school to make students wear orange shirts (so similar to the orange jumpsuits prisoners are forced to wear) when they're being punished for some minor infraction whereas if a public school ever tried that same thing, it would (rightfully) be stopped in its tracks.