Tuesday, May 19, 2015

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.

8 comments:

  1. Meryl Tisch is ineffective and unqualified for her job.

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  2. I tend to not be convinced as well. Some things we have to keep in mind and take as givens:

    1) As long as Cuomo and Tisch remain in places of power, they will absolutely use those positions of power to pursue their agendas. These are not people who read other people's writing on the walls. These are not people that chase favorability ratings. These are deeply embedded, Machiavellian political operators (Cuomo most clearly) who understand power.

    2) Neither Cuomo or Tisch are working for the people of the state of NY, the students of the state of NY, or any other body-politic. On the education front they are working for privatizers and the investment billionaires behind them. I am not stating this as some easy, everyone-here-will-agree point. I am stating this as more true than most even on our side want to believe. Enormous amounts of money were spent on this front. Cuomo and Tisch represent that money. Period. Again, this isn't something Im saying to be smart or snarky....it's actually true. These people will not come around to democracy because of poll numbers. They have no history of doing that on any issue where there was so much at stake....even fracking. Turns out, education is Cuomo's juicy, to be protected at all costs, center. Existentially damaging organized teachers in order to privatize public education is his absolute mission....he has shown his ability to bend on almost everything else. Really.

    3) The sustained fight necessary for our side to come through isn't fully appreciated by our side. Opt-out, organized teachers, etc all have to be willing to grow, build momentum, and fight with insane intensity over a very long haul. Those groups also have to be willing to be more intense, more creative, and more focused than the other side. This is a very heavy lift and Cuomo/Tisch are well aware of it. We have to be teacher-activists, parent-activists, etc....quite literally....our jobs and identities need to expand to meet that....and that is, well, exhausting.

    So, that's why I remain super guarded here. I don't have ALOT of faith in any "positive" news so long as Cuomo and Tisch still sit in seats of power. It's just that simple.

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  3. Once again, it is ALL ABOUT MONEY! There is WAY TOO MUCH soul-selling that has taken place in exchange for a boatload of money. Cuomo is so completely OWNED by corporate America he can't take a crap without paying homage to all those folks along the way who own him. He is a fake and all that bravado is because he owes too many people, too much money. He sits on so much money he seems to be able to crap money for new "education tax credits." Imagine that? Where'd THAT $$ come from? Hmm? Then there's the trainwreck known as Madame TUSCH ... what an arrogant member of the ruling elite. The new Regents (and several of the vets) are teaching her what it means to be humble. I do not expect her to stay around much longer and would be willing to start a "pool" about how soon Cuomo pressures her to make a run for it. She is a shameless example of how money buys everything EXCEPT knowledge and humility and good listening skills. She is a perfect example of someone given too much power without having the smarts to go with it. Shelly Silver should be ashamed that he enabled her at every step of the way.

    So, while some may think TUSCH lost her board, I say that Cuomo will look for a sacrifice in the form of Madame TUSCH and her do nothing, I'll just sit in the commish's chair and pretend. We are the laughing stock of state ed departments these days. NY-SED is all over the map and the more this whole pile of B.S. continues to play out, the more ridiculous the whole picture.

    You can't make this stuff up! So long Merryl, don't let the door hit you too hard in the tusch on the way out!

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  4. What a mess. So happy to see it unraveling. Truthfully, didn't think it would happen this quick. What an embarrassment!

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  5. Just wait until the lawsuits pile up against the NY state government. It is not debatable that Albany is corrosively corrupt.

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  6. This witch has used her wealth and her obnoxious personality to obtain way too much control of the policy making body for NY State Education. With her donation of support for Regents Fellows she bought way too much influence through all levels of NYSED--a resource starved state agency. Through those fellows she had way too much influence upon the direction policy moved. Frankly, JOhn King was hired to be Tisch's stooge and he did a wonderful job of fronting for her! King had a mannerism that involved moving his hands whenever he spoke that made him look like a puppet--I always felt that Tisch was pulling those puppet strings. I witnessed a number of times at meetings when King said something and shortly thereafter Tisch called him outside the room. Later when King re-entered he corrected himself while Tuschie smiled. I agree with other posters that money and power are behind the effort to transform NY's system of public education (recent changes cannot be considered reform)! The problem is that the revolutionary transformation that Tisch/King/Cuomo wished to manipulate took too long to carry out--now they are floundering and being viewed as the source of dysfunction. Parents are catching on--but those who crave money and power will continue to devise ways to keep their transformation on track. The only way to defeat them is to rely upon American democracy--voting out politicians that will not stand with the masses against the oligarchs! Keep fighting!

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  7. Cathy Kashin is a long time political infighter who lost her campaign to be chancellor to Farina. Now she has her sights set on Tisch and she has been meeting with people and building all sorts of alliances to take Tisch down. I was never a Cashin fan, but I am growing into one. Cashin has the ed chops to do this. I'm betting Tisch is toast.

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  8. Cuomo is going to be angry in the press over the Assembly's de-linking of ed reform to financial aid for school districts. I'll bet that he is royally pissed that Merryl has suddenly become "reasonable" and "thoughtful" in contemplating and confronting the absurdity of a rushed to implement teacher evaluation plan that will ultimately spawn ridiculous lawsuits and BIG TROUBLE in Albany. Trouble is, both Cuomo and Tisch are SO beholden to BIG $$$ that they cannot suddenly throw in the towel. To do so would be akin to suicide. However, it is also becoming apparent that the "new" face of the NYS Board of Regents scares the Chancellor ... BIG TIME. So, what's a girl to do? Why not play BOTH sides of the fence, then?

    Andy is going to go off the deep-end on this one, folks. He'll be looking for someone, some entity to blame. Bye-bye Merryl. There's going to be a fascinating dialogue between now and when the legislature ends their session. It would behoove all of us to keep the pressure ratcheted up through the bitter end.

    Time for some fireworks in Albany!

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