By a margin of 49 percent to 34 percent, voters said implementation of controversial Common Core testing standards, aimed at better accessing students’ needs, should be stopped.
That's a 15 percentage point plurality in favor of killing the Core in New York.
You can see how the unions, had they been opposed to Common Core, could have joined with many parents and really put a shiv into Cuomo's ed deform agenda.
Because he's going to push charter schools, teacher evaluations/dismissals and (perhaps) vouchers as the biggest wants on the New Yorker education list.
But it turns out killing the Core is very high on the list of things NYers want in education policy.
This is something that Cuomo - deep in the pocket of education reform donors/supporters - does NOT want to do.
Alas, it is also something the unions inexplicably do NOT want to do either.
Or perhaps it's not so inexplicable - cynics surmise there's some financial incentives for the union leaders to maintain support for the Core and testing.
In any case, a great opportunity to fight back against Cuomo on education policy on an issue where a clear plurality of NYer's are opposed to his policy is being lost.
Instead the unions are running ads about fully funding public education even as Cuomo and his ed deform buddies are arguing that public schools and public school teachers suck and the first needs to be broken up and the second needs to be fired.
Using the anti-Common Core animus in the state would've been a great way to re-frame the debate and put Cuomo and his ed deform buddies on the defensive.
Unfortunately, it is not to be.
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