63% In NY State Back De Blasio To Raise Tax On Wealthy For Pre-K

David Dinkins called fora return to the regressive commuters tax to fund universal pre-K in NYC, saying the measure will not be popular in Albany, but state voters overwhelmingly back de Blasio's plan:

Meanwhile, 62 percent of New York state voters back New York City Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio’s plan to raise income taxes on the city’s wealthy in order to fund universal pre-kindergarten. The plan, which would need approval from the Legislature and Cuomo, was opposed by 32 percent.

“New York City Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio’s campaign issue, raising taxes on the well-to-do in the city to pay for improvements in education, wins solid approval in every corner of the state, except among Republicans,” Quinnipiac pollster Maurice Carroll said in a statement. “And Republican State Senators still have a lot to say about what happens in Albany.”

It's true that Republican State Senators have a lot to say about what happens in Albany - that's because Governor Cuomo and some breakaway Dems gave them control of the State Senate.

But if Cuomo wants the tax on the wealthy to pass, it will pass.

That's the short of it.

It's a done deal in the Assembly, and the breakaway Dems in the Senate can be brought to heel on the plan with a little convincing.

I suspect Governor Cuomo will look for another way to fund that universal pre-K, however.

Whether that means the return of the regressive commuter tax, only time will tell about that.

That surely would not make commuters from Rockland, Westchester and Long Island happy.

Wouldn't make people from Jersey or Connecticut happy either (though they aren't NY voters, so many nobody cares about them.)

I think a return to the commuter tax would be a disaster, but I wouldn't be surprised if that Dinkins comment wasn't a trial balloon to see if there is a stomach for just that kind of thing.

Clearly the Q poll shows there is plenty of appetite for raising taxes on rich people to fund the de Blasio plan.

But politicians are so loathe to raise taxes on rich people when they can just stick in some regressive tax on everybody instead.

NYSED Commissioner King Shouted Down At Common Core Meeting In Suffolk

Okay, you know the drill on this already.

Hundreds of parents, teachers and administrators criticize the Common Core, the Common Core implementation, the Common Core tests, the teacher evaluation system tied to those tests, and the inBloom data project at the latest Common Core forum with NYSED Commissioner John King.

King says he's listening but vows there will be no major changes to the state's education reform agenda.

And on goes the implementation.

Newsday has the latest:

Parents, students and school officials from across Suffolk County told state Education Commissioner John B. King Jr. during a contentious meeting Tuesday night in Manorville that the rapid implementation of tough, new academic standards has "set children up to fail."

Roughly 600 people packed into the Eastport-South Manor Junior-Senior High School, with a vast majority critical of the rollout of the Common Core academic standards. They say the initiative is far too difficult for many children -- particularly those with special needs. They contend it has prompted testing anxiety among students, causing some to feel perpetually discouraged and to lose interest in school.

They also said the state is inflexible in its implementation of this and of numerous other education plans, including a controversial move to link teacher and principal evaluations to student test scores and academic growth. The state agreed to such a move in part so it could receive some $700 million in federal education grants

...

 The crowd shouted down both the commissioner and the few educators who spoke out in support of the Common Core initiative -- which proponents say emphasizes critical thinking -- despite numerous appeals for decorum. Hundreds walked out early, telling state officials they weren't listening.

Here's what students and parents told the King:

Connor Sick, 18 and a senior at Rocky Point High School, asked King if he had "anything to say about why failure is being used as a weapon" to motivate struggling students. The commissioner did not answer the question directly and stood by the Common Core program.
...

Tom Laraia, 60, who identified himself as a special-education teacher who retired last year, said he was particularly upset over special-ed testing.

"The way we test special-ed kids is appalling," he said, explaining how some former students cried during tests.

Mary Von Eiff, of Southold, came in with her own sign that read: "Hey King, these are my kids, not yours. And they are not common."

Von Eiff resigned as the special-education administrator of Oyster Ponds School District in 2009, and is now home-schooling her three daughters, who are 11, 8 and 6. She called Common Core "the federal takeover of public education as we know it. That local control has been removed."

Karen Wing, 44 of Shoreham, took her 10-year-old triplets to the meeting but left early. She said the Common Core-related tests were "extremely stressful" for her daughters and that she and her husband hired tutors to help them.

Jan Achilich, special-education director at Remsenburg-Speonk Union Free School District, told King the state should have introduced the new materials starting at the lowest grades so children had time to adjust.

"What we are doing to our upper-grade children," she said, is tantamount to "physically throwing them into a rushing river without a life preserver."

School, she said, should be a place for children to sing, dance, create and learn together "in an atmosphere of grace," rather than under an umbrella of anxiety.

King's response?

King, in an interview after the forum, said the schools he's visited have adapted well to the standards, although it has taken time and effort. He predicted that critics will look more favorably on the initiative as the years roll on.

"Now is not the time to retreat from high standards," he said.

This Gospel of the Common Core road show is getting old, and while I like song and dance routines as much as the next fellow, the one's King and Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch are doing as they make believe they're listening to the concerns of students, parents, teachers and administrators aren't striking a chord with me.

It is time to put the politicians on the spotlight over the CCSS, the Common Core tests, the teacher evaluation system that mandates all the tests, and the inBloom data project.

As  Christina Bangel, parent and teacher, said at a recent forum in Binghamton:

“Tell the assembly we’re coming for them. We’re coming for them, we’re angry and we vote.”

I would add the state senate and the governor to the list.

Might even start making calls to representatives in Washington.

Politicians who continue to support the Common Core, Common Core testing, teacher evaluations tied to those tests, and the inBloom data project will be made to pay a political price at the ballot box and in the news media.

That's where this fight has to go now.

It is clear that King and Tisch do not give a whit about student, parent, teacher or administrator concern.

Chicago Tribune: Illinois Gubernatorial Candidate Full Of Crap

Once in a while, a political figure gets called on his bull@#$% (via Political Wire):

Illinois gubernatorial candidate Bruce Rauner (R) has a new TV ad "showing off his modest watch, a symbol of his down-to-earth frugality," the Chicago Tribune reports.

Says his official bio: "Bruce has never let his success change him. He still drives a 20-year-old camper van, wears an $18 watch, and stays in the cheapest hotel room he can find when he's on the road."

But he doesn't mention his real estate portfolio which includes nine homes in Illinois, Florida, Montana, Wyoming, Utah and "a penthouse in a landmark co-op building along New York's Central Park, which property records show Rauner bought in 2005 for $10 million."

Down-to-earth frugality means never having to hide your nine pieces of expensive property, including a Central Park penthouse co-op.

It's great to see someone call him on it.

Not that I like the incumbent Quinn.

Quite frankly, a pox on both these guys.

Cuomo Warns Unions They Need A "Reality Adjustment"

Colby Hamilton at DNAinfo:

MIDTOWN — Gov. Andrew Cuomo warned the city’s municipal labor unions Tuesday that they should be prepared to signficantly manage expectations as they prepare to sit down and negotiate new contracts with soon-to-be-mayor Bill de Blasio.

While he praised the unions for their “superb” willingness to help the city during tight times in the past — most notably during the fiscal crisis of the 1970s — the governor said labor leaders need to be “realistic” in their demands amid the difficulties currently faced by the city.

“Going into the conversation, everyone needs a reality adjustment,” Cuomo said during an unrelated press conference at the Javits Center.

“The unions have understood that in the past and they've acted accordingly and my guess is that they will again.”

UFT members did not get the last 8% pattern raise.

The APPR teacher evaluation system and its ancillary rules have forced concessions from UFT members on ratings, observations, lesson planning, and work load.

This UFT member does NOT need a reality adjustment.

This UFT members needs the 8% raise he deserved as part of the old pattern and additional compensation for all the concessions made to APPR.

And there will be NO additional concessions in this contract to health care or pension, no additional days or time added.

This UFT member gave at the office already - that's the reality whether Sheriff Andy Cuomo cares to admit that or not.

“Tell The Assembly We’re Coming For Them. We’re Coming For Them, We’re Angry And We Vote!” - Parent At Common Core Forum

More protests on the Gospel of the Common Core tour:

BINGHAMTON — Bearing signs reading “We are human, not machines,” “Oust the King” and “End Fed Ed,” Binghamton area residents let state Education Commissioner John King see — and hear — their discontent with Common Core state standards.

“Tell the assembly we’re coming for them. We’re coming for them, we’re angry and we vote,” said Christina Bangel, a seventh-grade social studies teacher at Owego-Apalachin Middle School and mother of two third-grade students at Owego Elementary School.



Bangel, like many other parents, teachers and community members, criticized King and other state officials for the Common Core standards, rushed implementation, student testing and a host of other topics during a forum Monday night at West Middle School in Binghamton. Almost 50 residents spoke during the two-and-a-half hour session, while more than 700 filled in the seats to applaud, cheer and stand in solidarity.

 ...

 King and other officials remained relatively quiet during the forum, allowing residents to voice their concerns and questions. When King did speak to address concerns, he was often met with jeers, shouts and heckling from the audience, asking him for proof or calling him a liar.

Tisch and King continue to implement their agenda no matter what they hear or encounter on their Gospel of the Common Core tour.

So Christina Bangel's statement to the politicians of this state is an important one:

“Tell the assembly we’re coming for them. We’re coming for them, we’re angry and we vote.”

As has been noted at various places around the Internets, half measure avail us nothing here.

There is no tinkering with the Common Core or the Endless Testing or the inBloom project.

These must be ended and a new direction for the state's education policy must be developed that takes input from students, parents, teachers and administrators - not just $27 million worth of lobbyists, er, Regents Fellows.

Cuomo's Job Performance Ratings

After a Siena poll showed Andrew Cuomo with a 44%-56% job performance rating last week, a new Quinnipiac poll released today shows a different story:

New York State Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who saw his job approval rating drop in Quinnipiac University polls in the first six months of the year, opens his reelection bid with a 62 - 25 percent approval rating today.

Marist released a poll yesterday finding this:

About 52% of the registered voters polled said they approved of Mr. Cuomo's job performance, with 8% of voters deeming his performance "excellent," and 44% describing it as "good." The same poll in April found approval of Mr. Cuomo's job performance at 54%.

The Quinnipiac poll, often unreliable in the past, seems a little high to me, especially with Cuomo's lost approval over the gun law.

The Siena poll might be a little low.

He's probably right in the middle somewhere, hovering near 50% or just above - which is where Marist has him.

The truth is, having a 52% job performance rating going into re-election is nothing to write home about.

In both the Marist and the Siena polls, his performance trajectory has been downward.

He beats any opponent put up against him next year - but we knew that would happen.

The problem for Cuomo is that he needs to beat his opponent next year convincingly so that he can make a case for a 2016 run.

Let;s see what Cuomo's performance rating looks like in another nine months, especially after Republicans start running ads against him.

If they nominate a sane, reasonable candidate, I think they can hold Sheriff Andy to a modest victory, giving him trouble for his vaunted 2016 run.

NYSED Commissioner John King: Elementary School Teachers To Blame For Common Core Opposition

First, he said there is no turning back:

State Education Commissioner John King defended the Common Core curriculum during a tour of the Binghamton region on Monday while acknowledging some difficulty in rolling out the standards.

“Any time you try to raise standards across 45 states, it’s going to be a complicated process,” King said.



King is traveling throughout the state to explain the initiative that supporters say is designed to raise the performance level of students statewide. But the common core has come under harsh criticism in some sectors as too rigid and too test intensive.

Throughout the state, some teachers are scrambling to teach to the new standards. Many teachers didn’t receive instructional materials on how to use the new curricula until mid-summer, leaving them little time to prepare lesson plans before school started. Two months into the school year, some instructional aids remained unavailable.



King said the state would remain committed to the standard.


“It would be a mistake to retreat from higher standards and from the idea of college and career readiness for all students,” King said. “That said, there are adjustments we will make along the way. We already have in the last four years.”

He then blamed elementary school teachers for some of the furor over the new Common Core:

King said some of the resistance to common core concepts comes at the teacher preparation level.“Historically, in New York, you could pass the elementary teacher certification exam and fail the math section,” King said. “You could compensate with your scores in other areas.”

 He recalled the dean of a teacher prep program telling him that candidates said they were going into elementary education “because they don’t like math.”

“That’s a problem,” King said. “We need elementary school teachers who have a strong background in math.”

In short, it's the elementary school teachers who can't understand the vaunted Common Core math standards that are the problem here.

Never mind that the Common Core math standards are considered developmentally inappropriate for young children and even parents are finding them confusing or just plain useless.

Yeah, never mind that - all this hub-bub over Common Core is the fault of the elementary school teachers.

King displacing blame onto others once again - special interests have fooled the parents into opposing Common Core, elementary school teachers who don't understand the math standards are driving the opposition to the Core.

The more he tries to defend his indefensible positions, the deeper he digs himself into a hole.

Merryl Tisch Get A Subpoena From The Moreland Commission Yet?

Of course she hasn't - but she should.

We learned on Sunday that Regents Chancellor Tisch paid out of her own pocket for private employees to run NYSED offices - at least the first million came from the Tisch family fortune.

Millions more came from the Gates Foundation, General Electric and a bunch of other corporate entities - $19 million in total from more than two dozen private employees.

These private employees, called "Regents Fellows," many with connections to the Gates Foundation and other education reform groups, developed state education policy, implemented that policy and helped enforce it.

In short, the Gates Foundation took over the running of the NYSED.

Former NYSED Commissioner King, current Commissioner King and Regents Chancellor Tisch were all behind this scheme to turn over government functions to private personnel paid for by private companies and "non-profits."

Those actions warrant subpoenas from the Moreland Commission, which has been entrusted to look into influence peddling and corruption in Albany.

Tisch should be first on the list for a subpoena, followed by King and Steiner, all of the Regents Fellows and every company and non-profit that provided the cash to hire these people.

Here's a list of the contributors to the Regents Fellows fund:

Regents Research Fund contributors
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation $3.3 million
James S. and Merryl H. Tisch Fund $400,000 (draw-down on $1 million commitment)
Leona and Harry Helmsley Charity $3.83 million
Amy and Larry Robbins Foundation $500,000
Tortora Silicox Family Foundation $975,000
GE Foundation $3.5 million
Ford Foundation $788,000
Carnegie Corp. $1.2 million
Tiger Foundation $560,000
Robin Hood Foundation $600,000
William and Flora Hewlett Foundation $900,000

Doubtful Sheriff Andy or his merry Morelanders will want subpoenas sent to investigate this blatant corruption at the Board of Regents and NYSED.

But if we lived in a real democracy instead of a corrupt corporatocracy, you can bet it would be investigated.

De Blasio: No Chancellor Pick Yet

And so, if you're interested to see which direction de Blasio takes the schools system in, the wait goes on:

Nearly three weeks after his election, Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio has yet to decide who will run the city’s public schools.

Asked for a status update today during a rare public appearance, Mr. de Blasio offered reporters eager for any tidbits about his transition efforts few hints.



“I will say I appreciate the question. I don’t think it’s quite time to go over that,” he said, following an education speech at Columbia University. “The conversations are just being arranged now, so let us get a couple more days down the road and we’ll be in a position to give you some more.”

We wait, we wonder.

It's Official: NYSED To Change Name To Gates Foundation

With the news that Gates Foundation employees, paid for by Gates Foundation grants and/or cash from corporate entities, are acting in official capacity at the NY State Education Department to develop, implement and enforce policy, Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch announced today that she is just going to dispense with the sham and rename the NY State Education Department the "Gates Foundation: Albany Office."

I say, it's about time.

What's the point in making believe this is a democratic government with democratically elected officials and public employees paid for by tax dollars running the state when it's really a corporatocracy with private employees paid for by private interests imposing their own agenda on the state whether the people like it or not?

Tisch, King, Gates Foundation Should Be Investigated By Moreland Commission

With the news that Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch has hired private employees from the Gates Foundations and other education reform groups to privatize the New York State Department of Education where they develop policy, implement those policies and just generally order the state employees around to do their bidding, we can see why neither she nor Commissioner King will allow any significant changes to the state's reform agenda or to forced collection of student data to the inBloom data project.

Quite frankly, the Board of Regents and the New York State Education Department have become subsidiaries of the Gates Foundation.

I wonder how the citizens of this state will feel as they learn that the reins of power in education policy have been handed over to lobbyists and education reform proponents from the Gates Foundation and other education reform entities?

I wonder how Sheriff Andy Cuomo will publicly respond to this news.

It sounds to me like the Moreland Commission needs to send some subpoenas the way of the Board of Regents, the NYSED and the Gates Foundation in order to get to the bottom of just who is paying to have which policies developed and implemented as the official education policy of this state.

Not that I think that will happen.

But it should.

As B-Lo-Ed Scene noted this morning

Seems Empress Tisch and her friends from the financial ionosphere have been buying and selling education policy and calling themselves charitable donors not influence peddlers.

 
That's the kind of thing that needs investigating.

Cuomo's Education Reform Agenda Exposed

Tim Farley wrote a letter to Governor Cuomo, part of which made it to the Times Union.

In it, Farley shows just how much of the NY State reform agenda is Cuomo's agenda.

He notes how Cuomo has been trying to distance himself from the state reform agenda in recent days, as public outrage over the reforms has grown, then writes:
 

This seems different from two years ago, when he wrote Board of Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch and suggested changes:

• "Impose rigorous classroom observation and other subjective measure standards...
• "Require a positive teacher evaluation rating be given only when the teacher receives a combined positive rating on both subjective and objective measures...

• "Accelerate the implementation of the evaluation system...

• "Impose additional standards on school districts... to make evaluations more rigorous...

• "We must make sure that school districts begin the process in an expeditious manner...

• "My administration will aggressively seek to incentivize school districts to implement the evaluation system expeditiously...

• "School districts would potentially lose millions of dollars on state awards for failure to implement the system quickly."

There you have it - Sheriff' Andy's letter to Merryl Tisch "suggesting" many of the changes that were ultimately put into place that have caused so many of the problems in this state.

As I have written before, the NY State reform agenda is Governor Cuomo's reform agenda.

He will not get away from distancing himself or making believe it is Tisch's or King's.

We will not let him distance himself - as Tim Farley did not in today's Times Union letter.

Governor Cuomo Must Be Called To Account For The Corruption At SED, Board Of Regents

The bombshell report in the Times-Union that private employees, paid for by the Gates Foundation and other corporate funds, are running NYSED, implementing policy and ordering around the state employees to do their bidding, has already led me to call for Regents Chancellor Tisch and NYSED Commissioner King to be forced from power.

Tisch supplied the first $1 million in grant money to hire the private employees and set SED on the road to permanent privatization.

King helped devise the privatization scheme as then-SED Commissioner Steiner's deputy commissioner, and thus he must be brought to account and stripped of power too.

Former NYSED Commissioner Steiner, accused in the past of taking bribes from Pearson in the form of overseas junkets, should be brought to account for these actions as well.

But Governor Andrew Cuomo has a lot of explaining to do over this scheme - and he had better start doing that explaining soon.

Cuomo has been trying to distance himself from the state reform agenda recently as a result of widespread and growing criticism, but he cannot distance himself from the handing over of the state's education department and education policy to Gates Foundation employees paid for on the private dime from the coffers of corporate entities and hedge funds.

This Regents Fellows scandal stinks to high heaven of the worst corruption possible.

Cuomo must answer how the State Education Department and its education policy making has been handed over to the Gates Foundation.

One thing we know now for why King and Tisch refuse to drop out out inBloom or slow down the Common Core reforms.

Because the Gates Foundation doesn't want the state to drop out of inBloom or slow down the Common Core reforms and the Gates Foundation is literally running policy in the state.

Regents Chancellor Tisch, NYSED Commissioner King Must Be Forced From Power

The Times Union report on the Regents fellows - private employees (paid for by the Gates Foundation and other corporate philanthropists) who are running the state education department from within, making policy and ordering around the government employees to do their bidding - goes to show what a corrupt government Andrew Cuomo is running here in NY State.

Truth be told, I bet there are similar arrangements in many other state capitals as well as at the USDOE in Washington D.C.

Alas, I cannot do much about the other states or the USDOE in Washington, but I sure can raise hell in NY State.

It is outrageous that the Gates Foundation and other corporate entities have their own people in the state bureaucracy running the government.

But it is even more outrageous that it is the Regents chancellor, Merryl Tisch, who used her own money to start the private hiring and lead the charge to the privatization of the state education department:

The fellows program grew out of former Education Commissioner David Steiner's 2010 decision to use an existing charitable group to give birth to a research arm of his bureaucracy. At the time, the department was being challenged by Washington to improve school results and by Albany to do more with less. Confronted by the department's loss of staff through cuts and early-retirement incentives and federal pressure to adopt reforms under the Race to the Top initiative, Steiner, his then-deputy King and Chancellor Merryl H. Tisch tried something different: They leveraged private donations, starting with $1 million from the private foundation established by Tisch and her husband, Loews Corp. CEO James Tisch, to infuse the Regents Research Fund with dollars to hire education consultants.

What was envisioned as a short-term, relatively small augmentation to SED staff has grown exponentially. Fellows operate independently and communicate regularly with King and many interact regularly with state workers, but are not bound by Public Officer's Law or ethics rules imposed on government officials.

Tisch has engineered a coup to hand over the reins of power to the functionaries of her fellow plutocrats and corporate cronies, and with the apparent acquiescence of Governor Cuomo, has shifted the policy-making into the hands of private interests.

Tisch must be forced to resign her post as Regents Chancellor immediately and Governor Cuomo must be called to account for this coup d'etat at the NYSED.

Tisch must take her NYSED Commissioner King with her, since his fingerprints are on this criminal enterprise as well.

Andrew Cuomo MUST Be Held Accountable For InBloom

NY1 on the state's forced data plan for all NY State school districts:

Big record-keeping changes are coming to schools across the state.

Under a new plan, public schools will be required to send student data, such as grades and attendance records, to a cloud-based data storage company sometime after the new year.

New York is the first state to make a full commitment to the program created by the Atlanta-based InBloom.

A number of states flirted with using the program, but withdrew.

The initiative has come under fire from parents, who fear that the data will not be secure and could be sold to marketers.

The New York State Department of Education says that the data will be accessible only to parents and educators via the internet.

I love that last line - like nobody who isn't supposed to access stuff on the Internets ever gets that access without permission.

Yeah, right.

Governor Cuomo is trying to distance himself from the state's education reform agenda, from the Common Core "national curriculum" to the Endless Testing regime imposed by the Regents to the forced data collection imposed by the NYSED, but he cannot escape his accountability measures.

APPR, Common Core reforms, inBloom - all are Cuomo policies, all have his fingerprints all over them whether he wants to admit to it or not.

We will NOT let him get away with distancing himself from his own reform agenda.

Andrew Cuomo must be held accountable for the education policies he has promoted since he was elected governor.

Looking at his plummeting job performance ratings, he's already taking a bit of a hit.

But that's not good enough.

Give Cuomo a call, send him an email, let him know you intend to hold him accountable for inBloom, APPR, Common Core and let him know how you'll be telling all your family and friends over the holidays how these are Andrew Cuomo's policies, how Cuomo MUST be held accountable next November for these crimes against children, teachers and schools.

http://www.governor.ny.gov/contact/GovernorContactForm.php

Or

You may also contact the Governor's office by phone (518) 474-8390 or mail:

The Honorable Andrew M. Cuomo
Governor of New York State
NYS State Capitol Building
Albany, NY 12224

Frank Bruni LOVED "Won't Back Down"

NY Times restaurant critic/columnist Frank Bruni has some propaganda piece out about the Common Core State (sic) Standards that equates opponents of the standards as purveyors of the self-esteem movement in which every child is a winner and everyone gets a trophy no matter how they do in life's competition.

Alas, before we take anything Bruni writes seriously, let us remember how much he enjoyed the propaganda film "Won't Back Down" last year (see here and here for my take on that.)

Other critics did not take to "Won't Back Down" the way Bruni did.

Bruni's take on the Common Core State (sic) Standards is no better informed this his movie review of "Won't Back Down."

Perdido Street School Blog Finally On The Twitter

Here - realitybasededucator@perdidostschool 

Still holding out on the Facebook though.

Screw Zuckerberg.

New York Only State STILL Committed To InBloom Data Program

The Associated Press covers the inBloom mess in New York State:

NEW YORK (AP) — After months of debate about the risks of storing student data in the cloud, New York is pressing ahead with a plan to create a statewide database for every public school student's grades, tests scores and attendance records — a tech startup proposal that drew interest from several other states that have now reconsidered.

Concerns from parents about who will have access to the information, how long it will be held and whether it will be used for marketing purposes have stalled the momentum of a startup that promised to bring efficiency and cost savings to record-keeping that is still largely handled district by district across the country.

...

Founded in February with $100 million in grant money from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Carnegie Corp., Atlanta-based data-storage company inBloom drew early interest from several states.

But within months, Louisiana, Kentucky, Georgia and Delaware pulled back. Massachusetts is using inBloom services in one pilot district but has made no commitment to further involvement. The school board in the Jefferson County, Colo., district in suburban Denver canceled inBloom this month amid parent opposition.

Illinois is participating, but that state's Board of Education said individual districts don't have to send their data if they don't want to.

The New York State Education Department, however, is going forward with plans requiring districts to send student information with names to inBloom sometime after Jan. 1.

The data will be accessible by educators and parents through a portal. For New York students, the data will include grades, standardized test scores and any medical diagnosis that requires special-education services. Suspensions will be logged as part of a student's attendance record, but the reason for a suspension won't be.

A group of New York City parents sued this month to block the release of student information to inBloom, and critics still hope to persuade state officials to step back from the data plan.

Lawmakers attending a hearing in Albany this past week demanded to know why New York was the only state that's still all-in with inBloom, with no "opt-out" provision for families or for districts.

State Education Commissioner John King said that he shared their concerns about security but that collecting student data "is necessary for the good functioning of districts, schools and states."

...

In addition to security concerns, debate has focused on fears that companies will use the data to sell educational products.

"It's not an educational plan. It's a marketing plan," said Lisa Rudley, a mother of three from Ossining, N.Y., who testified at the assembly hearing.

Any legislator who supports shoving this plan down the throats of NY school parents without allowing for an opt-out option MUST be made to pay the political price at the ballot box.

The same goes for any governor.

NYSED Commissioner King and Regents Chancellor Tisch are not going to cave on this data collection, just as they are not going to cave on the Common Core implementation, the Endless Testing program linked to it, or the teacher evaluation system that forces teachers to teach the SED "suggested" curricula modules or risk "ineffective" ratings if students do not score well on the state tests.

But the politicians who put these functionaries in place can be made to FEAR the power of students, parents, teachers and administrators.

One of the most used tools in the education reformer tool box is FEAR - they bludgeon districts, schools, teachers, parents and students with the fear of lost money, the fear of lost autonomy, the fear of low test scores, the fear of being held back, the fear of being fired over an "ineffective" rating.

It is time to turn that FEAR tool back onto them and use it to force them to acquiesce to the will of the people.

We still live in a nominal "democracy" (though it's more and more a "fake" democracy and real plutocracy.)

These politicians - from Assembly Speaker to Silver to State Senate Education Chairman Flanagan to Governor Cuomo and the rest of the political contingent in Albany - still have to stand for re-election.

2014 is the time for an accountability moment for these politicians.

If they pay lip service to public concerns over the state's reform agenda but continue to take actions that impose that very agenda on the state, then they MUST be made to pay the political price for that betrayal of the public trust.

NY should not be the only state STILL in this inBloom data handover to Rupert Murdoch.

NY should not be the only state going "full speed ahead" with the Common Core reforms even as the public turns against them.

Michael Pollan Knows Nothing About Mayor Bloomberg

.@michaelpollan @paultough NOT a good idea; Bloomberg has been a disaster when it comes to instituting tech systems; witness CityTime
— leonie haimson (@leoniehaimson) November 24, 2013

Apparently Michael Pollan missed not only the news about CityTime scandal - the worst fraud ever perpetrated against NYC - but also the 911 system overhaul mess that has seen Bloomberg spend over $2 billion dollars in tech upgrades that cause the system to freeze repeatedly and just may have led to the death of a four year old.

Or the EMT records modernization project Bloomberg instituted that the NY Post called a "technical nightmare" that causes the new wifi devices to freeze up and lose information - again putting lives at risk.

Or the NYCHA computer system upgrade that Bloomberg spent $36 million on that Juan Gonzlaez described this way in the Daily News:

Bureaucrats at the New York City Housing Authority gave their new $36 million computerized rent-collection system the bizarre acronym NICE (NYCHA Improving Customer Experience).

But for landlords and public housing tenants, the system — designed by firm Siebel-Oracle — is a cyber-monster run amok.

Since NICE was launched in February, the annual certification process for 100,000 tenants who receive Section 8 rent subsidies has turned into a hellhole of disappeared documents, erroneous payments and baseless eviction notices.

Many of the 30,000 private landlords who get paid by the Housing Authority are up fed up.

“It’s total chaos beyond belief,” said one Brooklyn building owner. “Landlords are being mixed up and getting wrong checks. Sometimes the computer automatically sends termination notices to every tenant in a building. Transfers get held up for months. The whole thing gets worse every day.”

Or how about the GPS systems Bloomberg bought for the FDNY that the NY Times described this way:

The Bloomberg administration spent millions of dollars to put custom-made GPS tracking units in fire and garbage trucks, only to have vehicles inexplicably show up on computer screens as if they had sunk to the bottom of Long Island Sound or New York Harbor, the city comptroller has found.

Faulty devices, inaccurate locations, needless features and prices to make a vendor blush — as much as $56,000 for a single unit in a sanitation truck — characterized the two projects, according to two audits released on Wednesday.

The comptroller, John C. Liu, said the findings were more evidence of the administration’s troubled record with computer projects.

“Once again, millions of taxpayer dollars have been wasted on technology that falls short of what’s promised, raising questions about the oversight of expensive outside consultants,” he said in a statement. Mr. Liu, a likely mayoral candidate, has crusaded against city technology spending on projects like CityTime, the scandal-plagued payroll system.

Last week, the Bloomberg administration acknowledged that it had mismanaged its major information-technology projects and vowed to improve oversight.

And let's not forget the Bloomberg Blizzard Disaster of 2011 that saw Bloomberg telling people to relax and take in a Broadway show as New Yorkers died in this city because Bloomberg was too incompetent to get the streets plowed in a timely fashion.

Or his downplaying of the storm threat pre-Sandy that caused some New Yorkers to take the storm less seriously than they should have.

I'm sick of these "experts" like Pollan pontificating about stuff they know NOTHING about, showing their ignorance in the bargain, and no one calling them on it.

Not that he's going to care, but I'M going to call him on it.

Pollan is an ignoramus if he thinks Bloomberg is some uber-competent techno-genius who should be tapped to fix the Obamacare mess.

This is the kind of statement that calls into question whatever else this guy writes or talks about.

Holding Andrew Cuomo Accountable For His Common Core/Testing Agenda

Great piece from Karen Dewitt at WXXI:

Everywhere Governor Cuomo goes these days, he’s dogged by questions from reporters about what’s widely perceived as a rocky start up of New York State’s adoption of the new national Common Core standards for school children.

Cuomo was asked essentially the same question in recent days in stops from Buffalo, to Lake Placid.

“Can you talk about the common core, a lot of people  have issues with it," asked a reporter in Lake Placid on  November 20th.

In his answers lately , Governor Cuomo distances himself from the growing discontent that’s led to raucous meetings between state education officials and angry parents and teachers.

At an event on Staten Island, Cuomo called the implementation of the Common Core standards “problematic” .  In Lake Placid, he acknowledged the unease.

“It’s been very controversial,” Cuomo said. “It’s very controversial here in the state.”

Just a month ago, on October 23rd, Cuomo sounded much more supportive of the Common Core implementation, saying change can be hard “even when it’s right”.

“When you come in with a big change, there’s normally fits and starts, and it’s a little jerky, so that’s to be expected, “Cuomo said. “But Common Core curriculum, nationwide that’s where the country’s going, that’s the state of the art.”

Cuomo made those comments  just a few days after a raucous meeting in Poughkeepsie, where parents and teachers complained to State Education Commissioner John King that their children are taking too many tests, and teachers are not given adequate preparation to teach the new curriculum required to meet the standards. At one point, King was shouted down.

The Poughkeepsie forum was also Commissioner King’ s first meeting with parents and teachers since the first set of exams were released since the Common Core was adopted.  Those tests concluded that two thirds of the state’s third through eight graders were not adequately prepared to be on track for college or careers in the 21st century.

Since then, unease about the adoption of the standards has only grown. It’s been the subject of two sometimes contentious legislative hearings, and at a recent forum on Long Island, things were not much calmer.

In New York State, the Governor does not have direct control over education.   Cuomo has no power to appoint the education commissioner. King was chosen by the State Board of Regents. The Regents members are picked by the legislature.  Cuomo is quick to point that out.

“The governor is not in charge of the State Education Department,” Cuomo has said more than once.

A recent Siena Poll shows New Yorkers have become disenchanted with the Common Core. Nearly half hold doubts about its effectiveness.

Steve Greenberg, a spokesmen for Siena polls, says voters, though, may not make the distinction of who has authority over the education department, and Cuomo will likely be held accountable whether he’s actually in charge of it or not.

“Education is a key issue, and I think what this poll says is that all of those involved in education have to do a better job of informing the New York voters and citizens of what their efforts are, what their purpose is , and how they’re going about doing it,” Greenberg said.

Cuomo has not been shy in speaking out about education matters in the past . He has referred to himself as the “lobbyist” for students, and in the past has railed against excessive school spending, saying “more money” is not the answer. Cuomo does have the power in the state budget, to partly determine who much money schools will receive.

Cuomo also advocated for the state’s quick adoption of the new higher standards, as well as new , tougher teacher evaluations. New York is one of only two states to fast track the transition to Common Core.

While the Governor can’t directly affect education policy, he and the legislature can pass legislation to slow down the implementation of the Common Core standards. Many groups, including teachers unions, have been calling for a moratorium.  At each stop the governor has made in recent days, he has hinted that he might just try to do that.

“The state could pass a law that stops it, starts it, accelerates it, etc.,” Cuomo said.

The governor says he’s going to be keeping an eye on the situation. 

Cuomo is twisting himself into a pretzel trying to make like he had nothing to do with the state's education reform agenda, nothing to do with the Common Core implementation or tests or teacher evaluation systems that mandates these tests, but people remember his dubbing himself the "lobbyist" for students and pushing all of these reforms on the state.

The record is there to see and read and hear from his past speeches, statements and press releases.

He cannot hide from it and he will be held accountable for it.

He knows that, of course, which is why he's trying to make believe like he had never heard of this "national curriculum" known as Common Core until a few weeks ago.

He fools no one with this jive.

No one.

Own up to it, Sheriff Andy.

This is your curriculum, your reforms, your evaluation system, your data collection project.

Everyone knows it no matter what you say now.