Why The State Education Commissioner King Should Be Fired As He Stubborningly And Stupidly Wants Teacher Evaluations Tied To Truants.

It seems the tide is slowly turning against the State's proposal to tie teacher evaluations to all students assigned to the teacher.  At first the "Education Reformers who had the ear of the Governor, supported a "no excuses approach" by including truants in a teacher evaluation system.  However, some of the more thoughtful reformers now realize that adjustments must be made, not the zealots representing children first (Rhee, Klein, etc) and their fifth column flunkies, E4E of course.  However, the tide appears to be turning on them as well.  Even the usually sympathetic newspapers realize the sheer idiocy of using truants as part of a teacher's evaluation is surfacing in Buffalo where the union is fighting with the State on just such an issue. 

At the NYSUT meeting in Buffalo, the entire Buffalo delegation walked out when Commissioner King addressed the audience.  Beside the Buffalo delegation, other smaller delegation's also walked out as well.  The Commissioner wasn't just greeted with a walkout but others in the audience lustily booed Mr. King, unheard of previously at the meeting.  The relationship between Commissioner King and NYSUT has deteriorated to the point that NYSUT regards the Commissioner as the enemy.  First, it was the last minute change he tried to ram through in increasing the testing component to 40% which NYSUT was able to stop by filing a lawsuit.  Now it is Commissioner King's stubborn single mindlessness in requiring truants as part of a teach evaluational process. A completely unfair and biased proposal that will penalize teachers in high poverty schools with struggling students.

In a rare interview on a talk show Commissioner King compared his time as an educatior at a Boston Charter school where as a teacher he was responsible for 16 students only!  He claimed that he reached out to every one of his students and their parents to keep them in school and that teachers with up to 150 students should be able to do the same.   I guess he wants us to be a social worker, chauffeur, and parent as well., He really must be on drugs!


In my opinion there is no dealing with Commissioner King and NYSUT should be pressuring politicians for his firing or resignation and that is the bottom line.