Chris Christie Booed "Mercilessly" By 61,000 People At Horse Race

Chris Christie said on TV today that he'd like to punch the teachers union in the face because "they are the single most destructive force in public education in America."

Christie then "got his" later in the day:

OCEANPORT — It was one long happy celebration at Monmouth Park for the great American Pharoah's latest victory. At least, that is, until Gov. Chris Christie stepped into the Winner's Circle to present the trophy.

And then, the record crowd of 60,983 booed.

Long.

Loud.

Sustained.

Maybe he should have hung around Bill Murray.

The cheering resumed as trainer Bob Baffert and owner Ahmed Zayat address the crowd and talking about their famous horse. Then Christie's name was mentioned again, and the booing started anew. 

So not even the popular Triple Crown winner, which went off as such a heavy favorite that a $2 bet won 20 cents, could improve the popularity of the Republican presidential candidate in his home state.

Lots of tweets about the booing, but here's my favorite:

Just won $85 and booed the shit out of Chris Christie #SundayFunday #AmericanPharoah

— Mike Deej (@mikedeej97) August 2, 2015

These days, Christie's popularity is somewhere between gonorrhea and jock itch.

The Daily News wrote the following about Christie in an editorial today:

Five years have passed since New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie killed a plan to build an additional passenger rail tunnel under the Hudson between his state and New York. He has done exactly nothing since then to face the most dire transportation crisis looming over the region.

Actually, that’s not true. Christie did divert $1.8 billion that the Port Authority had properly targeted for building the tunnel into improperly funding roadway repairs, including to the Pulaski Skyway.

Mr. Fiscally Prudent Republican Presidential Contender just didn’t have the bucks to cover the basics out of his own treasury.

Christie’s disastrous short-sightedness and financial mismanagement now threaten Jersey commuters with years of hell, and his state with a crippling economic blow that would be felt up and down the East Coast, including in New York.

And he thinks he has a shot at the White House?

Christie can replay old favorites and continue to beat up on teachers.

But that show isn't playing much anymore.

People in New Jersey despise him - he enjoys 36% job approval these days and 57% of New Jersey residents say he should resign.

Republicans who are polled about the primary despise him - he pulls in about 3% support.

And even the editorial boards at neo-liberal papers like the Daily News and the Newark Star-Ledger aren't buying his show anymore

Here's some advice from a teacher to Candidate Christie:

Have fun running for president, Chris, because that show will be over soon enough (most likely after you crash and burn in New Hampshire), and then its back to Jersey for a little hometown serenading.

You got a preview today. 

NYSUT DeclaresThe 2015 Legislative Session A Win, Says Lots More Wins To Come Next Time

From the "What drugs are these people on?" file:

The state’s largest teachers union said in a statement Friday that while there were “significant advances” for educators this session, they’ll be back next year for more.

The bill to end this year’s legislative session included several reforms to the state’s education policy coupled with rent regulations, property tax relief, and more.

Under the new law, test questions will be disclosed and available for teachers, though there have been conflicting reports as to whether they’re allowed to discuss it with colleagues and administrators.

A committee will also be tasked with reviewing curriculum, including the Common Core learning standards. Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan said yesterday they’ll be looking at whether state exams are age-appropriate and if the timeline of those tests is effective.

...

NYSUT chalks all of these changes of up as a win for this session, but says they’re committed to easing the burden on teachers and students that comes with state-mandated policies.

“The battle for the future of public education is far from over,” NYSUT said in a statement. “In concert with parents, NYSUT will continue to oppose over-testing, press for fair evaluations and redouble our efforts to provide students and educators, from pre-k through post-grad, with the tools they need to excel.”

The final deal did not include a delay for the development of a new teacher evaluation system, meaning districts who are not able to meet the requirements by the November deadline will have to apply for a waiver.

Lawmakers also ended up ditching a proposed $100 million for struggling schools as part of the deal, an idea pitched by Governor Cuomo earlier this month. Yonkers Public Schools will still receive $25 million in aid, but the remaining $75 million was left out.

But the governor did secure more aid for private and parochial schools. The Education Investment Tax Credit (or Parental Choice in Education Act) was not included, but $250 million will go to non-public schools to cover mandates from the state.

If this year's legislative session was a win with "significant advances," I'd hate to see what a loss looks like.

Let's review:

New evaluation system imposed by the governor meant to find more teachers "ineffective" and "developing" - Cuomo said the last one wasn't getting enough of those ratings.

Under the new system, test scores count for about 50% of a teacher's rating.

There is no delay on the new evaluation system deadline - it must be in place by November.

Teachers can now talk about the Common Core tests - but only after they have already been released to the public. 

NYSED has to put together a rubber stamp committee to review the Common Core standards - since the new NYSED commissioner is a huge fan, you can bet they won't find much wrong with them.

Cuomo had promised $100 million for "struggling" public schools north of NYC but instead came in with $250 million for private and parochial schools.

The charter cap was raised and charter schools can now save 15% of their slots for family members of employees and/or employees of the charter management organizations.

And of course none of the new evaluation changes count for charter schools - the new system only counts for public schools.

These are the "significant advances" NYSUT touts today.

Whatever they're smoking, it must be strong stuff because they're delusional about the "significant advances" and "wins" this session.

As usual, everything in AFT/UFT/NYSUT-land is a "win."

But this year was no win - it was a rout.

More Hypocrisy From Cuomo

From State of Politics:

Cuomo, through his aides, has given a chilly response to Senate Republicans for proposing that some financial data regarding live-in girlfriends of elected officials – such as Cuomo’s girlfriend, Sandra Lee – be subject to the same ethics disclosures required for spouses of elected officials. But back in 2009, then-Attorney General Cuomo made that connection himself.

This dovetails nicely with Cuomo's hypocrisy over his administration's email deletion policy.

As attorney general, Cuomo said the following about email deletions:

Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, is no stranger to the consequences of a paper trail. Before becoming governor, he spent four years as state attorney general, a perch from which he witnessed how long-forgotten e-mails could become pivotal during investigations. In 2008, he even accused a top official at the New York Power Authority of “extremely troubling conduct” for deleting e-mails from his BlackBerry as word leaked that he was likely to be investigated by the attorney general’s office.

Now as governor, Cuomo has broadened a 90 day email deletion policy started for the executive chamber in 2007 to the entire state government.

His IT hack said deleting emails as quickly as possible is "a matter of, actually, encouraging good behavior, prudent and responsible use of state resources.”

Ah, yes - the kind of behavior AG Cuomo called "extremely troubling conduct" becomes standard operating procedure for state government under Governor Cuomo because it's "encouraging good behavior" and prudence.

This kind of prudence will now be par for the course when it comes to trying to get any information out of state agencies.

Maybe we can change the name of the state from New York to Oceania.

Here's Hoping George Pataki And Andrew Cuomo BOTH Run For President

Here's a New York politician about as delusional as Andrew Cuomo when it comes to being able to run for president:

ALBANY — Former Gov. George Pataki is again dipping his toe into the presidential waters — even as political experts give the Republican virtually no shot for the 2016 race.

Pataki in recent weeks has traveled twice to New Hampshire. He’s also hitting South Carolina to kick off this week.

He has been in contact with national Republican donors and even has an ad — funded by the super PAC Americans for Real Change — on TV titled “It’s Time for a New America” that calls for “less government, more freedom.”

In a Nov. 20 tweet touting a trip to New Hampshire, Pataki wrote that “America needs a President who respects our Constitution” and included the hashtag “immigration” — a reference to President Obama’s executive order sparing millions of undocumented immigrants from deportation.

Pataki of course has about as much chance to be president as I do, which is to say, no chance:

Political experts scoff at the possibility. They say despite winning three terms in Democratic-heavy New York, Pataki has little name recognition, has been out of office for eight years, and is facing a crowded Republican field of political bold-faced names like former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Florida U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio — and even 2012 GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

The insiders expressed serious doubt he can raise the necessary money and said his pro-gun control and gay rights record as governor doesn’t help in a GOP primary.

Similarly, Andrew Cuomo, the union-bashing, Wall Street shill who currently occupies the governor's mansion as a Democrat, thinks he can run for president in a Democratic primary.

Just as Pataki's "centrist" politics (pro-gun, pro-abortion rights) don't help him in a GOP primary, it's hard to see how Cuomo's "centrist politics" (union-bashing, Wall Street shilling) here in New York help him in a Democratic presidential primary.

You know what would be great - if both Pataki and Cuomo ran in the same year.

That would be fabulous.

There's nothing like seeing delusional politicians have reality thrust on them - kinda like when Saint Rudy of 9/11 ran for president in 2008 and won only one delegate.

I suspect even Saint Rudy would do better than either Pataki or Cuomo though.

Here's what one "insider" says about the Pataki run:

Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, was even more blunt. “I don’t know how people obtain these delusions,” he laughed. “I don’t take those drugs.”

Me either.

But Pataki does - and so does Andrew Cuomo.

So run, boys, run.

It will be fun to see your bubbles burst.

Cuomo Plans To "Strengthen Teacher And Principal Evaluations" In His Next Term

After taking some criticism for not giving much of an inkling of what his second term plans are, Governor Cuomo released a 240+ page plan for the next four years.

I'm still poring through the plan, but the first thing that leaps out at me is this:

He brags how his APPR teacher evaluation system is one of the best in the nation but says New York has "the opportunity to strengthen teacher and principal evaluations" in the next term anyway.

This threat comes after he complained a few weeks ago that not enough teachers were being rated "ineffective" or "developing" under his APPR teacher evaluation system:

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said Tuesday the state’s new teacher evaluation system will need to be refined, but he said he would like to see more data before pushing for any changes to the state law.

Cuomo said he sees value in the teacher rankings, but said critics who question how 94 percent of the state’s teachers can be “highly effective” or “effective” have a valid point.

“I’m excited that we started,” Cuomo said of the teacher evaluation system put into effect during the 2012-13 school year. “And I think once we start to study it and learn it and refine it – because there’s no doubt it needs refinement, not everybody can get an ‘A,’ it can’t be – I think it’s going to be a very valuable tool.”

But he conceded the system might need more scrutiny.

Critics of the teacher evaluations have pointed out the wide gap between the 94 percent of teachers who were rated “effective” or “highly effective” and the number of students failing to do well on state tests and in other measures of student success.

He gives no concrete details in the plan he released today, but if I am reading the tea leaves right, he will remedy what he considers too few "ineffective" and "developing" ratings for teachers with a revision of APPR in the next term.

And that revision will be a "strengthening" of the system to ensure that teacher ratings more closely parallel passing rates for students on the state tests.

This comes even as superintendents in the Lower Hudson Valley have trashed Cuomo's APPR evaluation system and called for a complete overhaul of it:

School superintendents from the Lower Hudson Valley say it's time for the state to shut down it's failed teacher-evaluation system and to pilot new models with the involvement of administrators and teachers.

"There is no simple fix," Valhalla Superintendent Brenda Myers said. "We want this to stop. You can't just mandate and roll out this system and publish scores that are invalid. We warned that this would happen and now we need a moratorium."

The state Board of Regents, which sets education policy, began pursuing a new evaluation system in 2009 as part of its agenda to "reform" schooling in New York. With the strong support of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the state Legislature adopted a system into law in 2010 that has been widely criticized by school districts and teachers.

...

A new study commissioned by the superintendents group identified problems with the complex scoring system. Superintendents also say they gleaned little useful information from the first full year of results.

"If the goals of this reform agenda were to improve teacher accountability, improve a district's ability to remove incompetent teachers, to provide data to inform teacher practice, and improve student achievement — it has been a costly and wholly avoidable failure," said Harrison Superintendent Louis Wool, who co-chairs the committee with Myers.

...

State Education Department officials have said that they want to review more data before considering changes. But local superintendents do not want to wait. They say the current system falsely implies that teachers can be compared based on their ratings.

"The system creates an illusion of accountability," Byram Hills Superintendent William Donohue said.

The study commissioned by the superintendents group looked at 2012-13 results for 1,400 teachers in 32 districts in Westchester, Rockland, Putnam and Dutchess counties. It found that, because of the state's uneven scoring scales, districts must give teachers high scores for classroom observations — an average of 58.1 out of 60 — to ensure they don't get "unjustly" low overall ratings.

Cuomo is saying publicly that APPR is a great success, but to make it more successful, it will need to be "strengthened " (i.e., made to more closely mirror student test score results.)

Meanwhile superintendents in the Lower Hudson Valley are saying the test components of the system are so broken that administrators have to rate teachers as high as they can on subjective measures to ensure they don't get low ratings they don't deserve because SED's algorithms suck.

We've got a fight coming in the next term over this awful evaluation system.

As bad as it is now, Cuomo wants to make it worse.

That's clear from the statements he made publicly last month as well as the plan he released today.

They're Discussing Having Discussions About The Coming Discussion On Teacher Evaluation Discussions

The latest drivel from Karen Magee at NYSUT:

ALBANY—New York State United Teachers president Karen Magee said she has been in talks with the governor's office and both houses of the Legislature about a “moratorium” on using Common Core test scores to evaluate teachers.

“We're still in conversations as the session is winding down on potential modifications we might be able to make,” Magee told Capital on Monday. “That's still out there and on the table. We're keeping the door wide open.”

 ...

Late last month during President Obama's visit to Cooperstown, Cuomo said he hadn't yet begun negotiating changes to the evaluations, which include new Common Core-aligned tests as a factor for some teachers and principals.

“No discussions on it,” he said May 22 during the event at the Baseball Hall of Fame. “I'm open to discussions, but we haven't had any.”

Asked about Cuomo's comments, Magee laughed.

“He and I have had discussions that we need to move forward in that discussion, so if he doesn't exactly say that that's a discussion, that's creative wordsmith-ing,” she said.

Assembly Education Committee chair Catherine Nolan, a Queens Democrat, also said she hasn't been party to conversations about the evaluations.

“I haven't had anybody reach out to me yet, but we're optimistic,” she told Capital on Tuesday after a committee meeting. “Two weeks is a long time in this Legislature.”

Dunno about you, but my reading of another fine education piece by Jessica Bakeman at Capital NY is that Karen Magee is having discussions with herself over the teacher evaluation discussion, since both Cuomo and Nolan say they haven't been part of any discussions over the teacher evaluation discussion.

To my mind, Cuomo probably tacitly agreed to address some minor tweaks to APPR as part of the deal that saw the UFT be part of a union contingent that forced the Working Families Party to put Cuomo on their ballot line.

So perhaps that is what Magee is referencing when she says there have been "discussions that we need to move forward in that discussion."

Or maybe she's as delusional as she sounds in her statements and she's the only one having the discussions about having the discussion around the teacher evaluation discussion.

Mayor Bloomberg Makes Incoherent Statement Defending Common Core

On the heels of John King calling critics to the Common Core "special interests" and Arne Duncan insulting critics to the Common Core of being "white suburban moms" who are mad because their kids aren't "as brilliant as they thought" comes this doozy from Bloomberg:

Mayor Michael Bloomberg doesn't understand what all the fuss is about over Common Core, the more rigorous national standards that aim to boost college- and career-readiness, and whose implementation in New York State has engendered controversy among parents and teachers.

"It's too hard for your kid, lady?" said the mayor, during his regular Friday morning appearance on the John Gambling radio show. "Think about what they’re gonna do if they can’t get a job. That's hard. And people say, 'Well, we test them too much.' Life is full of tests and you're gonna be tested all your life."

"Kids gotta decide, do you hang out with that bad guy that might have a gun," he went on. "Do you get in the car after you’ve had a couple of drinks, or even if you’re not driving but maybe the driver has. Pregnancy, teeange pregnancy. There are a lot of things that you have tests on. Tests on whether you read or write isn’t exactly onerous and that’s the kind of pain you gotta go through if you want to have a future."

More and more, Bloomberg makes these statements that make you shake your head and wonder when they'll announce publicly that he has dementia.

I dunno what teen pregnancy or hanging out "with that bad guy that might have a gun" has to do with the Common Core or the Common Core tests, and to be frank, Bloomberg doesn't make such a great job of connecting these strings of delusion together into anything coherent.

If Bloomberg's radio show statement was a Common Core argumentative essay assessment, the kind so many kids are asked to write every week in every class under the Common Core, it would receive a failing grade for coherence, focus, supporting evidence and and analysis.

Life is full of "tests" - that's what he's saying.

But you know, sometimes the "tests" in life are stupid and pointless and the way you pass those "tests" is pointing out how stupid and pointless these tests are and making them go away.

NYC 911 System In Shambles, Bloomberg Says All Is Well

A Daily News op-ed today:

After insisting the main flaw in the city’s new 911 emergency call system was with the people who dispatched responders, City Hall’s top man on the project admitted that there had been technical glitches.

But they had all been ironed out, Deputy Mayor for Operations Cas Holloway said on a July 9 visit to the Daily News.

It sure sounded good.

Among the issues that had been resolved, Holloway said, were freeze-ups in the computer link between call-takers and EMS dispatchers.

Those had begun soon after the city switched over on May 29 to a system that linked a single team of dispatchers to disparate police, fire and EMS operations.

First, several dozen dispatch screens froze at once. Not knowing what was happening and fearful that the entire 911 system could go offline, managers shut automated routers and took out pens and paper.
While technicians rebooted the computers, operators wrote information on slips of paper and runners raced the slips to dispatchers. It took 18 minutes to get the system working again.

A few days later, when about 50 screens froze, the managers shut down for a reboot and relied on runners and slips for 52 minutes. Combining both outages, the runners and slips sent out about 860 ambulance runs.

The technicians then did what technicians do, Holloway said, and all was well.

“It will be an anomaly indeed when you go to slips going forward,” he said.

Welcome to anomaly central.

On Monday, the system crashed multiple times and technicians took it offline several more times during the week for a total of 90 minutes. Dispatchers recorded almost 500 calls using runners and slips. Not to worry.

In a statement issued Thursday, the Fire Department reported that the techies had finally figured things out. The system had been “fully stabilized,” the statement said, adding, “The problem was caused by corrupted ‘disk arrays.’ ” Oh, that.

Enough of good-sounding assurances. This is deadly serious. The response system’s troubles have extended well beyond electronic errors.

Staffing is in such turmoil that the NYPD will add 150 civilian dispatchers and is considering assigning 300 uniformed cops to dispatch duty. Also, the Department of Investigation is studying the unexplained 4-minute delay in getting an ambulance to Ariel Russo, when the child lay fatally injured after being hit by an SUV.

Asked time and again, The News’ question remains: How safe are we?

Mayor Bloomberg yesterday:

New York City is lucky it got ripped off hundreds of millions of dollars in the CityTime scandal, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said this morning.

Mr. Bloomberg’s argument was that because the fraudsters agreed to pay the city back $500 million after being hounded by federal prosecutors and the city’s Department of Investigation, the project of modernizing the municipal payroll system ended up being a bargain.

“That whole system cost us something like only a 100 million dollars and it should have been many times that,” he said. “We were lucky because of the fraud. And in the end it turned out, because of the recovery, we saved a lot of money.”

The mayor arrived at this topic after defending the city’s much-maligned 911 system, which has been barraged with reports of dysfunction and shutdowns. Mr. Bloomberg compared the two cases and maintained the system was working just fine.

“When was the last time you heard a complaint about the basic accounting system for the municipal workforce that has something like two thirds of all municipal workers on it? None one. Not one complaint,” he said, latter adding, “It certainly works and this 9/11 system certainly works as well. Will there be glitches? Computer systems all the time have glitches. Nothing’s perfect.”

 Feeling safe yet?

Pataki Thinks He Should Run For President

Wow - the level of denial some politicians have is mind-boggling:

“He intends to run,” says lunch buddy Ed Koch. George Pataki is at it again, flirting with the national spotlight. Will the former New York governor finally consummate a presidential campaign?

Watch cable television these days, and you’re likely to find George Pataki, the gangly former New York governor, filling up the screen. He’s in the middle of a familiar stage in the life of a party sachem who fancies himself a statesman. It’s presidential fantasy season for Republicans, where any man or woman with a heartbeat and a statehouse stop on the resume, suffers from White House fever dreams.

Uh, good luck with that, George.