Cuomo Administration Hack Defends His Boss Over Common Core, Education Policy

Remember Jim Malatras, the Cuomo administration hack/director of state operations who "wrote" to Merryl Tisch about education policy right before Governor Cuomo unveiled education reforms for the state budget that included a school receivership program and increasing the weight of test scores in teacher evaluations to 50%?

Well, he's back with another piece of writing, this in the Times Union, defending Boss Cuomo over those very education policies, which are very unpopular (as is his boss.)

In his commentary, Malatras claims Cuomo has "led the nation" in limiting testing time in schools (a bogus claim since Cuomo has increased the weight of test scores on teacher ratings which means the official "testing time" does not include the Endless Test Prep kids undergo all the year through so that their schools are not closed and their teachers aren't fired based upon their state test scores) and has provided the highest funding for schools in state history (another bogus claim which ignores all the new state mandates Cuomo and NYSED have thrown onto school districts that eats up gobs of that money as well as the property cap that limits the ability of districts to increase funding.)

In addition, Malatras takes a victory lap that the feds have followed suit with the 2% limit on testing, writing that "rather than following the lead of the U.S. Department of Education, New York has led the way for other states and was highlighted in a recent federal announcement as a model for other states looking to move this work forward."

This ignores that the 2% rule was instituted at the federal level by the same guy who pushed it here (former NYSED Commissioner, now acting-Secretary of Education John King) and that, in the end, it's meaningless because it still means kids will spend at least 22 hours a year on standardized testing.
If you add in all the Endless Test Prep that must be done during the Endless Testing regime to the 2% testing time so that teachers don't get fired or schools don't get closed, you can see how the rule changes little.

That Cuomo has taken to having his hack Malatras write rebuttals to op-ed pieces in the Times Union tells you how defensive Cuomo is over his education polices.

Given that he's engaging in another dog and pony show with his Common Core Review task force (which appears to want to hear as little as possible from anybody who doesn't already agree with the governor) and is trying to make it look like he's making changes to the Common Core/Endless Testing regime in New York State without actually making any changes, he should be on the defensive.

His defensive actions are fruitless - parents and teachers are fed up with his reform agenda, are fed up with him and are not going to be fooled by any dog and pony show that makes minor tweaks to the state's education policies but essentially leaves the damaging Common Core/Endless Testing regime in place.

Education Advocacy Group Brings In Bill Cosby To Speak About Improving Education

What year is this?

Bill Cosby was scheduled to visit Alabama on Thursday and Friday, for events aimed at highlighting schools in one of the poorest areas of the state. 

Cosby, whose record of educational philanthropy has been overshadowed in recent months by sexual assault allegations from more than 25 women and two pending lawsuits, will speak in several cities across Alabama’s rural Black Belt, a region named for its fertile black soil but stifled by low income and high unemployment. 

Cosby will speak with high-school students as part of a new campaign by the nonprofit Black Belt Community Foundation to improve education in the south-central part of the state. 

Foundation president Felecia Lucky said Cosby was volunteering his time to bring exposure to schools in the area.

It's like the 25 sexual assault allegations and two pending lawsuits never happened.

I don't understand why any education group would have Cosby speak at one of its events.

The Blueprint for The AFT/UFT/NYSUT Sell-Out In New York Is Revealed

From the Capital NY Morning Education email:

The fight between Governor Andrew Cuomo and New York’s teachers is a national one, Randi Weingarten said today during an education funding rally on the Capitol’s “million dollar staircase… The entire nation is looking, and A.F.T. is part of this every step of the way,” Weingarten said, explaining why she joined several hundred education advocates, teachers and students for the demonstration which focused on funding inequities between rich and poor school districts. Weingarten said Cuomo has targeted teachers with proposals for stricter performance evaluations and changes to tenure protections not to improve schools, but rather to punish teachers for not supporting him and reward pro-charter school hedge funders who are his political donors. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who expected to attend, did not make it to the rally. Advocates said he was detained because of the weather. Later, talking to reporters at the Capitol, Silver said his Democratic conference would make education funding “a top priority.” Capital’s Josefa Velasquez and Jessica Bakeman [PRO]: http://bit.ly/1y5XAlL

The union leadership puts together a rally with a message focused on the inequities between rich and poor districts.

Speaker Silver says education funding will be a "top priority" in this legislative session.

But there's little-to-no pushback on the damages of test-based evaluations or redoing the evaluation system to make tests 40% of the entire rating (and really 100%, since if you come up "ineffective" on 40%, you're ineffective overall.)

You can see how this will play out in negotiations, can't you?

If you've been a teacher and have watched these kinds of fights for a while, I bet you can.

The unions and Assembly Dems will trade Cuomo's evaluation, tenure, and 3020a "reforms" for more "education funding."

And of course Cuomo will get his increase of the cap and funding for charter schools - that goes without saying.

In fact, the unions already tipped us off that's where they're going when Unity blogger Peter Goodman wrote the following on his blog:

Next Wednesday the Governor will deliver his State of the State message, I expect he will continue to attack, and the unions will respond, the questions are whether the Governor and the unions can find some common ground, and, whether the Governor seeks changes in education governance at the state level.

In 1968 the UFT and the John Lindsay, the New York City mayor were engaged in a bitter struggle – the 40-day teacher strike, racial invective, the “white. liberal intelligentsia” traditionally pro-union viciously attacking the UFT, the growing and militant black power movement painting the union as akin to the worst of the racists of the South. A year later John Lindsay and the union negotiated a dramatic change in the teacher pension system, called Tier 1. (Read Dana Goldstein, The Teacher Wars). John Lindsay was considering running for president in 1972 and wanted to heal wounds and a spectacular increase in pension benefits was the salve.

Cuomo wants to “punish” teacher unions, to make it clear that attacking the Governor will have repercussions. A lesson for teacher unions and a lesson for other unions, the teacher unions have to fight back as well as seek avenues for reconciliation.

As a history teacher I’m reminded of “Going to Canossa (“Canossa” refers to an act of penance or submission), Henry IV, the Holy Roman Emperor, dressed in “sackcloth and ashes,” humbled himself in the snow outside of the castle of Pope Gregory seeking absolution from the threat of excommunication. Henry retained his throne.

Charter school quotas and the teacher the evaluation system are negotiable, and, the core issues are the Gap Elimination Adjustment and the property tax cap, the union has to seek absolution from Pope Andrew and move on to resolve the core issues.

Weingarten and the rest of the union leadership holding a rally yesterday and Weingarten declaring the fight between Cuomo and teachers "national" means nothing in the grand scheme of things.

It's a lot of noise meant to fool the rank and file into thinking the union leaders plan on trying to protect them in upcoming negotiations.

Make no mistake - they don't.

They plan on selling you out, giving Cuomo and the charter school entrepreneurs most (if not all) of what they want on the charter cap and charter funding, giving Cuomo and Tisch most (if not all) of what they want on the evaluation system "reforms" and 3020a changes in return for a few extra dollars in "education funding."

They will then declare victory, Peter Goodman will declare the deal a nice "avenue of reconciliation" on his blog and you and I will be dealing with an even more insane amount of compliance and fear next year in the school system while the union leaders bask in the glow of "absolution."