Cuomo: I Knew Of Percoco's Outside Consulting Work And I Was Okay With It

Cuomo talked to the press tonight about the Percoco investigation:

.@NYGovCuomo says @JosephPercoco was a "consultant" to his campaign in 2014 and allowed to have other clients pic.twitter.com/hzGteWDT5W

— Zack Fink (@ZackFinkNews) May 2, 2016

NEW: @NYGovCuomo says he was aware that when Joe Percoco went to work on his campaign that Percoco might accept consulting fees.

— erica orden (@eorden) May 2, 2016

Cuomo says he had one talk w Percoco upon becoming campaign manager. Percoco said he might accept fees. He didn't say from where.

— erica orden (@eorden) May 2, 2016

Cuomo says that's the only conversation they had about it. He says he didn't ask Joe whether he ever went ahead & accepted fees.

— erica orden (@eorden) May 2, 2016

Cuomo says that when Percoco returned to the state payroll "obviously he stopped representing the other clients."

— erica orden (@eorden) May 2, 2016

.@NYGovCuomo says the situation with @JosephPercoco had been "deeply troubling," but also says he was allowed to consult in private sector

— Zack Fink (@ZackFinkNews) May 2, 2016

.@NYGovCuomo says when one leaves government they are allowed to represent private sector clients. No reason to say "who did you represent?"

— Zack Fink (@ZackFinkNews) May 2, 2016

And now, some reaction to Cuomo's comments:

So in #CorruptCuomo world "consulting" (direct pipeline to Cuomo) is ok.....but "lobbying" would be illegal. Unreal https://t.co/VKtyYk7cRs

— Steve McLaughlin (@SteveMcNY) May 3, 2016

Radio listener:"You're campaign manager for the governor of the state of NY and you're taking money from companies doing business with NY?"

— Fredric U. Dicker (@fud31) May 2, 2016

@SteveMcNY @perdidostschool @ZackFinkNews @NYGovCuomo @JosephPercoco pic.twitter.com/exqpnc39vY

— Sullio (@sullio) May 3, 2016

@ZackFinkNews @NYGovCuomo re: Subdivision 8 of §73 of the Public Officers Law - the 2 year ban only applies to the little people?

— Brian Joseph (@17rambler) May 3, 2016

In essence:

@eorden There you have it - Cuomo's investigation of himself is concluded. Nothing to see here, move on, folks...

— rbe (@perdidostschool) May 2, 2016

Or, if you're more of a visual learner:

@perdidostschool @eorden https://t.co/gV39PWA1H4

— Sullio (@sullio) May 2, 2016

Chris Christie Too Busy To Deal With Impending New Jersey Blizzard

NJ.com this morning:

TRENTON — With most of the Garden State under a blizzard watch, Gov. Chris Christie was asked Thursday afternoon what lessons he'd learned about New Jersey's power grid in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.

Appearing as a guest on conservative talk host Hugh Hewitt's syndicated talk radio show, Christie gave a foreboding answer.

"What we learned is that it's incredibly vulnerable, and incredibly fragile," the governor and Republican presidential candidate said, adding that "a bad storm, a historic storm like Sandy, put the most densely populated state in the nation without power for 75 percent of the state for three weeks."

Christie said the fragility and vulnerability of New Jersey's power grid after Sandy  means "that we have a lot of work to do," and then took the opportunity to promote his corporate tax plan, which calls for repatriating $2 billion in U.S. corporations' assets at a substantially lower rate.

The governor promised that if elected president, he would "use that money exclusively for rebuilding our infrastructure, and by that I mean, roads, bridges and the grid."

Hewitt noted that his radio show would repeat throughout the weekend on stations in both New Hampshire and South Carolina, and asked the governor for his "closing argument" to voters in those early primary states.

Christie answered that "I don't think there's anybody more tested by crisis" and that when faced with a devastating storm, "I put the people of my state first and foremost."

Here's Christie putting the people of his state first this weekend with the impending blizzard coming north:

LACONIA, N.H. — Gov. Chris Christie continues to monitor the a winter storm from New Hampshire that has most counties in New Jersey under a blizzard watch and the rest of the state under a winter storm watch.

The governor's office issues a statement late Thursday evening that advised Christie continues to "actively monitor the winter storm."

Christie, who's seeking the Republican presidential nomination, is in the middle of a six-day tour of New Hampshire as makes his final pitch to voters here with less than three weeks before voters head to the polls. He said earlier Thursday he had no plans for now to cut short his campaign trip and return for the impending storm, saying the lieutenant governor can handle the situation.

You just can't make this stuff up.

When I think about the politician who is most full of shit in this country, I can never figure out if it's Chris Christie or Andrew Cuomo.

Every time you think one of them wins the award hands down, the other one does something to put himself back into contention.

Christie, Like His Pal Cuomo, Is Full Of Shit On Common Core

Chris Christie, once a great supporter of Common Core, turned on the standards as he started to gear up for a run for president in a Republican Party where the Core is disdained.

Christie, as on other issues like gun control or Planned Parenthood, likes to muddy the waters on just how much support he has had for the Core in the past and continues to have for the Core now.

For example:

During Thursday night's Republican debate in South Carolina, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was attacked on several fronts for an allegedly left-leaning past, including his supposed support for Common Core education standards, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, and Planned Parenthood.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio called out his rival for propping up Common Core, the reading and math standards implemented in 42 states, plus the District of Columbia, and widely reviled by conservatives as acts of federal overreach.

"I like Chris Christie, but we can not afford to have a president of the United States that supports Common Core," Rubio said on the main stage.

Christie refuted that: "Common Core has been eliminated in New Jersey."

But Christie, who once supported the education standards, has flipped on the issue since last year.

In May, the governor asked New Jersey's department of education to review the implementation of Common Core in the state's school system.

But according to NJ.com, earlier this week, the panel charged with reviewing the standards recommended that 84 percent of them remain in place, with slight revisions to the rest. Common Core, the news site reported, does "still have a place in New Jersey classrooms."

Common Core has been eliminated in New Jersey?

Hardly.

Not if 84% of the standards remain in place, with slight revisions to the rest, and the state tests still based upon the Core (and the opt-out option for the test soon to be eliminated.)

The same game is happening in New York, where Christie's Port Authority-pal Andrew Cuomo is playing similar deceptions on New Yorkers, claiming Common Core is going to get a "total reboot" when his Common Core Task Force actually recommended that the "instructional focus" of the Core remain in place.

In short, New York's going to get a similar 16% or so tweaking to the Core, where most of the standards remain in place and the others get minor changes so that Cuomo can say the Core no longer exists in New York State.

Christie and Cuomo are full of shit together on education, full of shit together on Common Core, and full of shit together on a lot of other issues (including the Port Authority.)

Quite frankly, the emblems for both the Christie Presidential campaign and the Cuomo 2018 re-election campaign ought to be two big piles of shit.

And if that's a little too crass, well, so is the shit these two crooks are looking to get away with on a whole host of things - including Common Core.

What The Clinton Shills Don't Get: Few Trust Hillary Clinton

Had some fun on Twitter with a Clinton shill calling me a liar for this post here entitled "Hillary Clinton Vows To Close Every Public School In The Country."

His message was basically the same one that I've seen elsewhere on the Internet as the "Clinton Wants To Destroy Public Education" meme has rolled along and Clinton shills have begun to push back on it - Clinton doesn't want to close all the schools that are rated "below average," as she said wanted to in the Iowa clip, she simply misspoke.

But the thing that Clinton shills and apologists don't get here is this - given Clinton's elasticity with truth and honesty, given her past fondness for school closures, DFER, charter schools, and the Common Core, given the fondness her pals at the Center for American Progress (basically a Clinton administration in exile ready to roll into power as soon as she's elected) have for this same stuff, given her shillery for Walmart in the past and given the fact that she's a Clinton and no one believes a word these people say, it doesn't matter what she really meant.

See, couple the Clinton administration's ed deform policies in the past with the betrayal that many felt when Barack Obama doubled down on the Bush ed deform policies of NCLB with his Race to the Top program and you have an entire generation of teachers out there not going to cut these lying politicians any slack when they "misspeak" or say stuff that sounds kooky (as Clinton did.)

The larger issue here for me, and why I even blogged the thing in the first place (if you notice, it's almost all Cuomo/NY all the time here at Perdido Street School blog these days, so I'm not doing much 2016 presidential race stuff) is that it was the perfect crystallization of the mistrust many teachers have for Democratic politicians in general and Clinton in particular.

That people didn't give her the benefit of the doubt over this "misspeak," that even now she needs the shills to go around defending her, goes to show you just how little trust or affection she has among many rank and file educators these days.

How do you know when a Clinton's lying?

You don't have to try and figure it out because they're ALWAYS lying.

Rob Astorino Offers Mental Health Services To "Insecure" Andrew Cuomo

This made my day:

Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino—the 2014 Republican candidate for governor—today suggested Gov. Andrew Cuomo suffers from “insecurities,” and offered to help connect Mr. Cuomo with therapy.

Mr. Astorino was responding to comments Mr. Cuomo made earlier today, in which the Democratic governor argued that Mayor Bill de Blasio should not appear beside the socially conservative GOP politician at a press conference calling for greater federal infrastructure investment this evening. Mr. Astorino blasted the governor, a resident of Westchester’s Mount Kisco, and said he would be willing to connect him with local mental health resources to deal with his inner demons.

“You know, it seems to me that the statement that the governor made was completely out of line, number one, and just from my observation, it seems like the governor has some insecurities,” Mr. Astorino told the Observer at the presser in Penn Station. “Since he’s a constituent of mine, I’d be more than happy to set him up with our Department of Community Mental Health if he actually needs some help on this issue.”

“I am going to work with the mayor whenever we can see eye-to-eye and can advance an issue that’s important,” Mr. Astorino continued.

Cuomo, btw, works with many Republicans, including former state Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, now on trial for corruption, and former deputy state Senate Majority Leader Tom Libous, soon to be under house arrest after being convicted of lying to the FBI.

And for years Cuomo has touted his bipartisan bona fides - in fact, he just touted them in a speech at Harvard the other day decrying how Washington can't get along anymore because it's too partisan.

So the phrase that comes to mind after reading about Cuomo's criticism of de Blasio for standing with Astorino on the infrastructure issue is, "full of shit."

As for Astorino's claim that Cuomo suffers from insecurities and needs mental health help, that's a keen and accurate assessment of our sociopathic governor from his former opponent.

Cuomo To Bus + Bus + Train Commuters: Screw You

Perhaps MTA commuters would get a better hearing from Governor Cuomo if they gave him a bag full of money first like his real estate donors:

Gov. Cuomo vetoed bipartisan legislation that would have provided fare relief to commuters who have to take two buses and a train to reach their destination.

The measure, which overwhelmingly passed the state Legislature in June, would have allowed riders on some routes to get two free transfers instead of one within two hours.

MetroCards now allow one free transfer between a subway and a bus or between two buses during a two-hour period.

As part of their commute, most of these riders have to take two buses before reaching the subway and are paying two fares, said the bill’s sponsors, Assemblyman Jeff Dinowitz (D-Bronx) and Sen. Martin Golden (R-Brooklyn).

The MTA claims the second transfer would cost a bundle, Cuomo claims riders can buy an unlimited card and it's all good.

But not everybody can afford an unlimited card and as for the MTA's claims that the second transfer will cost them too much money, well there is this:

But Dinowitz says Cuomo and the MTA are leaving riders in the lurch — especially those who cannot afford the monthly outlay for an unlimited-ride card.

“The MTA is not known for putting out accurate numbers,” he said. “It’s just not fair for people who, through no fault of their own, have to take three rides and are in a two-fare zone.”

Meanwhile today Cuomo said he's not ready to stop taking money from the crooked real estate company at the center of the Silver and Skelos corruption trials.

Priorities, priorities.

Cuomo Compares Running For Re-Election To Teacher Evaluation System

He's rubbing our faces in it now:

Gov. Andrew Cuomo admitted today he hates running for re-election, comparing the process of subjecting himself to voters to teachers who resent strict evaluations.

But Mr. Cuomo said both are necessary–and continued to knock the teachers’ unions for resisting his education reforms.

“I do not want to be evaluated. I will tell you a secret: I don’t like it, I don’t like that I have to run for re-election,” Mr. Cuomo told Susan Arbetter on the Capitol Pressroom radio program. “If I have never done it before in my life, this is traumatic to me. I have a school teacher who basically said to me, ‘Look I’ve been teaching for 15 years and now I’m gonna be evaluated.’ It is very upsetting and frightening, I understand that.”

“Now all of a sudden there’s gonna be an evaluation of them. I get it. But change is traumatic, change is also how you progress,” he added.

Cuomo's so full of shit with this comparison that I can't tell you how angry it makes me to type this commentary.

Cuomo did everything he could to rig his re-election.

He accumulated a $43 million+ campaign war chest and outspent his opponent 7 to 1.

He didn't want to have to face a third party candidate from the left because polls showed he could lose significant support to that kind of candidate in a general election, so he did what he had to do to "win" Working Families Party support, then promptly broke the promises he made in order to win that support.

He campaigned as little as possible, met as few people in public as possible and ran as many ads as possible so that he could hammer his opponent without having to leave the house much.

He hid from debates, refused to debate on TV and eventually agreed to one radio debate.

Cuomo's comparing concerns teachers have over an undeveloped evaluation system that will be created by the same people who rolled out the Common Core on toilet paper and gave a sociopath liar a charter school without checking his credentials to his running for re-election is, quite frankly, bullshit.

This is a guy who did everything he could to rig his re-election.

Weingarten Tries To Spin Her Support Of Bank Lobbyist/Ed Deformer Kathy Hochul

AFT President Randi Weingarten and Arthur Goldstein were having a twitter conversation today over Weingarten's support of Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul during the primary (which you can read about here.)

Weingarten robocalled for Hochul during a pivotal moment of the campaign when it looked like challenger Tim Wu could actually pull off an upset.

She wasn't the only "progressive" dragged out for the robocalls by the Cuomo campaign - NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio taped one as well.

After Wu lost the primary to Hochul, he said that his campaign's internal polls had shown him closing on Hochul, but the tide turned after the robocalls went out.

It seems prominent "progressives" like de Blasio and Weingarten supporting Hochul assured enough New York City voters that she was all right, they could safely vote for her.

Weingarten has continually claimed that supporting Hochul publicly was payback for Hochul's support of public education when she was in Congress - but Hochul was only in Congress a short period of time (less than one-full term), so that rationale for Hochul support is absurd.

Weingarten has also said she doesn't think Hochul is in the "everything against" camp when it comes to public education, but as we know from history, any time anybody works for Andrew Cuomo, you either do EVERYTHING Cuomo wants you to do or you don't take the job.

So Hochul's acceptance of the LG gig under Cuomo was an explicit admission that she would be in the "everything against" camp because that's where her boss, Andrew Cuomo, wants her.

Which is EXACTLY where she was this week as she keynoted for the Cuomo administration at Eva Moskowitz's pro-charter Albany rally.

I try and stay out of the Weingarten jive-fests on Twitter these days because it's unproductive trying to argue with a pathological liar, but every once in a while Randi's lies, half-truths and evasions get to be too much and I have to jump in.

This is one of those times:

@TeacherArthurG -I'm more disappointed abt her silence abt public schooling in general--- quite different from when she was in Congress
— Randi Weingarten (@rweingarten) March 7, 2015

To which I replied:

@rweingarten @TeacherArthurG Who are you kidding? You knew EXACTLY what Hochul would be like as Cuomo's LG.
— realitybasededucator (@perdidostschool) March 7, 2015

@rweingarten @TeacherArthurG Anybody who works for Cuomo does EXACTLY as he wants - as Hochul is doing shilling deform.
— realitybasededucator (@perdidostschool) March 7, 2015

@rweingarten @TeacherArthurG Your robocalls for Hochul were essentially robocalls for Cuomo - as many have pointed out.
— realitybasededucator (@perdidostschool) March 7, 2015

@rweingarten @TeacherArthurG And just in case you think this wasn't pointed out at the time http://t.co/AX9KMqVy3M
— realitybasededucator (@perdidostschool) March 7, 2015

Mary Ahern made another good point about the way Weingarten helped out the Cuomo campaign during the primary:

.@perdidostschool @TeacherArthurG Add this 2 @rweingarten 's defense of Cuomo's statemnts vowing 2 destroy pub. schl monopoly, I smell a RAT
— Mary Ahern (@mma718) March 7, 2015

Which reminded me about this:

@mma718 @TeacherArthurG @rweingarten Yes - she excused it as just "campaign rhetoric," even though she'd heard him b4.
— realitybasededucator (@perdidostschool) March 7, 2015

@mma718 @TeacherArthurG @rweingarten Randi was there when Andy trotted rhetoric out first http://t.co/pqyDwmvvCY
— realitybasededucator (@perdidostschool) March 7, 2015

Weingarten replied just once to my tweets:

@perdidostschool @TeacherArthurG -sorry to disappoint you- no deals...
— Randi Weingarten (@rweingarten) March 7, 2015

To which I replied:

@rweingarten @TeacherArthurG Then who called you to tape the robocall at the EXACT moment Wu's poll #'s were rising?
— realitybasededucator (@perdidostschool) March 7, 2015

So far, no response from Weingarten on that.

This back and forth with Randi gets tiring after awhile, which is why I don't engage in it much anymore, but every once in a while it's important to jump in a point out how full of crap Randi is.

To that end, I'll finish this post with I think the takeway from all this is:

@TeacherArthurG @rweingarten I usually stay out of the Randi jive-fests these days, but her Hochul support is egregious
— realitybasededucator (@perdidostschool) March 7, 2015

@TeacherArthurG @rweingarten In Cuomo admin, she will do as Cuomo says. That's basis for putting her in "against" camp
— realitybasededucator (@perdidostschool) March 7, 2015

Duncan Threatened NY Over Test-Based Teacher Evals, Now Says "Fine For Another Year"

Back in June:

New York might lose out on $300 million if last-minute negotiations on teacher and principal evaluations untie Common Core test scores from final ratings, federal education officials warned Tuesday.

That’s how much New York is due to receive to implement a new evaluation system as part of its participation in Race to the Top, a competitive grant program launched by the U.S. Department of Education in 2009. New York won a total of $700 million after legislators allowed more charter schools to open, moved toward adopting the Common Core standards, and approved new teacher evaluation requirements.

...


But students’ poor performance on the first years of Common Core state tests, and a rocky rollout of the new teacher evaluations, have increased pressure on lawmakers to discount those scores. Ann Whalen, who oversees implementation of Race to the Top at the U.S. Department of Education, said that would “undermine four years of hard work by the state’s educators, school leaders and stakeholders.”

“Breaking promises made to students, educators and parents and moving backward on these commitments—including stopping the progress the state has made to improve student achievement—puts at risk up to $292 million of New York’s Race to the Top grant for improving schools and supporting their educators and students,” Whalen said in a statement.

Today:

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced on Thursday that states could delay the use of test results in teacher-performance ratings by another year, an acknowledgment, in effect, of the enormous pressures mounting on the nation’s teachers because of new academic standards and more rigorous standardized testing.

Sounding like some of his fiercest critics, Mr. Duncan wrote in a blog post, “I believe testing issues are sucking the oxygen out of the room in a lot of schools,” and said that teachers needed time to adapt to new standards and tests that emphasize more than simply filling in bubbled answers to multiple-choice questions.

Over the past four years, close to 40 states have adopted laws that tie teacher evaluations in part to the performance of their students on standardized tests. Many districts have said they will use these performance reviews to decide how teachers are granted tenure, promoted or fired. These laws were adopted in response to conditions set by the Department of Education in the waivers it granted from the No Child Left Behind law that governs what states must do to receive federal education dollars. The test-based teacher evaluations were also included as conditions of Race to the Top grants that have been given by the Obama administration.

...  

In his blog post, Mr. Duncan wrote that “too much testing can rob school buildings of joy, and cause unnecessary stress.” He also accepted responsibility for the federal department’s role in pushing states and districts too quickly toward new standards and tests.

The nearly 40 states that changed evaluations did so because of the pressure Duncan and the Obama USDOE put on them to do so.

The reason there is so much testing is because Arne Duncan and his boss, Barack Obama, wanted all this testing.

The reason my evaluation will be based on test scores - 20% state tests, 20% local "assessments" (which were even more horseshit than you think) - is because Arne Duncan's DOE pushed New York to institute these changes and threatened New York if any changes were made to them.

Now Arne Duncan is concerned that testing is taking the joy out of school?

Is he fucking kidding me?

In large measure, Arne Duncan and Barack Obama, along with the business people who pushed them into power and sustain them now, are at fault for all the testing, all the stress on kids and teachers, and all the joy being squeezed out of education.

You can tell reformers are feeling the pressure when even Duncan kinda acknowledges this.

Doesn't help me any if I come up "developing" or "ineffective" on my Regents-based evaluation component or local assessment (MOSL) component, however.

And God forbid I come up "ineffective" on both, I'm "ineffective" overall.

That's the law in New York State, thanks to Arne, Barack, Andy, the legislature and the Regents.

Even though Arne Duncan now says there's too much testing and too much stress related to the testing and the evaluations and the new standards and schools need time to implement them better.

Thanks, Arne.

I'd say this is better late than never - but it's really not.

De Blasio, Farina Full of Shit On Test Scores

The lede of this Eliza Shapiro piece at Capital NY:

Mayor Bill de Blasio and schools chancellor Carmen Fariña on Thursday praised the slight improvement in citywide test scores while reiterating their shared ambivalence toward testing in general.

At a press conference at the Brooklyn Brownstone School to announce the scores, de Blasio said, "This is a good day for the whole New York City school system," before adding, "a school is not the sum of its test scores."

Then this:

De Blasio said his administration's ultimate goal is to have "100 percent proficiency for our children."

Added Fariña, "I won't be happy until at the end of this year I can stand before you and say we've doubled or tripled the amount of proficiency. It could be a lot better and will be and I promise you that."

Asked for specific goals for test score performance next year, de Blasio declined to give a precise figure, saying only that he expects performance to increase steadily.

Okay, let me get this straight - de Blasio doesn't think a school is the sum of its test scores but has the ultimate goal of 100% proficiency on the state tests and Farina is ambivalent about testing but won't be happy unless she sees double or triple the proficiency on state tests next year.

Which is is, folks - are you ambivalent about testing and convinced that a school (and thus a school district) is not the sum of its test scores or are you going to push for 100% proficiency on a measure you say you don't care about?

Dunno about you, but my bullshit meter went up here.

De Blasio and Farina don't get to have it both ways - either they have ambivalence about testing and emphasize multiple measures to evaluate schools, students and teachers or they get consumed by the scores and look to double and triple proficiency with the ultimate (and ridiculous) goal of 100% proficiency.

And of course the truth is, de Blasio and Farina care about the test scores a lot, even though they won't tell you they do, because all the really important people in this city, state and country do and if they don't get these test scores up those really important people are going to say mean and nasty things about them and declare them failures and so forth.

I wish they were more honest about this and tell us straight up rather than jive us with their "ambivalence" over the testing and the scores, but as George Carlin said, language gives you away always and you can see that in the language that de Blasio and Farina use that they care very much about the scores.

Common Core "Expert," Candidate For Wyoming State Schools Chief, Now Says She Opposes CCSS

The Common Core rats are jumping as far away from the sinking Common Core ship as possible:

Before Wyoming adopted the Common Core State Standards in language arts and math in 2012, state schools chief candidate Sheryl Lain worked for a private organization to train teachers how to use the standards to help their students learn to read.

Lain, 70, an instructional leader in the Wyoming Department of Education, now says she is opposed to the Common Core. In a debate Tuesday, Lain likened the standards to a federalization of education and said the state Board of Education adopted them using a “shadow” process.

But on at least seven occasions in 2011, as Wyoming was considering the standards and Lain was employed at the state Department of Education, Lain worked for a private company training teachers across the country how to use the Common Core, among other skills, to support struggling readers.

Between April 4 and Nov. 2, 2011, she led teacher training sessions in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, Missouri, Minnesota and Illinois for the for-profit Bureau of Education and Research.

Attendees were charged between $199 and $215 for a daylong workshop with Lain, according to program descriptions on the company’s website.

Workshop descriptions promised teachers, among other things, that Lain would show them practical ways to embed the Common Core State Standards for literacy into interventions with struggling students.

During an exchange with fellow Republican schools chief candidate Jillian Balow at a debate in Riverton on Tuesday night, Lain said explaining the Common Core was part of her job.

“Really all my life I’ve been a conservative,” Lain said, noting that she argued against federalization of education in a debate as a high school senior. “But once those standards were adopted and rules promulgated, my job as an instructional leader was to get out and demystify these standards for the Wyoming teachers.”

That does not explain why Lain marketed herself as an educational expert on the Common Core throughout 2011, before Wyoming adopted the standards.

Via email to the Star-Tribune, Lain said her work with BER is not an endorsement of the Common Core. The BER trainings focused on literacy, which she said would be necessary no matter what the standards are.

What's Common Core for "full of shit"?

At any rate, if it isn't becoming clear to you that Common Core is an albatross that cannot be saved by stupid social media events like #supportthecore, stories like the above should help convince you.

The Core is toxic and many politicians, even former Common Core "experts" and supporters like Lain, are running from it.

Moreland Mess: The Parade Of The Browbeaten

Michael Powell on Twitter:

The Parade of the Browbeaten. Various NYS Democrats issue Press Releases Hailing Moreland Commission and Himself.
— Michael Powell (@powellnyt) July 28, 2014

And indeed, that's what we got today from former Moreland Commission members as well - a coordinated PR effort, starting with a long statement released by Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick:

Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick released a lengthy statement on Monday insisting the Moreland Commission To Investigate Public Corruption made decisions independent of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office, though he confirmed a top aide to the governor sought input on the panel.

In the same four-page statement released on his office’s letterhead, Fitzpatrick said the commission “was not an independent prosecutorial agency” that couldn’t make arrests or convene grand juries.

...

The statement from Fitzpatrick today comes as Cuomo is due to appear in Buffalo this morning to make an unrelated economic-development announcement.

Then Cuomo made his long-awaited statements about Moreland this morning that - lo and behold - referenced Fitzpatrick's :

Throughout the back-and-forth with Buffalo and limited Albany media, Cuomo stuck to his guns and didn’t waver from his stance that the commission was a success and that there wasn’t interference from his office; rather, conversations and dialogue were just that.

“The Moreland Commission was a phenomenal success,” Cuomo said. “It generated all sorts of interest in the behavior of the Legislature. It brought all sorts of cases that have actually come to fruition. And it was, I believe the stimulus to get the ethics reform passed that we got passed. And the ethics reform bill is great.”

...

The governor said the panel accomplished what it was set out to do: help devise new stronger ethics laws.

Cuomo said the commission took guidance from many people, held hearings and spoke to the Senate, Assembly and Executive Chamber.

“No one ever said they shouldn’t be talking to people or get advice or consultation from people. They should be independent,” he said. “And the co-chair today says, ‘I was 100 percent independent. I made the decisions. Did I talk to people? Or course I talked to people. It would be unintelligent not to talk to people. But I made all the decisions.’”

Earlier Monday morning, commission Co-Chair William Fitzpatrick, the Onondaga County district attorney, sent out a three-page statement defending the commission, his role in the commission and the governor’s handling of the commission.

Cuomo said the best example of independence was Fitzpatrick deciding to send a subpoena the second floor did not want the commission to send. The New York Times detailed to a subpoena sent to an media-buying firm that initially was withdrawn at the behest of the governor’s office but later went out anyway.

But the Parade of the Browbeaten backing Cuomo up wasn't done yet:

Broome County District Attorney Gerald Mollen disputed reports that he threatened to resign over frustration with the governor’s office involvement with the now-defunct Moreland Commission.

Mollen said he knew that Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office would have input in the panel’s direction, but he backed up statements today by Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick that the commission was ultimately independent.

 “I never had any quarrel or misunderstanding that the governor and his people would provide advice, support and input on what we were doing,” Mollen said in an interview today with Gannett’s Albany Bureau. “But I also always believed that we had absolute independence to go wherever the commission wanted and the governor could not stop us if we choose to go somewhere.”

Mollen was mentioned in the New York Times investigation Wednesday that he was among district attorneys that threatened to resign over the intervention of Cuomo’s office in seeking to direct who was issued subpoenas by the panel.

“I always had the opportunity to be heard with the commissioners and chairpersons,” Mollen said. “I always had the opportunity to express my viewpoint. Sometimes it was accepted, sometimes it was not. But I never came to a point where I said, ‘Look it, we’re going to do this or else I’m going to resign or we should resign.’”

The Parade of the Browbeaten continued later in Rockland County:

Last week, Rockland County District Attorney Thomas Zugibe declined comment on the role Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office played in the Moreland Commission to Investigate Public Corruption’s now-defunct investigation, citing an ongoing probe by the U.S. Attorney’s office into the commission’s abrupt shutdown.

On Monday, Zugibe apparently changed his mind.

Hours after Gov. Andrew Cuomo publicly addressed claims in a lengthy New York Times investigation published last week, Zugibe issued a three-paragraph statement denying he ever threatened to resign from the Moreland Commission. The Times reported Zugibe, a Democrat who was one of the panel’s 25 members, had discussed leaving the Moreland Commission amid frustrations caused by Cuomo’s office’s interference with its work.

“At no time during my tenure with the Commission did I ever threaten to resign from the Moreland Commission,” Zugibe said in the statement. “This blue ribbon group under the guidance of the co-chairs did incredible work, recommending substantive policy changes and pursuing investigations that would strengthen ethical standards and provide comprehensive oversight. I am proud of the work we accomplished through this landmark effort to practice and promote the highest standards of ethical behavior in New York State government.”

Zugibe’s statement mirrors comments Monday from Broome County District Attorney Gerald Mollen, who also said he never threatened to quit the Moreland Commission. (The Times’ story doesn’t say the commissioners “threatened” to quit the Moreland Commission, but rather “discussed” it.)

The statement strikes a different tone than comments Zugibe gave to Gannett’s Albany Bureau earlier this year.

In May, Zugibe was critical of the package of laws Cuomo agreed to in exchange for disbanding the commission a month prior. Those laws included tougher bribery penalties and a more-independent office to investigate election-law violations, but didn’t include several recommendations of the Moreland Commission—including the closing of a loophole allowing individuals and companies to flout campaign-contribution limits by opening multiple limited liability companies.

“I cannot fathom when the governor sent over the recommended legislation, why would they negotiate out the LLC loophole or the limitations on the housekeeping accounts?” Zugibe said in May. “Did their constituents want that? Of course not. It was self-preservation.”

And then the parade finished up in Erie County:

Erie County District Attorney Frank Sedita in a statement on Monday said no one, to his knowledge, threatened to quit the Moreland Commission To Investigate Public Corruption over concerns of gubernatorial involvement.

Sedita, in his statement, said the commission wouldn’t stand for any interference from the governor’s office and resignation was discussed as possibility.
But after the governor’s office agreed to not interfere with the work of the panel, the resignation talk stopped.

“In the summer of 2013, rumors began to circulate that members of the Governor’s Office sought to veto the issuance of subpoenas for those with political ties to him,” Sedita said. “Although we recognized our statutory duty to regularly report to the Governor and to the Attorney General, we would not stand for any interference, and discussed a number of options, including resignation. The Governor’s Office, through our commission chairs, agreed not to interfere with our work. No one, to my knowledge, threatened to resign.”

Why was Cuomo MIA for five days after the NY Times published their Moreland story?

He was putting together the Parade of the Browbeaten, that's why.

You have to wonder just what he's got on these people that they're tying themselves into pretzels to back him up.

Whatever it is, it must be really good - or bad, depending upon your perspective.

Unless of course this was all coincidence and these men decided to make these statements today, on the very same day Cuomo was surfacing to defend himself, because some strange alignment in the universe we don't yet understand compelled them to do so:

I'm sure it's coincidence multiple Moreland members decided to put out similar statements today, 5 days after NYT published its report.
— Jon Campbell (@JonCampbellGAN) July 28, 2014

Yeah, that must be it.

In any case, who doesn't love a parade?

Cuomo Says He Disappeared To Finish His Book

Here's Governor Cuomo explaining why he has been MIA for seven straight days, five of those coming after the NY Times/Moreland expose:

Cuomo: "I'm in the middle of writing a book."
— Nick Reisman (@NickReisman) July 28, 2014

Cuomo says "it's really, really difficult" to write a book.
— Nick Reisman (@NickReisman) July 28, 2014

Here's the video:




There you have it.

Cuomo's Dumb Schools Initiative Meets Later In The Week

From State of Politics:

At 1 p.m., the first meeting about the broadband availability enhancement component of the Smart Schools Initiative will be held, Blue Room, second floor, state Capitol.

Seems like Cuomo's "Smart Schools Initiative" could have made Frederick Hess' 10 School Reform Phrases That Should Trigger Your BS Detector list:

Education is filled with jargon, buzzwords, and BS. I've had a lot of fun over the years skewering the inanity that gets bandied about in education research and professional development. Education policy and school reform are rife with their own vapid vocabulary.

It's worth flagging this stuff. Doing so reminds us that fatuous phrases don't make problems go away.  It helps puncture sugarplum visions fueled by hot air. Left unchallenged, pat phrases allow wishful thinking to stand in for messy realities. After all, these fatuous phrases are pervasive. Here are 10 phrases that, when heard, should cause listeners to ask the speaker to explain what he or she means, using words that actually mean something.

"Smart" as applied to "regulation" made it to #8 on the list:

8. "Smart regulation." (You know, as opposed to those championing "dumb regulation." A similar caution also applies to calls for "smart accountability," "smart teacher evaluation," or "smart" anything else. Attaching an adjective doesn't make problems go away.)

Let's add a similar caution to calls for a "Smart Schools Initiative." 

As Hess noted, education is filled with jargon, buzzwords and bullshit.

I would add, education in New York during the Cuomo/Tisch/King Era is REALLY filled with jargon, buzzwords and bullshit.

Is Randi Weingarten REALLY Getting The Message?

Stephanie Simon at Politico reports the AFT convention that opens today in L.A. is not going to be as reformer-friendly as in years past:

The American Federation of Teachers will open its annual convention Friday morning with a startling announcement: After years of strongly backing the Common Core, the union now plans to give its members grants to critique the academic standards — or to write replacement standards from scratch.

It’s a sign that teachers are frustrated and fed up — and they’re making their anger heard, loud and clear.

The AFT will also consider a resolution — drafted by its executive council — asserting that the promise of the Common Core has been corrupted by political manipulation, administrative bungling, corporate profiteering and an invalid scoring system designed to ensure huge numbers of kids fail the new math and language arts exams that will be rolled out next spring. An even more pointed resolution flat out opposing the standards will also likely come up for a vote.

...

Policy analysts see this weekend’s moves as an escalation — a stark signal that union opposition has switched into high gear, potentially threatening an initiative that both conservatives and liberals have supported for years and that has become one of President Barack Obama’s key education priorities.

Simon writes that the AFT convention may also consider a "Dump Duncan" resolution now that the NEA has passed one and that Weingarten will set the tone of the convention by starting the festivities off with "a speech passing harsh judgment on Duncan."

Dunno about you, but I remain skeptical about this so-called change in tone and "escalation" of "union opposition."

Remember, Weingarten just stood with Secretary of Education Privatization Arne Duncan this week as part of his "Education Excellence Equity Project."

As in, literally stood with him - and when asked if the AFT would join the NEA in condemning Duncan and calling for his ouster, Weingarten demurred, saying she "understood the sentiment," but stopped short of saying the AFT would join the NEA in its call for Duncan's firing.

Clearly in the days since, the AFT leadership has taken the temperature of the AFT rank-and-file and decided this is not the year to trot out Bill Gates to sell Common Core and teacher evaluations, as they did a few years ago (including exhorting members to jeer other AFT rank-and-file who walked out of the convention in protest over Gates' invitation to speak.)

So we're getting some words out of the AFT convention that are made to fool us into thinking the AFT leadership is ready to escalate their opposition to the Obama administration's education reform agenda, the Common Core standards, the tests that go with them, etc.

But I've been around Randi Weingarten, Leo Casey et al. for 14 years now, first as a UFT member when they were running the NYC local, and now as an AFT member as they run the national union, and the one thing I can tell you is, watch what they do, not what they say.

Weingarten's standing with Arne Duncan earlier this week as he trotted out another teacher bashing initiative that utilizes the rhetoric of the corporate education reform movement to further weaken teacher professionalism, work protections and autonomy in the name of putting an "effective" teacher into every classroom is more telling than whatever jive ass bullshit she spews in L.A.

Had this "escalation" in "union opposition" to the Obama administration's education reform agenda and the Obama administration figure most prominent in pushing it been honest and true, Randi Weingarten wouldn't have stood with him as he put out another reform agenda proposal just four days before she was to unleash "a speech passing harsh judgment on Duncan."

The leaders of the AFT, like the leaders of the UFT, play fast and loose with the truth all the time and the best policy when dealing with them is to remain skeptical when they trot out a new tone and promises of fighting against the ravages of corporate education reform and say "Okay, how are they bullshitting me now?"

Because you can be certain that's what they're doing.

Still, to end on a positive note, the one thing that is important to take away from this is, even Randi Weingarten and the AFT leadership realize defending compromise with the corporate deformers and their education reform agenda won't fly anymore.

We are a long way from 2010 when Weingarten brought AFT rank-and-file this dog-and-pony show:

Cuomo Is Full Of Shit

On Monday, Sheriff Andy Cuomo said this about the looming possibility of an LIRR strike because the MTA and the LIRR unions can't come to a contract agreement:

“It’s actually Congress that can end a strike and impose a settlement one way or the other,” he said. “So right now it seems that Congress is pivotal to what happens here, and from what I read in the newspapers it’s going to depend on what Congress intends to do….”

Cuomo added that “Congress can order a settlement, Congress can order mediation, Congress can order arbitration, Congress can do almost whatever they want, because they are in control of the resolution of the strike.”

Here was Cuomo today:

Cuomo thanks NY members of Congress "for making it abundantly clear" Congress won't avert LIRR strike, as per "false belief" by unions.
— Liz Benjamin (@CTLizB) July 9, 2014

False belief put forward by the unions that Congress could help avert the LIRR strike?

The guy who put forward the false belief that Congress could help avert the LIRR strike was Sheriff Andy Cuomo himself.

Stop blaming the unions, Sheriff Andy.

You were the guy who pushed that meme.

Great News - New Walcott Health Data Coming!

Earlier this week, former NYCDOE chancellor Dennis Walcott released the results of his latest physical in the Daily News - an event that I covered in a post called Dennis Walcott Needs To Just Go The ---- Away!

Here's a bit of Walcott's piece:

My annual physical checkup — I just got the results — yielded the following comparisons to last year’s findings: Weight down from 152 to 148 lbs.; HDL (“good cholesterol”) up from 80 to 103; LDL (“bad cholesterol”) down from 82 to 73; blood pressure from 122/70 to 120/68; resting heart rate from 59 to 46 beats per minute.

Wow, isn't that awesome!  I'm so glad to know Walcott, who has the look of one of those dudes who runs 10 miles twice a day and hasn't had ice cream since the 1970's, is as physically fit in his data as he is in his appearance.

Yet not everybody was happy with Walcott's disclosures - one of the commenters on the post lamented that Walcott didn't disclose his Fully Monty:

Surprised he didn't give us details of his colonoscopy? Emaciated scumbag...

And I felt the same disappointment that while I know Walcott's weight, HDL and LDL cholesterol, blood pressure and heart rate, I still don't REALLY know Dennis Walcott the way I could have if he would have just released the results of his colonoscopy, prostrate exam, stool sample testing, et al.

But good news, America, more data is indeed coming - former Chancellor Walcott was so excited by the response to the release of his physical exam results in the Daily News over the weekend that he has agreed to make the results of his colonoscopy, prostrate exam, and stool sample tests available for all to see and study!

Now I dunno about you, but I was always part of the group that assumed this guy was full of shit as both deputy mayor and schools chancellor, so it will be great to see if we were right about that.

Walcott's results will be available, with video and PDF files, at the Daily News on Sunday.

How exciting - more data and information than we could ever want about Dennis Walcott!

And here's hoping this doesn't just stop with Walcott.

Maybe all this disclosure from Walcott and the tremendous response he's received over it will persuade Walcott's former boss, Michael Bloomberg, to release his medical results.

Mayor Trans Fat likes to tell the rest of us what we can and cannot eat, drink, smoke, etc.

It would be great to see if he puts his money where his mouth is, so to speak.

Come on, Mayor Mikey - why not follow in Dennis Walcott's footsteps and release the data?

Fox 5 New York Brings Joel Klein Onto "News" Show To Peddle Amplify Tablets

From MyFoxNY.com back in March:

Former New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein is now the Executive Vice President for News Corporation (parent company of FOX 5). 

Klein visited the set of Good Day New York on Tuesday to discuss the new Amplify tablet.  

The device is designed for teachers and students.

"Teachers love it; students love it. The teacher can personalize (the tablet.)  A teacher can also click on and see what skills (the student) has mastered. Everything the student does is stored in a cloud," said Klein.

The Android based tablet is being piloted in school districts across the county.

For more information, visit Amplify.com/Tablet

A commenter notes:

Joel Klein really has a face for radio! All kidding aside, he was a terrible Chancellor, is a terrible human being, and now he wants to peddle hundreds of thousands of these crappy tablets to schools nationwide....and the sad thing is, he'll probably succeed. From what I've seen, American kids already know how to play video games on smartphones and tablets....what exactly is the educational value of a game in which Tom Sawyer fights the Brontes? And how can you pitch this as "news" when it's a product YOUR COMPANY (Newscorp) is selling? From what I've seen the "Amplify" is only going to amplify problems.....and really, who wants to give Rupert Murdoch a camera that sees into children's bedrooms? FAIL!

Indeed.

Chelsea Clinton Is As Full Of Shit As Her Parents

From The Daily News:

Hillary Clinton insists she isn’t “well-off” and now daughter Chelsea, according to a recent interview, claims she couldn't care less about money.

“I was curious if I could care about (money) on some fundamental level, and I couldn’t,” she told Fast Company in an interview that ran in the magazine's May edition, explaining why she gave up lucrative gigs to join her family’s philanthropic foundation.

Comparing her experience to the average millennial, the 34-year-old former first daughter defended jumping around to different careers — from consulting to a hedge fund to academia to journalism — before finding her true calling working with her parents.

“It is frustrating, because who wants to grow up and follow their parents? I’ve tried really hard to care about things that were very different from my parents … it’s a funny thing to realize I feel called to this work, both as a daughter and also as someone who believes I have contributions to make,” she continued about her reluctant status as a boomerang kid.

The Clinton name likely opened doors for the political heiress, including an eye-popping $600,000 annual salary for an irregular stint as an NBC special correspondent, but Chelsea insists her work speaks for itself.

“I will just always work harder (than anybody else) and hopefully perform better,” said Clinton, who along with former banker husband Marc Mezvinsky, purchased a $10.5-million Gramercy Park apartment in 2013. “And hopefully, over time, I preempt and erase whatever expectations people have of me not having a good work ethic, or not being smart, or not being motivated.”

If you didn't "care" about the money they paid you at NBC for the reports you did, why take all $600,000 of it?

I'm sure NBC would have happily paid you less for your work.

As for your claiming you work harder than anybody else and perform better, actual journalists at NBC beg to differ:

Though the network said she was “warmly welcomed” to headquarters at Rock Center, others described Clinton as demanding and underwhelming in her journalistic chops.

“There were ground rules, what she could and couldn’t report, only good news, no politics,” one NBC insider told BuzzFeed in 2012 about the process of bring her onboard.

Yeah, sounds like you so performed better than anybody else at your job, Chelsea.

Man, I didn't think there was any presidential offspring I could feel more scorn for than Jenna Bush, but Chelsea "Full of Shit" Clinton just made the list.

Meritocracy, American style.

NY Post Calls UFT Contract "Satanic"

I know, I know - you think I'm engaging in hyperbole.

But I'm not.

A piece by Jenny Sedlis of StudentsFirstNY, written in reaction to some bravado remarks Mulgrew made Wednesday at the Delegates Assembly, is entitled: "The Satanic Details".

The remarks Sedlis is "outraged" about were these:

Union boss Mike Mulgrew went to his delegates on Wednesday and ’fessed up to his goal: revenge.

• He admitted his intention to “gum up the works” and undermine teacher evaluation so that it would be harder to identify and reward great teachers and improve low performing ones.
• He wanted a pilot program for innovative schools, but only as a way to undermine the good work that charter schools are doing. “We are at war with the reformers,” he warned his members.
• And he wanted to slap ex-Mayor Michael Bloomberg. “By working with this mayor,” the UFT chief said, “we have come up with a creative way to one more time wink at Bloomberg and say, ‘Gotcha.’”

Let's deal with two layers of phoniness here.

First, Mulgrew is full of shit over the "we are at war with reformers" jive - few locals around the country have done more to work with reformers to undermine the way teaching used to work than the UFT.

From the Teacher Data Reports based upon test scores Randi Weingarten agreed to with Chris Cerf to signing off on mayoral control twice to signing off on Race to the Top to actively promoting Common Core (and Mulgrew himself demonizing CCSS critics) to dropping the lawsuit against the Regents/SED over teacher evaluations to agreeing to APPR in the first place to helping Governor Cuomo get a deal in place in February 2012 that ensured APPR would be in effect everywhere in the state to hailing SED Commissioner John King's imposition of an odious evaluation system in NYC, the UFT leadership has given tremendous aid to the reformers' work.

The latest contract also contains goodies the reformers wanted - adding merit pay and ways to circumvent the contract at 200 NYC schools while changing the way the ATR pool is run.

Mulgrew engaged in bravado at the DA the other night, spouting off the tough words because he needs to fool as many members as possible into thinking he's actually fighting for their interests when you can see quite clearly he's working hard to undermine them.

The second layer of phoniness here is Sedlis' "outrage" - and the Post's.

They know how much they've gotten out of the UFT leadership in the last 12 years, how radically different the system is now compared to a decade ago, but they want to make believe like nothing's changed, that Mulgrew's intransigence is keeping things the way they have always been and, in the end, it's just "satanic."

Two layers of phoniness going on here, a whole bunch of people - Sedlis, Mulgrew, the Posties - who are simply full of shit.

In the end, what's really "satanic" is how phony the whole "war" between unions and reformers is.

That war ended a long time ago when union leaders like Randi Weingarten and Michael Mulgrew began "collaborating" with reformers to implement their reform agenda.