Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Assembly Dems Cave To Cuomo On Education Reform

Cuomo wins in a rout:

Assembly Speaker Carl Heasite this afternoon acknowledged the education reform measure in the 2015-16 state budget are difficult for his members to accept, but the legislation will pass his chamber at some point in the next few hours.

“It’s not an ideal world, it’s not an ideal situation, but the people of this state want an on-time budget,” Heastie told reporters.

The bill, being printed now, will be voted on as soon as its ready, Heastie said.

Heastie had still been negotiating the education policy in the budget that Gov. Andrew Cuomo pursued this year, which includes a new teacher evaluation criteria and tenure requirements as well as a reform to the so-called 3020A process that makes it easier for low-performing teachers to be fired, regardless of tenure.

The state’s teachers’ union remains staunchly opposed to the evaluation, tenure and 3020A changes, and rank-and-file Democrats, too, have been critical of the reform polices.

Both the New York State United Teachers union and their city affiliate, the United Federation of Teachers, have urged lawmakers to oppose the legislation.

...

“We will pass the bill. Members raised a lot of I’d say issues of concern about implementation,” Heastie said. “You make these kinds of changes, members have questions.”

More later on what to do now that it's clear that Cuomo got everything he wanted on education reform, with a few minor alterations.

Suffice to say for now, the new evaluation system, with the unfunded mandate of independent observers and the onus of the testing thrown onto the teachers, is going to be a mess and the goal will be to make Cuomo own this and ensure it destroys him in his second term.

Every problem that arises because of the new system, we pin on Cuomo.

His people developed this system, he pushed for it, he tied it to education aid increases.

It is his and when it becomes clear that it is an unworkable mess, that problem will be his too.

19 comments:

  1. Thank you NYSUT for endorsing 99.99% of the Assembly Democrats that just threw New York's teachers under a bus. If Karen Magee and Andy Pallotta had any decency they would announce their resignations by 6 pm. The charter schools have won. Public education is well on its way to being destroyed along with the careers of thousands of teachers.

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  2. Why give COPE money to those who stab us in the back? It feels like at every turn or every battle, union leaders and politicians who we think are our friends lay down like lambs.

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  3. This whole evaluation piece is a disaster. Imagine working as a teacher in a shitty school (no fault of your own) because that's just where you wound up? With this said, you hustle each day to do your best with whatever kids enter the room. They can be living with 7 brothers and sisters in a one bedroom, can be working a night shift, can be new to the country, etc, etc. Somehow, it's tthe teachers fault and 2 Ineffectives in a row will discontinue a license and result in tetmination, REGARDLESS of tenure. Wow! Never thought I'd see this in nyc. It is officially "game over". Outside evaluator + 50% testing scores = death trap. Good bye to this shit profession. Any youngster trying to break into education in the Tier VI model is a total and complete moron.

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  4. Just remember: Laws can be overturned. NYSUT should IMMEDIATELY and without any pull back start the attack ads IN EARNEST on all media. It is time for the teachers of NYS to rise up and call Cuomo out. It is time to call out EVERY legislator and to start a MASS demonstration against the political machine. VERY interesting timing as we approach Passover and Easter. I am certain that all the politicos are packed and ready to leave town hoping that the fallout diminishes while they're taking vacation during the holidays. This is an abomination and the worst possible scenario. I have given up on Preet Bharara and am resigned to the fact that if he had anything tangible, he would have jumped long ago. We have been collectively out-spent and screwed by our legislators. I hope that Cuomo gets all that he has coming to him once the realities of this fiasco start to unfold. I am ready to leave New York State for good. What has happened is a crime against children and hard-working educators. Absolutely sickening ...

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    1. First we have to rid ourselves of Mulgrew.

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    2. Totally agree with you. Now we need to get rid of his 800 Unity Loyalists, too. I'm always amazed that there are 100,000 UFT members and 800 Unity Loyalists, which represents .8% and control the livelihood of all the rank and file. Get rid of Mulgrew and his Loyalists!

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  5. Cuomo has created a white hot mess and he will own it forever as his legacy. The man who single-handedly destroyed the public schools of NYS.

    Laws can be overturned - and these will. Unfortunately it will take a new governor to make this happen.

    Is there any chance Cuomo can be impeached?

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  6. No. Can't impeach Cuomo. Can't do that in NY. And no, he won't be arrested. Skelos will be the end of it then maybe a few legislators or whatever that most NY'ers never heard of. Cuomo will be here till 2018...then probably re-elected. Cuomo's true place in history will be that he was the first Dem NY Governor in recent history who proved that one can win and stay in power without the vote of organized teachers. He wins. That story is clear.

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    1. I really can't see Cuomo winning in 2018. The education reforms are completely unworkable He will have to own them in coming years.. NYS is also becoming completely unlivable. Too expensive, too crowded, crappy infrastructure, The schools will only get much worse with the Cuomo ed policies.,..rising costs, very cold winters...The list goes on.. He barely won a second term last year. The problem is a Republican will probably win in 2018 and then it will truly be another "Wisconsin."

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  7. Oh, forgot to mention this: 2017, well within Cuomo's term, there will be a NYS Constitutional convention. Hahahahahahhahahahaha! If you think we as teachers lost today, wait till 2017. A constitutional convention means, to us, that the retirement tiers can be "opened up" and modified to politician's hearts content. Most folks, including some dolts at NYSUT have said "oh, they won't mess with specific tier provisions because then that effects everyone within the tier, not just teachers, and therefore too much of a political hell storm." Turns out NYSUT people were wrong. They can isolate teachers within the tiers and "modify" (fu<k up) the terms of the tier for just teachers in ANY WAY. What the last few days has proven is that the governor, legislature, and senate can handle and disregard teachers. We are no longer a political entity. 2017 folks!
    And here I was thinking "well, I know my career is over now, but at least I have some pension!" Oh no, how wrong I was. They will be F'ing that ALL up in 2017.

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    1. If one was to retire before 2017, would their changes be retro-active?

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    2. A change in the NYS constitutional convention is without a doubt a massive fear of mine. With the new changes to the evaluation I just want to make it so I can get some form of a pension. What are people's thoughts on Cuomo going after ONLY teachers in regard to changing teacher retirement benefits? If NYS is doing well financially in 2017 do you think he will still make a case that teachers, "earn too much and their pensions are bankrupting New York?" We all know we can't count on other unions to have our backs now that the friggin' UFT sold out ever other union by agreeing to a shitty contract and putting in place the worst contract pattern in history.

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    3. Even IF Cuomo were to go after the NYSTRS (and he would be a fool to do so), the legislature would NEVER go for it. Can you spell T-E-R-M L-I-M-I-T-S ? I guarantee you that EVERY public employee union in NYS would go totally ape shit and immediately call for term limits for ALL politicos. That would end the discussion. Just remember, the NYSTRS is one of the top 10 performing pension systems in the U.S. and one of the best in the world. If anyone screws around with our pensions, there will be unspeakable retribution that harkens back to the middle ages (he says as the guillotine is readied). Rest easy ...

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    4. Please stop the worrying about a constitutional convention. Instead, new tiers will be invented with 401K contributions, etc. Legislators would totally fear a constitutional convention because they are so hated right now, it's almost certain that the general population of NYS would demand term limits for all of them. It isn't happening in NY.

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  8. NYS Constitutional convention means literally everything that isn't a US constitutional guarantee can be changed/modified/eliminated. So definitely, yes.

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  9. I recall people heavy in NYSUT reassuring me like 5-7 years ago, less maybe, that no governor, legislator, or senator would ever get involved with teacher evaluations because it would ruin them politically. Hahahahahahhahahahaha! It would be funny if it weren't such a tragedy. This is the real story here. No a Cuomo/reformer win, but a NYSUT loss! The worst union leadership failure in recent history. Radical inability to forecast problems. Plague of irrational optimism. Union leaders should be right and proper skeptical, pissed off cynics.

    I've been trying to get involved in union stuff for years but they always tell me I need to show up to more bake sales and stuff like that! Haha. Optimists.

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  10. ” If you were fortunate enough right now to be standing over George Orwell’s grave in the sweet garden of the churchyard at Sutton Courtenay, Oxfordshire, you would hear, piercing the roar of his revolving corpse, a plaintive, despairing voice crying out: “Bury me deeper. Now. Please.”

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  11. The "powerful teacher unions" ...LOL!!!

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  12. Here's where I stand by my earlier comments warning of the 2017 convention:
    1) the health and vitality of tr NYSTRS canbe legislated away. The bedrock of its health is the fact that districts contribute (matching) for first 10 years of a teacher's career and then after that the district ALONE contributes. I think that it will be easy political meat for Cuomo or one of his fellow travelers to bring that up....something like "hey, taxpayers are sweating for your cushy pension" thing, and there goes the "health" of the NYSTRS.
    2) the vitality and health of the NYSTRS is also contingent on like 700000 members paying in/districts paying in. The current teacher eval thing is but one step in taking bites out of contributing members. Really. Nobody wants to teach here and many will not be working here once he ball starts rolling.
    3) they can isolate teachers within the tiers in a convention and do things just to them. Nobody is afraid of the teachers unions calling for term limits. It's not a threat. If you haven't heard, NYSUT has about as much gravitas in NYS government these days as Peter Pan....less probably.

    So yeah, I think it's something to worry about. And, We must learn of F'ing lessons please!!!!! Lets ACT LIKE ITS A THREAT for a change! We are exactly were we are because leaders said "oh we don't have to worry about......" Come on! If we can imagine it, st F'ing possible!!!! Christ! Have we learned nothing in the last 72 hours!!!!

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