Governor Andrew Cuomo Cannot Be Trusted.

Governor Andrew Cuomo is expected to easily win reelection as Governor in November, as he sweeps through the Democratic primary this week and the general election.  To further his Presidential ambitions, he has swung further to the left (progressive) to get the progressive Democrats to endorse him.  Moreover, he has proclaimed that he is pro union by enacting executive actions that protect unions.  However, has he really changed?

Back in 2011 he imposed a three year wage freeze (the triple zeros) on State workers that affected all public service employee contracts throughout the State since localities can point to the State contract as a bases for giving inadequate or no raises..  If that wasn't bad enough he also imposed unpaid furlough days and a substantial increase in employee paid health benefits.  To put a cherry on top of the "employee givebacks" the Governor required all new employees to join the vastly inferior Tier VI pension plan. Least we forget that he also wanted to reduce retiree health benefits in the 2017 contract.

As for teachers, he pushed for a teacher evaluation system that would have 7% to 8% of all teachers rated "ineffective" due to "junk Science".  Further, 50% of the teacher's evaluation would be based upon student growth scores, even when the student wasn't in the teacher's roster and teachers only account for between 1% and 14% of a student's academic growth!  Finally, he demanded four years of  effective ratings before tenure can be given rather than three and that the burden of proof in a 3020-a hearing be on the "ineffective" teacher rather than the school district which usually means termination.

Least we forget how the Governor has refused to fully fund New York City schools  despite a court order to do so and is a major factor, besides DOE policies,  that schools have budgets that are 10% below their fair funding. In addition, the Governor is a strong supporter of education reform and charter schools.  In addition, he pushed and passed legislation to ensure that charter schools receive public money at the expense of public schools.  No wonder his largest contributor is the education reform organizations and the charter sector.

Remember, the only thing Governor Andrew Cuomo really cares about is winning.

Governor Cuomo Wants To Screw State Employees Once Again.

As we come to the end of the 2011-16 contract that royally screwed State workers, our Governor has once again decided to balance his budget on the backs of his State workers.  First, he has decided not to include any meaningful raises, without givebacks, for the next contract despite the State doing well financially.  However, what's worse is what the Governor's budget do to State retirees who retire after October 1, 2016.

The Governor's budget wants to drastically reduce retiree health benefits for future retirees by including the following items that would save the State $12.4 million dollars in the next two years:

• Freeze reimbursement for the Medicare Part B premium at $105 per month and not the recently increased $122 monthly that Medicare Part B now costs. New State retirees would be responsible for the difference.

• Reduce payments for retirees with less than 30 years of service.  At present the State pays 100% of all health coverage for pay grades 9 or lower and between 84% to 88% for pay grades 10 and higher for single workers and 69% to 73% for families.  The Governor wants to reduce the entire workforce by the amount of years they worked under 30.  The minimum vested employee (10 years) being 50% for individuals and 35% for families.

• Interestingly, the Governor would eliminate the prescription drug coverage fee for high income State retires making over $85,000 for single and $170,000 for families.  I wonder if this is a favor to his people who work under him and make in excess of $100,000?

The Governor's Office contends the proposed cuts are fair and aligns with other pension systems.

In other news there is a rumor floating around that the State will offer an early retirement incentive.  However, according to Assemblyman Peter Abatte who is the go to politician on employee issues, there is no such bill and it was originally proposed three years ago and is not part of the Assembly's budget proposal this year. Moreover, for one to pass, it would need both the Governor's and the State Senate's approval and that's not likely.

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The Danger For Teachers In Governor Cuomo's Education Agenda.

The hedge fund financed and supported Governor has proposed an education agenda that comes straight out of the corporate deformer playbook that intends to destroy the unions and make the classroom teacher a temporary occupation. Of course, the ultimate goal is to make teaching a temporary profession with no pension and retiree health benefits and making "due process" a joke.  Now that the recession is receding, the ranks of teachers are thinning with fewer and fewer candidates going into teaching and the boomer teachers retiring in droves due to the continued demonetization of the profession, you would think the Governor would want to attract highly skilled applicants to teach in New York State. However, that's not the case and this has not stopped the Governor in attacking teachers and trying to remove as many teachers as possible, despite the looming teacher shortage.

The Perdido Street blog published the 22 point breakdown of the Governor's education agenda and 11 of them are downright dangerous to teachers and their students, I hope to explain why.

• Adjust the APPR sub-components to be 50 points on state tests and 50 points on Other Measures.

Can you image that 50% of a teacher's evaluation is based upon a high-stakes test that's subject to manipulation by the State (cut scores and bands), "junk science", and a VAM that has proven to be beyond the ability of a teacher to control?  What teacher in their right mind would want to teach in a high needs school or with high needs students, even for an extra $20,000, if it means a loss of their job two years later? As for his merit pay proposal?  It has never shown to work anywhere, why should it be any different here?

• Thirty-five points of Other Measures will be determined by independent evaluators.

Who pays for these independent evaluators?  Yes, you guessed it, the schools and not the State.  Moreover, these independent evaluators will be under pressure to find a significant number of teachers to be "ineffective" to keep their job.

• Have the state set the scoring bands for both student growth and observations.

To ensure that the Governor gets his 5% to 10% ineffective ratings, the SED can adjusted it to meet that criteria and not on the academics. Believe me, that's exactly what will happen as SED will manipulate it to fit the political narrative.

• If a teacher is rated ineffective in either portion, then the total score cannot be effective or highly effective.

This requirement will ensure the Governor gets his share of his "ineffective ratings" as well as greatly reducing the amount of teachers who achieve tenure.

•  Tenure granted when a teacher achieves five consecutive years of effective or highly effective ratings.

If any one year the untenured teacher gets a "developing" or "ineffective", the teacher will not get  tenure.   This will ensure that many teachers leave the system without any pension or retiree benefits. This will go a long way for the corporate deformer goal of making teaching a temporary profession.

•  Expedited hearings (maximum time of 60 days) extended to cases of accused physical or sexual abuse of a child. Teacher’s charged with abuse will be suspended without pay pending the outcome of the hearing. If a teacher is convicted of a violent felony against a child, he/she will automatically have his/her certification revoked.

That's right a mere accusation of corporal punishment or sexual misconduct will remove the educator from salary and benefits until their 3020-a hearing is concluded.  For many, that could mean up to two years without an income until the actual decision is published, even if found not guilty of the charges.

• If a teacher receives two ineffective ratings in a row, the teacher would only be able to rebut this strong indication of incompetence by “clear and convincing evidence” that the calculation of one of the ratings was fraudulent.

Good luck winning here since the teacher would have to prove fraud and show evidence of the fraud. The teacher is as good as being terminated if this requirement is imposed.

• Eliminate the legal requirement that districts must attempt to “rehabilitate” teachers who are incompetent or engage in misconduct.

In other words, there will be no "plan of assistance" and the school administration does not need to provide assistance to the teacher and show that the teacher could not be rehabilitated. Moreover, the 3020-a arbitrator does not need to take into account whether the educator can be rehabilitated in their decision as they do now.

• Remove the requirement that children must testify in person. Allow them to testify via sworn written or video statements.

Dangerous, very dangerous.  A teacher has a right to face their accuser and  a trained arbitrator likes to see the body language of each and every witness.  Furthermore, how can a witness be cross examined if they're not there?  Great potential for abuse and unfair to the educator in a 3020-a hearing.

• When a school is determined to be failing for three years, a non-profit, another school district, or a turnaround expert must take over the school. This is similar to the Massachusetts Model. New York has 178 “priority schools".

 This will allow the new operators to excess the staff and add significantly to the ATR pool in New York City.

• Raise the charter school cap from 460 to 560 and make it statewide not restricted by region. New York City only has 24 charter applications remaining under its cap;

No way should the charter cap be raised and no increase in New York City.  We need the money to go to the traditional public schools and not siphoned off to the charter sector. Furthermore, the proposed increase of charter funds by $75 per student that will come from the overall education budget and take away much needed funding to the traditional public schools. It's a "rob Peter to pay Paul" policy.

• Pass the $100 million Education Tax Credit for public and private scholarships to promote choice in education.

This is a backhanded way to subsidize the private and parochial schools, which will take students and funding away from the public school systems.

To try to ensure the Governor gets his way, he has dangled an extra $1.1 billion dollars or 4.8% to the school districts.  Of course, he owns the very same school districts $7 billion dollars.

Join The Demonstration Against Governor Cuomo Tomorrow.

Tomorrow there will be demonstrations throughout the State against the Governor's education agenda.  The biggest one will be held in front of the Governor's Office at 633 3rd avenue at 41st.  To join the demonstration, enter at 3rd avenue and 36th street at noon.  While I have my differences with my union leadership, I will close ranks when it comes from outside corporate deformers and hedge fund managers who are funding the Governor and in return, his education agenda is simply an attack on teachers.

The Governor has claimed he is a "student lobbyist".  However, he has withheld $7 billion dollars to the City and State schools, despite a State surplus and is trying to blackmail the State legislature by holding increased school funding to his corporate deformer education agenda.  Unfortunately, for the Governor, his demonetization of teachers and withholding of billions of dollars to schools have backfired.  His poll rating are dropping like a rock with only 28% of the general public supporting his education agenda.  For public school parents its 21%.  Worse for the Governor, when it came to who the general public supports, they support the teachers unions by 55% to 28% when it comes to education.   Both the Democratic controlled Assembly and the Republican controlled Senate have balked at including the Governor's agenda in the budget.

The planned demonstrations should further deteriorate Cuomo's popularity and if followed up with hard hitting television ads, will eventually force the Governor to abandon his quest for higher office and look for other issues to champion rather than butt heads with real educators and the students who trust them.