These Are Clearly Reasons Why Buffalo Schools Should Be Charterized

From the Buffalo News:

A new survey of students in Buffalo Public Schools reinforces the extent of the problems the district is facing – not in the classroom, but in the home.

Fourteen percent of high school students who took the survey said they have been beaten or physically harmed by a parent or adult while in their house.

Sixteen percent have lived with someone diagnosed as mentally ill or suicidal.

Nearly one out of four has lived with someone who was an alcoholic, drug abuser or problem gambler.

More than a third said they have seen someone in their neighborhood shot, stabbed or beaten.

And more than 37 percent said they had a parent or adult in their home swear at or insult them.

All of these are of course the fault of their teachers, who fail them on a daily basis, and keep them from having the kind of achievement they're all capable of if only their schools and teachers didn't suck.

Wanna bet when they charterize whole swaths of Buffalo that the students who are beaten or physically harmed at home, have an alcoholic or drug addict in the home, live in neighborhoods where people are shot or stabbed or have adults in the home with mental illness or who verbally abuse them will have to strictly tow the "No Excuses!" charter line or be dumped out of the charter district and back to whatever is left of the public school district?

Which is to say, charterizing a whole swath of Buffalo won't solve this mess.

But then again, charterizing public schools isn't about solving this kind of crisis or serving students.

It's about making money for the charter entrepreneurs and their politician pals who love the yummy yummy political donations they receive from the charter sector.

Cuomo Looking To Create A Special Charter School District

Buried at the bottom of this Buffalo News piece about how Governor Cuomo has "turned" on education policy is this doozy:

Cuomo has also expressed interest in Buffalo, at one point calling for a “death penalty” for schools and districts that fail to meet state standards. Last year, he was involved in conversations about mayoral control of the district, and was the force behind the new receivership law that provides a mechanism for turning individual schools over to outside entities. Some in reform circles say the law fell short by not creating a mechanism for the state to take over entire districts.

There is current speculation that the governor, who has enjoyed significant financial and political support in reform circles, may be looking to push for a charter district during the next legislative session. That would involve turning a portion of district schools over to an outside entity, although it is not clear whether it would be a charter school.

“One of the things the corporate reformers would like to see is the takeover of an entire district,” said Easton of AQE. “They want whole districts.”

With Cuomo's job approval numbers in the toilet (and they're still there - a new Siena poll out today has his approval down again) and his numbers on education even lower, he cannot try to push this kind of thing statewide without taking a political hit.

But to do it in a "struggling" district like Buffalo?

That's safe territory:

“The national and statewide politics have taken a U-turn because of pure voter sentiment,” said David C. Bloomfield, a professor of education leadership at Brooklyn College and the City University of New York Graduate Center. “The astounding 20 percent opt-out rate was a wake-up call that he had misread the electorate. It’s quite obvious that parents who vote in great numbers are aligned with the teachers’ position.”

...

Cuomo’s evolving education message, however, carries ramifications for other state leaders who embraced his earlier mantra, chief among them the new state education commissioner, MaryEllen Elia, who built her reputation on school reform.

It also could shift more focus to struggling urban school districts such as Buffalo, where Cuomo still could push for heavy-handed reforms, but alienate fewer voters than he would by forcing statewide changes.

“I don’t think he has any idea about education policy or proclivity about education policy,” Bloomfield said. “It’s all about politics.”

Indeed it is about the politics and Cuomo has a bunch of hedge fund managers/education reformers to make happy in return for all those yummy yummy political donations they give.

He cannot abandon reform completely, though he has signaled "retreat" on some things like teacher evaluations and testing (though it remains to be seen how real that "retreat" actually - so far, Cuomo has not released his education policy proposals for the next year.)

Thus going full speed ahead on reform in a place like Buffalo, where he won't take a hit politically from the suburban moms and dads pissed off about Common Core and the Endless Testing regime, looks to be the plan for the next year or so.

Barring criminal charges against him, of course.

If you're a teacher in Buffalo, look out.

Anybody Buying Hillary Clinton's Charter School Comments?

Finally! @HillaryClinton: Most charter schools don’t take hardest-to-teach kids or if they do they don’t keep them https://t.co/bdig2DJgeZ

— leonie haimson (@leoniehaimson) November 8, 2015

Don't see too many people on social media buying Clinton's comments about charter schools as anything other than expediency.

My take:

@Jeff_Bernstein Shows just how much has changed about charter narrative that she felt the need to say this.

— rbe (@perdidostschool) November 8, 2015

Make no mistake, the charter scandals from around the country, the "Got To Go" list pushout stories from NYC, the stories of abuse at charter chains like Success and Achievement First - these are doing serious damage to the charter narrative.

That Clinton's saying what she's saying doesn't mean she'll change the pro-charter policies from the Obama and Clinton administrations, of course.

Just that it's no longer a slam dunk talking point to declare charters the swellest thing ever.

Charter School Teachers Received "Guidance" For Families For Excellent Schools Rally

Eliza Shapiro at Politico NY reports that the charter school teachers who attended (were forced to attend?) yesterday's Families for Excellent Schools charter school teacher rally received some "guidance" from FES for how to conduct themselves at the rally:

Teachers did not take questions from reporters after the City Hall press conference, and FES executive director, Jeremiah Kittredge, did not take questions from reporters. NY1's Lindsey Christ reported that some teachers were given guidance on how to speak with reporters, including, "reporters often take sound bites, often out of context, and you could easily be quoted saying something in print you didn't actually mean in the way it was portrayed."

The rally itself still looked similar to the numerous other events FES has held.

Teachers were given the same free T-shirts (blue, emblazoned with the words "teacher activist") that their students typically wear at such events, along with sturdy-looking white tote bags. Rally marshals in neon green shirts handed out water bottles and hibiscus doughnuts from Dough, a popular Brooklyn bakery.

Teachers were also given matching blue selfie sticks and encouraged to tweet their pictures with the FES hashtag #DontStealPossible, and asked to pose in front of a banner reading "Teachers for Equality." Teachers formed a long line in front of the banner to collect their printed pictures.

FES has released a series of anti-de Blasio ads in the last several weeks, one of which critics have called racist.

Highly controlled, highly coordinated, expensive and no questions from the press - that's how these Families for Excellent Schools events go.

UFT President Michael Mulgrew, in a statement in response to the rally, noted that given the teacher turnover rate at charter schools, one-third of yesterday's rally attendees won't be teaching at their charter school next year.

That's a pretty apt response.

No school system that controls its teachers and puts them through the burn and churn the way many charters do is sustainable or workable for the school system at large.

One final point - it's a shame FES executive director Kittredge stopped taking questions from the press.

He did such a great job of it last March at that Albany rally with Ashanti.

Carl Heastie Acknowledges Even A "Super Teacher" Can't Break The Ravages Of Poverty, Mental Illness, Outside Issues

Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie suggested to the Times-Union that success in school may be a little more complex than "It's the teacher's fault!":

In a wide-ranging interview with the Times Union editorial board on Monday, Heastie said it's high time lawmakers and others looked at students' lives inside and outside the classroom when it comes to addressing education.

"I really think that we shouldn't be looking at education alone anymore or mental health alone anymore or poverty alone anymore. I think that we have to look at the total family structure and see why it is that students are going into school not prepared for these challenges," the speaker said. "And I think a lot of it has to do with what's going on at home and their neighborhoods. Even super teacher may not be able to get through to a student whose life outside of school has issues."

...

"It's anti-poverty legislation, mental health, social services, minimum wage, all of these things that can change the outcome and plights of families," he said.

Heastie's allied with the teachers unions, so it's not a surprise that what he said to the Times-Union sounds like it could have been said by Randi Weingarten or Michael Mulgrew as they pushed for community schools that offer social and health services to students.

Nonetheless it is good to have one of the three men in the room state this publicly, though you can bet the other two men in the room (Cuomo, Flanagan) won't acknowledge any such thing.

Not that Heavy Heart Carl will do anything about it - last legislative session was heavy on the "Blame The Teachers/Blame The Schools" items, with standardized tests now counting for 50% of a teacher's evaluation, tenure gutted by two consecutive "ineffective" ratings, and the state getting receivership powers over "struggling" and "persistently struggling" schools.

The governor and his education reform donor pals wanted that legislative and that's exactly what they got it.

The only thing Heastie and his Assembly Heavy Hearts held on were Cuomo's beloved school voucher program that would have allowed him to steal even more money from public schools and give it to private schools.

As it is, Cuomo still managed to steer hundreds of millions of extra dollars the way of the private school sector and of course none of the new "accountability measures" for public schools count for charters.

So what Heastie says about taking a holistic approach to education, that's nice to hear, but in reality, it will have no bearing on our teaching or students' learning.

This coming school year will be another "Blame The Teachers/Blame The Schools" year thanks to Governor Cuomo, State Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan and Heavy Heart Heastie.

NYSED Commissioner MaryEllen Elia Says Money Not The Issue For Struggling Schools

NYSED Commissioner MaryEllen Elia continued her "I'm Not Listening To You" tour today, showing some "tough love" for administrators and officials of struggling schools: 

New state Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia met with school adminstrators from around the state Wednesday who had gathered to discuss the new and controversial receivership program that raises the possibility that some of the state’s lowest-performing schools could end up being taken out of local district control and turned over to groups like non-profits or charter operators.

Her remarks to the at-times skeptical local officials were part pep talk and part tough love.

...

Responding to the oft-voiced complaint that the state’s poor performing schools need more money, she said that she didn’t devise the funding formulas and that school improvement is about more than dollars and cents.

“Money is not the whole deal here,” she said, adding that schools need to look at, tap and coordinate all of the resources in their community including volunteer groups and others not formally part of the education system.

“There have been millions of dollars put into these schools and they are still on that list,” she said of the lowest performing schools, which are dubbed ”struggling” or “persistently struggling.”

Elia may not have devised the funding formulas for school districts but that doesn't mean they're not a huge problem.

Take this 2010 study by Rutgers about school funding in New York:

New York State ranks near the bottom of the country in how fairly it funds its schools, asserts a new Rutgers University report released Tuesday.

Only four other states have a bigger gap between how much money they send to their poorest schools compared with their wealthiest ones, researchers at Rutgers and the Education Law Center in New Jersey found.

"It really gives us pause," said Geri Palast, head of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, the group that filed a successful lawsuit in the 1990s to force the state to fund poor schools more equitably.
New York spends more on education overall than most other states, but researchers call its funding methods "regressive."

Wealthy districts rely on high property taxes to fund their schools - a luxury many poor districts do not have.

As a result, in 2008, a New York school district with no poor kids received about $17,000 per student in local and state aid, while one with at least 30% of the students living in poverty got about $14,000 per student.

 Or this more recent report from January 2015:

ALBANY — In the opening salvo of what promises to be a heated battle this year over education reform, a new report says funding inequities between poor and rich school districts across the state has reached record levels under Gov. Cuomo - and has soared 43% in New York City.

Overall, schools in poorer districts spent $8,733 per pupil less in 2012 than those from wealthier ones, an inequity that grew by nearly 9% from before Cuomo took office in 2011, according to the study by a coalition of education advocacy groups opposing many of the reforms pushed by Cuomo.

While the 100 wealthiest districts spent on average more than $28,000 in state and local funding per kid in 2012, the 100 poorest districts in the state spent closer to $20,000 per student, the report found.

The report, obtained by the Daily News, is set to be released Monday. The coalition includes the Alliance for Quality Education, which is backed by the powerful teachers unions, the Public Policy and Education Fund of New York, Opportunity Action, and National Opportunity to Learn.

...


The inequity gaps were made worse by nearly $400 per pupil, the report says, after Cuomo won a 2% cap on local property tax increases that made it more difficult for needy districts to raise needed money, the report says.

...

The inequality has made it tougher to attack poor education results in high-need districts, where graduation rates dramatically lag behind those in richer districts, the report says.

But MaryEllen Elia says money isn't the issue with struggling schools.

You know, all the problems can be solved with a little tough love, some volunteers from the community and the firing of entire school staffs.

Hey, NYSUT, how's that collaboration and consensus thing going with MaryEllen Elia?

Jeb Bush Calls For Merit Pay For Federal Employees, Disruption For Federal Government

Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush laid out a plan today to "disrupt" the federal government if he is elected president, saying that he will cut the federal workforce by 10% and institute merit pay for government workers:

In a speech on Monday in Florida, the Republican presidential candidate unveiled his plan for "disrupting" Washington by downsizing the federal government.

Bush's plan takes aim at the federal budget. He proposes cutting the number of federal employees by at least 10% and radically overhauling the budget process to require a balanced budget, a controversial prescription popular with the conservative base.

"It will not be my intention to preside over the establishment, but in every way I know to disrupt that establishment and make it accountable to the people," Bush said.

...

Bush says that he will institute a policy of hiring one employee for every three who leave when it comes to federal hiring, with the exception of national-security related jobs. Bush suggested that federal agencies shouldn't replace many workers who retire — according to the governor, 10% of the federal workforce will retire within the next five years, and "not everyone who leaves has to be replaced."

And then there's this:

• Merit pay. Bush claims too many mediocre federal employees are being paid the same as exemplary employees. Though he didn't delve too far into specifics on this point, the former Florida governor said that he'll make it easier to fire bad federal employees.

It seems both the rhetoric and policies of Jeb's education reform agenda will now be leveled at the federal government and federal workers too.

Can "turnarounds" for federal departments be far behind?

Maybe receivership for some federal departments, with goals to be hit or the whole thing gets turned over to a non-profit charter entity?

Oh, the ideas for bringing education reform ideas to Washington government are limitless.

How exciting! 

What "Master" Teacher Would Go Work In A "Struggling School"?

NYSED released a list of 144 schools around the state that have been placed into receivership, with 61 here in NYC:

The New York State Education Department announced on Thursday that 144 underperforming schools, nearly half of which are in New York City, will enter receivership, a new designation that puts pressure on the de Blasio administration to show improvement at the city’s most troubled schools, and to do so quickly.

The program was one of several education reforms hammered out during budget negotiations this spring. Under the deal, schools are placed into two categories, “struggling schools,” those in the bottom 5 percent of schools in the state for three years, based on measures like test scores and graduation rates, and “persistently struggling schools,” which have been in that bracket since 2006.

For the first years of receivership, the superintendent — or, in the case of New York City, Carmen Fariña, the schools chancellor — will be the receiver. As receivers, they will have the authority to make changes, like lengthening the school day or year and requiring teachers to reapply for their jobs.

Struggling schools will have two years to make “demonstrable” improvement in areas like graduation rates and attendance; persistently struggling schools will have one year to do so. If they do not, an outside receiver, like a nonprofit group, will be chosen by the district superintendent or chancellor to oversee the schools. That receiver must be approved by the state, which has set aside an additional $75 million for the schools.

The list of those schools is here.

There are an awful lot of Queens high schools on that list.

Also a lot of schools in Buffalo.

Here is initial thrust of the program while these schools remain in local receivership:

Under the receivership law, a school receiver is granted new authority to, among other things, develop a school intervention plan; convert schools to community schools providing wrap-around services; expand the school day or school year; and remove staff and/or require staff to reapply for their jobs in collaboration with a staffing committee.

But the ultimate goal is "independent receivership," i.e., an outside entity brought in by NYSED to take over these schools from the local district and convert them to charter schools.

That will happen for schools deemed "persistently struggling" after one year where they are deemed by the state of not improving.

Schools deemed "struggling" have two years before "independent receivership."

And just who are these independent receivers?

Independent receivers, who can be an individual, a not-for-profit organization, or another school district, have sole responsibility to manage and operate the school and have all of the enhanced authority of a school receiver.  Independent receivers are appointed for up to three school years and serve under contract with the Commissioner.
 
As with Persistently Struggling Schools, the independent receiver appointed by the district must be approved by the Commissioner, and the Commissioner will make the appointment if an acceptable receiver is not selected by the district.

NYSUT was busy praising new NYSED Commissioner MaryEllen Elia last week, but her first big step this week is aimed at firing teachers and privatizing schools as allowed by Cuomo's "Schools Death Penalty Budget of 2015."

Harris Lirtzman left an astute comment on the efficacy of this reform program:

Every single one of these schools is in NYC, Buffalo, Rochester, Yonkers, Syracuse, Albany or Islip/Bellevue in Long Island. Jeez, that's really a surprise.

We all know that the only example where "receivership" supposedly does anything for struggling schools is the short-term and very limited improvement in the Lawrence, MA school district. As with every other element of the reformista program--which claims to prize "data," "accountability," "evidence" and "research" above all else--none of that really matters when the reformistas just want to do something.

Beyond that, where are all the magical teachers going to come from to staff these schools when their current rosters get dumped into the ATR in New York City and straight fired everywhere else? Will the State give the "receivers" special wands and hocus-pocus powers to make magical teachers appear from thin air? What "master" teacher anywhere would transfer to any of these schools when the State accountability system will turn a "master" teacher into a "developing" teacher in one year?

Indeed, what "master" teacher would go teach in one of these schools and end up "developing" or "ineffective" the next year under the state's punitive, test-centric teacher evaluation system?

It's, to continue with one of Andrew Cuomo's favorite analaogies for what should happen to "bad schools," the "death penalty" for a teacher's career, since two years of consecutive "ineffective" ratings can get you fired and three years of them will get you fired.

Cuomo's "Death Penalty Program" for struggling and persistently struggling schools is going to bring a lot of destabilization in the next couple of years before most of these schools are ultimately turned over to independent receivers and privatized.

And of course that was always the goal of Cuomo's reform plans - to "bust" the public school "monopoly," to destabilize public education and to privatize public schools.

Success Academy Board Member Daniel Loeb Hosts $5,000 A Head Fundraiser For Andrew Cuomo

Governor Cuomo came through for charter schools once again this legislative session, raising the charter cap by 180 and imposing a ton of new mandates on public schools that do not count for charters (i.e., the teacher evaluation system.)

And so the charter school supporters will pay Cuomo back for his political largesse:

Hedge fund manager and charter school advocate Daniel Loeb is standing by Governor Andrew Cuomo.

On the evening of Saturday July 11, he and his wife Margaret Munzer Loeb will host a fund-raiser for Cuomo at their residence in East Hampton, according to an invitation sent out to multiple donors and acquired by Capital.

Individual tickets for what is billed as an "intimate reception" will cost $5,000 each, though host committee sponsorships "are available."

Loeb had no comment as to why he was fund-raising for the governor.

He and his wife have donated to the governor in the past.

The Third Point C.E.O. serves on the board of StudentsFirstNY, a pro-charter advocacy group whose board members also include former schools chancellor Joel Klein and Success Academy Charter Schools founder Eva Moskowitz.

Loeb also chairs Success Academy's board and is one of Moskowitz's most stalwart supporters and defenders.

The hedge fund managers/charter school supporters started paying Cuomo off with cash before he ran for governor and it continues all the way until today.

He's gotten more than $4.8 million dollars in contributions from 570 hedge fund managers since 2000.

In addition, some of those same hedge fund managers contributed millions to a charter school shell group called Families For Excellent Schools that ran ads and lobbied for charter causes on Cuomo's behalf. FES was the winner in "Who Spent The Most Money Lobbying?" competition, dropping $9.7 million in 2014 on lobbying expenditures.

Then there was the shadowy group called the Committee To Save New York that spent millions on pro-Cuomo ads touting the governor's agenda. The group raised $12 million dollars from just 20 donors to help Cuomo out politically.

CSNY closed up shop when the law was changed and donors and contributors had to be revealed, but you can bet that there were some of the same names on the CSNY list that are on the Families For Excellent Schools, Students FirstNY and Success Academies list.

And let's not forget that StudentsFirstNY helped create New Yorkers For A Balanced Albany, an independent expenditure committee that dropped $4.2 million in support of a Republican takeover of the New York State Senate - having Republicans in charge in the state Senate has helped Cuomo push through his pro-charter, anti-public school agenda.

Judging from how much they've paid him over the years and how they continue to pay him now, shilling for charter schools and education has been a very profitable enterprise for Andrew Cuomo.

Education Reformer Jeanne Allen Says Baltimore Riots Are A Call For More Charter Schools

A picture of a deleted tweet by Jeanne Allen, founder of the Center for Education Reform:

So public schools are one of the causes of the civil unrest in Baltimore?

Uh, huh.

Here's one response:

@EdgeofSports @alexisgoldstein @sarahljaffe @JeanneAllen So Baltimore has 31 charter schools. How many more will it take to "save" the city?
— Michelle Arnson (@MEGArnson) April 28, 2015

And of course Allen's Center For Education Reform (she is now president-emeritus of the organization) lives off the "philanthropy" money:

So @JeanneAllen seems to have blocked me and deleted the tweet. Big org, $2.5 mil from Walton for ed in 4 years -> pic.twitter.com/h83pF15H2y
— Kombiz Lavasany (@kombiz) April 28, 2015

Allen is a long-time proponent of public school privatization - here's her supporting the takeover of Philadelphia public schools by the for-profit Edison Schools:

Jeanne Allen, president of the Center for Education Reform, understands the enthusiasm for privatization in areas where public education has failed dismally. These companies are willing to be held accountable for their performance by contract.

"It's very refreshing for people for whom failure in public education presents a sense of urgency," she said.

Clearly Allen is on board with using whatever means necessary to hand over the public schools to her charter entrepreneur pals and sugar daddies.

This tweet sums things up:

.@JeanneAllen is out here using Freddie Gray's death as a vehicle to push charter schools. Disgusting pic.twitter.com/zfBZOcqmuj
— Brian Fleurantin (@BrFleurantin) April 28, 2015

Indeed.

Merryl Tisch To Andrew Cuomo: Let's Fire More Teachers, Raise Charter Cap In New York City

Clearly Regents Chancellor Tisch, acting NYSED Commissioner Beth Berlin and Governor Cuomo are all on the same page when it comes to next year's education reform agenda.

Here are the details of Tisch's reply to Cuomo's letter earlier this month asking about education reform issues to pursue this next legislative session:

The letter from Chancellor Merryl Tisch , who heads the New York Board of Regents, was also signed by Beth Berlin, who will become acting commissioner of the State Education Department on Jan. 3. It urged lawmakers to:

• Expedite cases to dismiss teachers, by replacing the group of independent contractors who hear these cases with a new state office to do so. This would give the state more control over who decides these cases and limit expensive delays, the letter said. Now unions and district officials must agree on the choice of arbitrators.
• Change the burden of proof in a dismissal case so that a teacher with two consecutive poor ratings is presumed incompetent.
• Extend the time it takes to get tenure to five years. Now it usually takes three years of acceptable service.
• Make teacher evaluations more stringent and consistent statewide by reducing certain measures in them that are negotiated by districts through collective bargaining.
• Continue mayoral control of New York City schools after it expires in June.
• Raise the cap on the number of charter schools.
• Add more money to grant programs that boost the pay of talented teachers who take on leadership roles, or work in high-poverty schools or hard-to-staff subjects.
• Enable districts to come up with compensation plans that reward excellence. Unions generally back salary scales that increase pay by longevity.
• Give the state more power to restructure, and in some cases replace, chronically failing schools. One idea is appointing a receiver to take charge.

The details around the charter cap in Tisch's letter go like this:

And sound advice from Tisch on lifting the state's charter-school cap. pic.twitter.com/tn0LK5Q9uq
— Josh Greenman (@joshgreenman) December 31, 2014

More later.

Cuomo Says His Education Reform Agenda Will Be 2015 Priority

Gov. #Cuomo talking with the media, says education will be a priority in 2015, as @nysut rallies outside mansion pic.twitter.com/jU3L19fTZp
— Haley Viccaro (@HRViccaro) December 31, 2014

When he says education will be a priority in 2015, he means this:

ALBANY — Vowing to break “one of the only remaining public monopolies,” Gov. Cuomo on Monday said he’ll push for a new round of teacher evaluation standards if re-elected.

Cuomo, during a meeting with the Daily News Editorial Board, said better teachers and competition from charter schools are the best ways to revamp an underachieving and entrenched public education system.

“I believe these kinds of changes are probably the single best thing that I can do as governor that’s going to matter long-term,” he said, “to break what is in essence one of the only remaining public monopolies — and that’s what this is, it’s a public monopoly.”

In short, Cuomo stayed true to his promise to destroy New York public schools.

Dunno about you, but that's how I read a statement the statement that he plans to "break" the public school "monopoly."

The fight is on.

NYSED Commissioner John King Wants To Eliminate Charter Cap In NYC

No surprise here - the pro-charter commissioner of the State Education Department wants more charters for New York City:

State Education Commissioner John King is going out with a bang — recommending that Gov. Cuomo and the Legislature totally scrap restrictions on how many charter schools can open in New York.

“The cap shouldn’t be an obstacle to opening high-quality schools,” King, who is stepping down as New York’s schools’ chief to take a post in the Obama administration, told The Post. “One solution could be eliminating the cap completely.”

Cuomo asked King and Regents Chancellor Tisch questions on a whole host education policy issues, including the charter cap and expansion of charters for NYC, in a "letter" from his state operations to director to the education leaders of the state.

Well, the pro-charter commissioner just responded.

Eliminate the cap completely and charterize the entire city.

King told the post if eliminating the cap was too difficult, then rearranging it so more charters can open here is another solution.

But you can see where this is ultimately going.

They want to turn New York City into New Orleans - unlimited and cancerous charter growth.

Daily News Praises Merryl Tisch For School Closure Threats Even As She Fails To Take Responsibility For Ted Morris Fiasco

Daily News today:

New York’s top education official has sent a timely shot across the city’s bow — warning that school renewal plans unveiled by Mayor de Blasio may well fall short of the genuine accountability the state has every right to demand.

Cheers to Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch for clarifying that kids will never be rescued from failing schools if the worst teachers remain in their classrooms.

...

 In stepped Tisch, saying bluntly that “if we do not see movement with these lowest-performing schools in terms of their ability to retool their workforces by the spring” — that’s this spring — “we will move to close them.”

These schools, Tisch said correctly, “have failed for generations now.”

“It’s not just saying, ‘We’re gonna fix these schools,’ ” she said. “You’ve got to give the new principals and assistant principals the ability to hire the teachers that they want and fire the teachers that they don’t want.”

Ah, yes - Tisch is happy to tell Mayor de Blasio to close public schools and fire the teachers in those schools or she'll step in as a state entity and do it for him.

Meanwhile, she shirks blame for the "Dr." Ted Morris Jr. mess, passing the buck onto the local Regents and NYSED for the state's approval of a charter school with a lead applicant who lied about having a BA, an MA, a Ph.D, an MSW and starting three non-profits since he was ten years old.

Mercedes Schneider wrote a scathing post last night that exposes the lack of due diligence that the state did on this charter application and notes that both the Regents Chancellor and the current lieutenant governor, Robert Duffy, are making excuses for why Morris, the con man, got a charter.

She finishes her post with this:

For at least three years– 2012, 2013, and 2014– Morris has been misrepresenting himself to NYSED and, by extension, to Regents and the citizens of Rochester.

He clearly meant to do so.

Others found him out; otherwise, it is almost certain Morris would have continued in his lies.
Morris has been exposed– and with him both NYSED’s and Regents’ failure to properly investigate the charters they have approved.

Time to step up, Tisch:

At least ask to see evidence of NYSED’s having verified lead applicant credentials before stamping your “aggressive” approval.

The Daily News of course ignores the whole Morris fiasco because it doesn't play into their "Tisch is the adult in the room" frame for the closure threat story.

Tisch's refusal to take responsibility for the Morris fiasco, her passing the buck onto the local Regents and NYSED for handing a fraudster a charter school, shows she is NOT the adult in the room, that she only pushes her authority as chancellor when it suits her agenda.

As a pro-charter, anti-public school reformer, Tisch isn't interested in holding Ted Morris, Greater Works Charter School, NYSED, the local Regents, herself or the charter approval process accountable for the Morris mess.

She is, however, happy to hold Mayor de Blasio, Chancellor Farina and the teachers in NYC schools accountable for "improvement" of performance by spring or she's going to step in and force closure of some schools.

Apparently only unionized teachers and their schools are to be held accountable in Merryl Tisch's New York.

GOP Majority In State Senate, With Help Of IDC, Will Push For More Charter Schools, Vouchers, Social Program Cuts

Ken Lovett in the Daily News:

Senate Republican Leader Dean Skelos said his conference in the upcoming year will aggressively push for new tax cuts, reduced business regulations, and education alternatives.

Skelos, during a Sunday morning radio appearance on supermarket mogul and and former mayoral candidate John Catsimatidis' AM 970 radio show, made it clear he believes voters this past week rejected much of the progressive agenda the Democrats had pushed.

...

He spoke of the need to adequately fund the traditional public school system while at the same time making clear that charter schools need to be part of the solution, particularly in minority communities.

Skelos also said he will push to help parochial schools. While he didn't specifically reference it, the Senate GOP and Catholic Church last year pushed for enactment of an education investment tax credit that was blocked by the Assembly Democrats.

Skelos also hinted his conference might take aim at various state-funded social programs, saying they should only be available to those who "truly" need them in order to give them a "helping hand up, not a hand down."

He reiterated he believes his conference will work closely with Sen. Jeffrey Klein and his group of breakaway Democrats. He didn't say exactly what form that would take. The past two years, with the Republicans lacking enough members to make up its own majority, the GOP and Independent Democratic Conference formed an unprecedented bipartisan governing coalition to run the chamber.

The blueprint is being laid out for all to see:

The State Senate GOP majority, with the help of the Independent Democratic Conference, will push for an increase or complete elimination of the charter cap, they will push for a voucher program to further undercut the public school system, and they will look to cut social programs to people in need in order to fund more tax cuts for the wealthy.

Yesterday Jimmy Vielkind reported that Independent Democratic Conference head Jeff Klein said it's time to rethink what it means to be a Democrat:

“I think we have to take a step back, also, and maybe redefine what it means to be a Democrat.”

Since Klein and his fellow Democrats in the IDC plan on joining with the State Senate Republican majority in order to push through pro-charter school proposals, voucher programs, and social program cuts for people in need in order to fund tax cuts for rich people, we do indeed need to "redefine what it means to be a Democrat."

It seems to me that since Klein, Governor Cuomo and so many other Democrats push Republican programs and policies these days, the redefinition of "Democrat" is "Republican."

What Charter School Backers And Education Reformers May Plan For Their Next Assault On The Public Schools

With Governor Cuomo winning 54% of the vote last night while many Democrats around the nation  were either losing their races or barely squeaking out wins, Cuomo is going to claim he's got a mandate to govern as a centrist - conservative on economic issues, liberal on social issues:

On education issues, he's already warned New Yorkers he plans to "break" the public school "monopoly" and revise the APPR teacher evaluation system to make it even more punitive for teachers.

You know that agenda is coming as soon as January.

Charter operators have long said they're aiming at the charter cap next legislative session.

Expect Cuomo to push either an increase to the cap or a complete elimination of it.

And then there's this - charter backers dropped a lot of money in Senate campaigns these past months, and they're going to want payback:

One part of that payback?

Continuing to undercut mayoral control of NYC schools to benefit charter schools and eat away de Blasio's power:

De Blasio is going to have to contend with a GOP majority that used him as a foil in its upstate races, running ads that warned voters against restoring the NYC-dominated Democrats and their radical liberal friends to power.

Two big fights loom this year in Albany that concern de Blasio considerably: Mayoral control of the NYC school system and the NYC rent laws, both of which are set to expire in June.

Charter school interests that was to see de Blasio’s power over the school system weakened and real estate interests that want to see the status quo maintained in the rent laws spent big money to help the Senate Republicans and Cuomo in this election cycle.

The Senate GOP’s victory last night, coupled with de Blasio’s rocky relationship with the governor do not bode well for the mayor in the 2015 legislative session.

When there was a charter-friendly mayor in office in NYC, charter backers loved mayoral control.

Now that there's a less charter-friendly mayor in power, they continue to want to undercut mayoral control - but only in ways that benefit charters or the education reform movement.

With charters subject to comptroller audit after last year's budget, I can see charter operators looking to undercut that accountability mechanism.

That might be a sideline to the re-do on mayoral control here - do away with the auditing power of the state and city comptrollers and put accountability responsibility on dependable charter friendly entities - like the SUNY charter board or the Regents.

It's going to be a rough two years if you're a student, parent of a student or teacher in a traditional public school.

The governor has vowed to break your school, he's got a State Senate ready to help him and there are a lot of money favors legislators are going to have to return to the charter industry after this last election cycle.

That means boom times for charters and education reformers.

How Randi Weingarten And Other Union Leaders Help Andrew Cuomo Bring The "Death Penalty" To New York's Public School System

Last year, Andrew Cuomo promised to bring the "death penalty" to "failing schools."

This year, Andrew Cuomo has called the public school system a "monopoly" which he plans to "break" in his second term.

Cuomo doesn't seem to like teachers any more than he seems to like public schools.

Cuomo has promoted a punitive teacher evaluation system that superintendents in the Lower Hudson Valley have said is a disaster that needs to be changed as soon as possible as one of the best in the nation.

Last month, Cuomo said that teacher evaluation system needs to be revised because too many teachers are being rated "effective" or "highly effective" with it.

Last week, a highly-respected 17 year teaching veteran filed suit against the NYSED commissioner after she was rated "ineffective" in this system as a result of her students' test scores - even though her students' test scores were high in comparison with other students' scores around the state.

Last week, Cuomo promised to make the teacher evaluation system that rated a highly respected teacher "ineffective" even more punitive by adding "real sanctions" to it.

Last week, AFT President Randi Weingarten defended Cuomo's "monopoly" comments by saying they were "campaign rhetoric."

Cuomo made these comments twice - he doubled down after the Daily News first reported them - so the comments seem less like "campaign rhetoric," more like campaign promises.

Yet Randi was running interference for Cuomo even as she was also mounting a symbolic battle against TIME Magazine over a cover they ran about teacher tenure.

This wasn't the first time Randi Weingarten helped out her buddy Andy during the election cycle.

Back in the spring, Weingarten, along with UFT President Michael Mulgrew, engineered a putsch within the NYSUT to toss out the old NYSUT leadership when it started to show guts and take on Cuomo over issues and replace them with a more Cuomo-compliant leadership.

Also last spring, union leaders put pressure on the Working Families Party to endorse Andrew Cuomo over Fordham President Zephyr Teachout when they threatened the party with dissolution and financial ruin if Teachout were given the party's ballot line.

You can be sure the UFT was not part of that pressure on WFP without Weingarten's okay.

This September, when internal polling showed Teachout's running mate, Tim Wu, with a real shot to beat Cuomo's banker lobbyist running mate, Kathy Hochul, in the primary, Weingarten joined NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio in making robocalls for Cuomo's running mate, Hochul.

Hochul won her primary - Wu said the momentum in the campaign turned against him when the robocalls started.

This morning on Twitter, Randi Weingarten defended her defense of Andrew Cuomo's comments, saying she had criticized him and what more could she be expected to do?


Well, what she has done is quite clear - and quite helpful to Andrew Cuomo.

To reiterate:

She helped engineer a putsch against the old NYSUT leadership and helped install a new, Cuomo-compliant leadership at NYSUT.

She helped other union leaders push for a Working Families Party endorsement for Andrew Cuomo, a huge thing that meant Cuomo wouldn't have to worry about a third party candidate from the left during the general election (and multiple polls had shown Cuomo losing a lot of support if that happened.)

She made robocalls for Cuomo's bank lobbyist running mate when it looked like she might lose and helped the bankster lobbyist win her primary.

And now she defends Cuomo's plan to "break" public schools by calling the comments (which he made twice) "campaign rhetoric."

As I noted above, Cuomo has promised to bring the "death penalty" to schools he considers "failing" - and from comments he made this week, he seems to think the entire public school system around the state is failing.

When Cuomo "breaks" the school system, when he takes a sledgehammer to the public schools and gives them the "death penalty," that sledgehammer will have the fingerprints of AFT President Randi Weingarten on it.

Cuomo Doubles Down On "Public Schools Are A Monopoly" Statement

Just in case you thought maybe the Daily News took Governor Cuomo out of context when they quoted him saying that public schools are a "monopoly" that he plans to "break" in his second term, there is this from today:

A firestorm ignited between several state public education advocacy groups and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo over remarks he made to the New York Daily News editorial board published Monday—in which he threatened to “break” what he deemed “one of the only remaining public monopolies,” New York’s public school system—grew hotter Wednesday, with more groups joining in his criticism.

Cuomo vowed to offer competition to public schools in order to raise the bar on the current education system via an expansion of charter schools and punitive teacher evaluation systems if re-elected. He dismissed educators’ and parents’ concerns about tying teacher evaluations to standardized test scores—a practice that has come under enormous scrutiny since the botched roll-out of the Common Core curriculum two years ago.

Despite the initial backlash, Cuomo reiterated the controversial statements later that day during a tour of Mineola Middle School intended to showcase his Smart Schools Act proposal, which would provide up to $2 billion in tech funding for schools throughout the state if approved by public referendum on Nov. 4.

 “As governor, I’ve probably spent more of my time trying to change the education system than anything else,” Cuomo told reporters after a briefing on the funding plan. “Why? It is very hard to change the education system. When you think about it, it’s probably the single-largest public monopoly in the United States of America.”

There you have it - Cuomo has doubled down on the threat to "break" the public school monopoly in his next term.

The threat is real and it WILL happen unless parents, teachers and public school advocates mobilize to stop him.

Cuomo CAN be beaten in this fight - make no mistake about that.

But beating him will require a coordinated effort.

Remember that Wall Street, the corporate deformers and the corporate journalists will be with him in this fight.

Andrew Cuomo's Plans To Destroy New York State's Public Schools

After months of carefully not telling anybody what he planned to do in his second term as governor of New York, Andrew M. Cuomo let the cat out of the bag yesterday on education when he gave an interview to the New York Daily News editorial board in which he called the public school system a "monopoly" which he plans to "break" through "competition."

The "competition" Cuomo plans is to add as many charter schools as he can into the state, starve the public schools of funds so that he can give that money to the charter operators (many of whom are his donors) and add even more rules and regulations to the public school system that charter schools don't have to abide by.

There is a charter cap in New York that limits charter growth, a cap that charters are quickly coming up against.

Charter operators have talked for months about how they plan to have that cap increased or lifted completely and they've said Cuomo is just the man to give them what they want.

Charter operators have donated much money to Cuomo to curry favor with him, but Cuomo has already shown a desire to help them as much as he can.

Last spring, he backed Eva Moskowitz and the charter operators in a showdown with NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio over co-locations, helping Moskowitz to put together a pro-charter rally in Albany at which he spoke, then pushing through new rules in the budget that force NYC to co-locate every future charter school or pay rent for private space for them.

Cuomo told the Daily News the following that indicates he will either increase the charter cap in the next budget or get rid of it completely:

Vowing to break “one of the only remaining public monopolies,” Gov. Cuomo on Monday said he’ll push for a new round of teacher evaluation standards if re-elected.

Cuomo, during a meeting with the Daily News Editorial Board, said better teachers and competition from charter schools are the best ways to revamp an underachieving and entrenched public education system.

“I believe these kinds of changes are probably the single best thing that I can do as governor that’s going to matter long-term,” he said, “to break what is in essence one of the only remaining public monopolies — and that’s what this is, it’s a public monopoly.”

He said the key is to put “real performance measures with some competition, which is why I like charter schools.”

That sure sounds like Cuomo wants to spur unfettered charter school growth in his next four years - and in Andrew Cuomo's New York State, that unfettered charter growth will come at the expense of public schools.

Funding is a zero sum game these days after Cuomo instituted a tax cap that limits how much money towns and cities can raise for public education.

When Cuomo forces his unfettered charter school growth plan on towns and cities across the state, the funds for those charters will come from the public school kitty - just as is happening in New York City where the NYCDOE is on the hook for the rent for all future charter schools.

So far, the city is paying millions of dollars for rent for two Eva Moskowitz charters - each student costs the city $18,000 in rent at these two charters.

That's on top of the money the city already provides Eva for educating those students - the total comes to nearly $32,000 a student.

That money comes directly from the public school kitty - those are funds public schools and public school kids could have had that Moskowitz now gets so she can pay herself $600,000 a year and spend millions on advertising and political donations.

Cuomo plans to take that zero sum funding game statewide next, forcing public schools to "compete" with charter schools for the funding and the students - even though the game is rigged in favor of the charters.

And boy is it ever rigged.

You see, charter don't have to abide by the same rules and regulations as public schools.

They can get rid of students they don't want at any time.

They don't have to take every student who applies.

When students leave charters, charters don't have to replace them with new students - this is why graduating classes at charters are vastly smaller than classes in the earlier grades.

Finally they don't have to live with the same regulations - charters, for example, are not subject to the same evaluation system Cuomo shoved on the public schools in the state, nor will they be subject to the revised edition he plans for the next term:

Cuomo said he will push a plan that includes more incentives — and sanctions — that “make it a more rigorous evaluation system.”

Cuomo expects fierce opposition from the state’s teachers, who are already upset with him and have refused to endorse his re-election bid.

“The teachers don’t want to do the evaluations and they don’t want to do rigorous evaluations — I get it,” Cuomo said. “I feel exactly opposite.”

Cuomo in 2012 won enactment of a new system tying teacher performance to the Common Core curriculum testing results.

Schools are already struggling under a mess of an evaluation system that superintendents in the Lower Hudson Valley say is worse than useless because it takes so much time and energy to implement but does little to improve teaching.


Cuomo plans to make that system worse for public schools - but not for charters, which don't have to abide by this system.

So there's his plan to destroy the public school system around the state.

I wrote earlier today that he CAN be stopped at this - he is weaker now than he has ever been as governor and political pressure can be mounted to oppose his plans.

But we have to start organizing now - tell as many people as you can about Cuomo's plans to destroy the public school system and replace it with a privatized charterized system so that we can mount huge opposition to him in the coming months.

Why Cuomo Can Be Beat In His Coming Assault On Public Education

At the end of Jeff Smith's entertaining and astute review of Andrew Cuomo's memoir comes this:

Ebola antics aside, Andrew Cuomo will win reelection comfortably next week, but he has almost never looked weaker, especially with an open federal investigation grinding away. And that’s a fact that he’ll have plenty of time to chew over during the months ahead, as he and Ms. Lee nibble on fresh, locally sourced home-cooked meals at the Governor’s Mansion for the next four years.

Under investigation by a federal prosecutor and publicly warned by the same federal prosecutor to stop tampering with that investigation.

A punchline on The Daily Show for his fumbling, stumbling Ebola response this past week.

Reviled by people on the left in the state, 34% of whom voted for Zephyr Teachout in September's primary - the highest total for any challenger to a sitting governor in a primary since the current system was first instituted.

Reviled by parents and educators for his education policies, many of whom are vowing to vote for one of Cuomo's two opponents next week - Republican Rob Astorino or Green Party candidate Howie Hawkins.

Cuomo attacked teachers and schools yesterday when he threatened to "break" the public school system and impose "more rigorous" teacher evaluations with "sanctions" on teachers already struggling under his nightmarish APPR evaluation system.

The NYSUT leadership waved a flag of surrender in the face of that attack.

The AFT and UFT response was muted as well.

So Cuomo's not going to get much pushback on his coming attacks from the union leaders.

But judging by the outrage I saw on the Internet and heard at school yesterday, he's going to get a lot from ordinary people.

And given all the other trouble Cuomo's got (and he's got trouble - his campaign has asked for helped from Bill Clinton this week on the campaign trail, suggesting his internal polling is showing a closer race than the public polls have so far shown), that pushback from ordinary people, teachers and parents, can stand for a lot.

This is NOT the Cuomo of the first term, with an 80% approval rating that allowed him to govern with a "My way or your roadkill" mentality.

This is the Cuomo under federal investigation, the Cuomo who groveled to the Working Families Party in May for their ballot line, then lost half the counties in the state in his primary anyway, the Cuomo who's become a punchline on TV and a punching bag in the newspapers.

This is the Cuomo so scared of his standing with the public that he attempted to look tough with his Ebola response and instead just looked weak and desperate.

This is the Cuomo in enough trouble in this election that he needs Bill Clinton to save him in the days before voting.

This is the Cuomo that CAN be beaten in a battle over education policy.