Governor Cuomo Continues to Avoid Addressing New Yorkers on Public Education
Parents, educators and community members are deeply disappointed by Governor Cuomo’s failure to address widespread concerns regarding the disastrous implementation of the Common Core Learning Standards, excessive high stakes testing and the collection and sharing of private student data. In recent weeks, Governor Cuomo has remained silent on these harmful reforms and today’s State of the State address confirms that the Governor has failed to fulfill his promise to “put students first.” NYS Allies for Public Education (NYSAPE) is dismayed that while he once called himself the “lobbyist for students,” Governor Cuomo has joined the ranks of those in power who have dismissed the voices of tens of thousands of informed parents working to protect their children, their schools and their communities.
One year ago, Governor Cuomo reminded us that, “the purpose of public education is to help children grow, not to grow the public education bureaucracy.” However, today the governor has confirmed his commitment to political ambition and corporate interests over the millions of students that he was elected to represent and protect. Lori Griffin, Copenhagen public school parent says, “When parents started to seek answers and ask for help, this Governor stayed in the shadows and ignored our pleas to examine the state of public education and the effects on New York’s children.”
Rather than delivering the honest leadership that NYS students and parents deserve, the Governor used his remarks to distract from what will go down in history as an abysmal track record on public education. “We don’t appreciate his thinly veiled diversionary tactics by attempting to shift the attention to medical marijuana, instead of on these abusive and onerous reform initiatives. Cuomo needs to keep his promise that he is the students’ lobbyist” stated Tim Farley, a parent and a principal of the Ichabod Crane School in Kinderhook, New York. Regarding Governor Cuomo’s refusal to address parent concerns, Eric Mihelbergel, a Buffalo public school parent and co-founder of NYSAPE says, “Governor Cuomo needs to either step up or step aside.”
Leonie Haimson, Executive Director of Class Size Matters says, “Though the Governor has called himself the lobbyist for students, he has refused to take any position on the state sharing personal student data with inBloom and other vendors without parental consent. With 8 out of 9 states having pulled out of inBloom or put their data-sharing plans on hold, New York is now the worst state in the country when it comes to protecting children’s privacy. Leaders of both parties in the Legislature have spoken out against inBloom, called for a moratorium and have bi-partisan legislation to protect parental rights and student data. It is deeply disappointing that in his speech today, the Governor again failed to show leadership on this critical issue.”
“It’s very telling that while Governor Cuomo not only supported and endorsed the State’s rushed adoption and implementation of these so-called reforms, he now seems to want to wash his hands of any responsibility for the botched initiatives. The fact is, it is well within the Governor’s power to slow down their implementation through legislative means” says Bianca Tanis, New Paltz public school parent and steering committee member of Re-Thinking Testing, Mid-Hudson Region.
New York State Allies for Public Education represents forty-five grassroots parent groups from every corner of the Empire State. The organizations are proud to stand with the parents, community members and fellow educators in NYSAPE to call for a change in direction and policy beginning with new leadership at the New York State Education Department.
I don’t care what research says! You’ll do what I say… and you’ll like it!
In his State of the State address, Andy “Lobbyist for Students” Cuomo chose to completely ignore the growing revolution by students, parents, and educators over his education reform agenda. Rather he doubled down on his efforts instead, proposing a merit pay system that would pay “highly effective teachers” a $20,000 reward. The same merit pay system that has, time and again, failed to work anywhere it has been tried. No mention of the bungled implementation of the Common Core State Standards. No mention of how deeply flawed those standards are. No mention of the obscene amounts of testing being used to torture students. No mention of the disastrous APPR system that he’d want to base these “bonuses” on.
To make it perfectly clear, Governor Cuomo chose to use his most visible platform of the year to completely ignore the concerns of New Yorkers across the state. Instead the message he sent was, “I don’t care what concerns you have. I am King Andy and we will continue to jam this ill conceived agenda down your throats!”
Of course Cuomo/Tisch puppet John King thought Cuomo’s idea was wonderful. “We certainly support rewarding highly effective teaching. We know there’s an opportunity to identify teaching practices and allow them to be mentors for their colleagues.” King said.
Over at Perdido Street School, Reality-Based Educator had a great idea (emphasis mine)…
The revolt over Common Core, the Endless Testing regime, inBloom and APPR is not going to go away just because Sheriff Andy ignored it and made as if it doesn’t exist.
If anything, Sheriff Andy threw more kindling on the revolution bonfire by doubling down on the agenda with a merit pay proposal based upon test scores.
The key now is to have people ask him at every campaign stop he makes in 2014 why he refuses to listen to students, parents and teachers on education issues, why he refuses to acknowledge his APPR evaluation system is an unworkable mess, the CCSS implementation has been nightmarish and every other state dropped out of inBloom so why is NY State still in it?
Put him on the spot every day of his campaign for re-election, that’s the goal here.
…
Still, if some students, parents and teachers show up at every Cuomo campaign appearance around the state protesting his education reform agenda (one which he won’t defend publicly anymore – he just continues to implement it), the press will notice, as will his GOP opponent, and eventually he will have to take a public stand on this stuff himself.
The point is to make him pay a political price for his refusal to listen to criticism and opposition to his agenda.
He wants to run up the score in his 2014 re-election bid in order to set up a 2016 White House run.
But students, parents and teachers angry over his education reform agenda can put a crimp in Andy’s re-election campaign this year by putting him on the spot over it.
That should be part of the movement against CCSS, APPR, inBloom and testing going forward – continued pressure on the politicians in Albany, especially Governor Cuomo.
Yes I know tomorrow is the first day back to school, and it is also
the first day in 2014 that we get to show the people in Albany that we
still mean business and we will fight till they get rid of the Common
Core and high stakes testing!!! Please be there tomorrow and bring your friends and be sure to post this everywhere….
Show King and Cuomo that we are not going to stop until they hear us!
Nassau and Suffolk Take action against King and Cuomo’s Common Core
Agenda this Monday, at 4 pm, in front of Channel 12 Newsroom, 1 Media
Crossways, Woodbury, NY 11797
Now that the holidays are behind us and our legislators are planning
to return to Albany for the 2014 Session next week, we’ve noticed
media coverage of Common Core has quieted down significantly. Our
mission is to ensure this quiet time is not misinterpreted as
complacency.
Governor Cuomo is scheduled to deliver his State of the State Address
on January 8th. We need to apply statewide pressure on him to
specifically address the failures of education reform in New York.
Doing so would get this issue front and center in the media again.
We have an idea that will be very effective, and we need your help.
Starting on Thursday, January 2, we begin the “New York New Year Blitz”
on Governor Cuomo and the Legislature. We will call, fax, email,
Tweet, and snail-mail Governor Cuomo and ask him why he has turned a
deaf ear on our voices, why he refuses to acknowledge the failure of
Common Core in New York State, and why he has not spoken one word
about education deform in response to our testimonies and appearances
at NYSED’s and Senator Flanagan’s hearings around the state. We will
do the same to our legislators (Assembly and Senate) and remind them
that we are still here, we are still not happy, and that they work for
us! They need to ignore Flanagan’s proposed legislation and do
something that throws Common Core out of New York.
Public protests and picketing at local/regional television news
stations across the state would put us front and center with a unified
message to the Governor that this issue isn’t dead, and that
Flanagan’s report of his statewide hearings was an abysmal
misrepresentation of the shortcomings, experiences, and objections
presented by parents, educators, administrators, and early childhood
development experts. On Monday, January 6th beginning at 4 p.m. outside
each TV news station listed below, we make our voices heard. We will
call on the media to get our message out. We will bring signs,
placards, bullhorns. We will apply as much pressure and generate as
much noise as humanly possible. We will post this activity to every
social media outlet and make it go viral. After the Governor’s Address
on the 8th, we get on the phones, we get on our computers and we flood
every New York State Senator’s office (both locally and in Albany)
with the message to get this fixed and not stop until it is. We keep
the heat turned up high until someone steps forward with a REAL
common-sense solution to this mess. It is only the majority of people
statewide that will show Flanagan how wrong he has been about the
Common Core and his interpretation of the message we have been
sending.
THIS IS IT FOLKS!! What we’ve been training for…our Marathon Day! This
is the effort that must happen without a hiccup. We have it from a
reliable source that January is CRITICAL and our efforts are URGENTLY
NEEDED. WE ARE CLOSE TO WINNING THIS! This activity will have to be a
skillfully choreographed dance and can only work if we are ALL pulling
on our oars at the same time in the same direction. These are OUR
children, OUR teachers, and OUR schools. Let no arrogant politician
stand in our way!
Governor Cuomo’s Contact Info
Governor Andrew Cuomo
Office of the Governor
NY State Capitol Building
Albany, NY 12224
Phone: 518-474-8390
Fax: 518-474-1513
Email: Gov.Cuomo@chamber.state.ny.us http://www.governor.ny.gov/ www.facebook.com/GovernorAndrewCuomo www.twitter.com/NYGovCuomo @NYGovCuomo Use #StopCommonCore and#fixNYschools
NY State Senate: http://www.nysenate.gov/ NY State
Assembly:http://assembly.state.ny.us/mem/
TV Station Rally Locations for January 6th
Albany
WTEN (ABC Network)
341 Northern Blvd
Albany, New York 12204
518-433-4286
Binghamton
WIVT-TV (ABC Network)
203 Ingraham Hill Road
Binghamton, NY 13903
607-771-3434
Bronx & Brooklyn
News 12 Bronx/Brooklyn
930 Soundview Ave
Bronx, NY 10473
Phone:(718) 328-7504
Buffalo
WGRZ (NBC Network)
259 Delaware Avenue
Buffalo,NY 14202
716-849-2222
Elmira
WETN-TV (NBC Network)
101 East Water Street
Elmira,NY 14901
607-733-5518
Long Island (Nassau & Suffolk Counties)
News 12 Long Island
1 Media Crossways
Woodbury, NY 11797
516-393-1200
E-mail: LIDesk@News12.com
Lower Hudson Valley
(Rockland & Orange Counties)
News 12 Lower Hudson Valley
235 West Nyack Road
West Nyack , NY 10994
Phone: 845-624-8780
Fax: 845-735-1601
E-mail: news12hv@news12.com
Manhattan
WNBC-TV
30 ROCKEFELLER PLAZA
NEW YORK,NY 10112
212-664-4444
Plattsburgh
WPTZ (NBC Network)
5 Television Drive
Plattsburgh, NY 12901
518-561-5555
Syracuse
WSYR-TV (ABC Network)
5904 Bridge Street
East Syracuse,NY 13057
315-446-9999
Utica
WKTV (NBC Network)
5936 Smith Hill Rd
Utica,NY 13502
315-733-3477
Watertown
WWNY TV7 (FOX and CBS affiliate)
120 Arcade Street
Watertown,NY 13601
315-788-3800
Westchester
News 12 Westchester
6 Executive Plaza
Yonkers, NY 10701
(914)378-4800
After nearly two months of stops across New York State, the King & Tisch “We’re Not Listening Tour” finally rolled into New York City last night. This time the dynamic duo split up, with Tisch visiting the Bronx and her puppet John King stopping by Brooklyn.
Mark Naison of the Badass Teachers Association has the story of Queen Merryl’s trip to the Bronx.
John King’s Brooklyn visit was quite a bit different from most of his other stops. It was a meeting that was well attended by John Flanagan’s pals from Michelle Rhee’s StudentsFirstNY. Additionally it had numerous charter school operators in attendance. These people, of course, benefit from the harmful reforms being pushed through by SED and the regents. So naturally it became a glowing report on how swimmingly things are going. Interestingly enough these people truly are representatives of special interests groups. Yet John King wasn’t complaining about the meeting being co-opted by special interests tonight, as he did when parents lambasted him at the PTA Town Hall Meeting in October. MORE‘s Katie Lapham writes of her experience there last night. Capital New York with the story here.
The PJSTA is a member of the New York State Allies for Public Education.
As a member of NYSAPE we are issuing an Action Alert:
Change NYS Board of Regents Elections – ACTION ALERT!
ACTION ALERT: The following Board of Regents members have terms that are set to expire, and we MUST affect the appointment process:
• Christine Cea (Staten Island)
• James Jackson (Albany, Columbia, Greene, Rensselaer, Schoharie, Sullivan, Ulster)
• James Cottrell (at-large)
• Wade Norwood (at-large)
Never before has the Board of Regents appointment process been held to public scrutiny. But this year WE WILL MAKE AN IMPACT. The interests of our children MUST be represented by our elected NYS Assembly Members.
Here are 4 steps that we all must do on a weekly basis:
3.) Call and email each of the following Assembly members:
To affect Christine Cea appointment:
Matthew Titone (D) Phone: 718-442-9932 and 518-455-4677 titonem@assembly.state.ny.us Michael Cusick (D) Phone: 718-370-1384 and 518-455-5526 cusickm@assembly.state.ny.us
4.) Use the guidelines here to tell them that we need NEW Board of Regents members:
– Tell them there are 4 Regents up for re-appointment.
– Tell them you demand the appointment of Regents who support an immediate moratorium on Common Core, high stakes testing, and data sharing.
– Tell them the public will hold NYS Assembly members accountable for their votes for or against the appointment of the NYS Board of Regents members.
Here is a sample letter to email that you can also use as a script to guide you on the phone:
Dear__________________________________
This year 4 members of the NYS Board of Regents are up for re-appointment, Cea, Jackson, Cotrell, and Norwood. New candidates will be interviewed by the Education Committees in February, and you will be voting on these re-appointments in March of 2014. I am writing to let you know that I am very concerned about the damaging effects of Regents Reform Agenda, and that this year, the public will hold NYS legislators accountable for their votes for or against the appointment of individual Regents. Therefore, I am asking that you please appoint Regents who support an immediate moratorium on Common Core, high stakes testing, and the uploading of student information to the inBloom cloud. The Regent’s Reform agenda in NYS is destroying public education and violating student privacy. As an elected NYS legislator, you MUST represent the interests of our children and the will of the people.
Sincerely,
Background Information on the NYS Board of Regents:
– Candidates wishing to apply to become a Board of Regents member must send a resume to the Assembly Education and Higher Education Committees before January 31. In-person interviews are conducted by Assemblywomen Catherine Nolan and Debra Glick in February.
– Legislators vote in early March, but they are generally given one or two nominees to vote on, less than 24 hours before the election, that are selected by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. Although the public is told that the entire legislation votes, in reality it is Sheldon Silver that chooses. Many legislators abstain because the process is so dysfunctional. WE MUST CONTACT THE ELECTED OFFICIALS ABOVE SO THAT WE CAN INFLUENCE THE BOARD OR REGENTS APPOINTMENTS.
– The Regents preside over the New York State Education Department and SUNY.
– The Board consists of 17 members; 1 from each of the State’s 13 judicial districts and 4 members who serve at large.
– The Board is headed by the Chancellor of the Board of Regents, Merryl Tisch.
– Those serving on the Board of Regents come from diverse backgrounds and fields. Some are former educators but most are not.
– The duties of the Board of Regents include: setting graduation requirements, testing regimens and curriculum and approval of the State Education Department’s budget.
– The regents are not paid a salary and are not required to have any educational training or background.
Why is this important?
– The Board of Regents is responsible for the appointment of the Commissioner of Education. They also have the power to replace the Commissioner of Education.*
(* It is interesting to note that John King was appointed as The Commissioner at the age of 36 with only 3 years of classroom experience. It would also be interesting to note that John King and Merryl Tisch pursued their doctoral degrees together at Columbia University.)
– While Commissioner King may have proposed the haphazard and incompetent implementation of the Common Core and subsequent testing, The Board of Regents approved this rollout.
-The process by which one becomes a regent is not widely understood. Members of the NYS Assembly may nominate a potential regent. Their appointment is confirmed by a joint vote of the legislature. The Democratic Majority in the State Assembly currently controls the selection process.
– Although a regent’s term expires after 5 years, historically a current regent is automatically re-appointed and will serve until they resign or retire. We must change this.
The Board of Regents wields a great deal of power, and they must be held responsible for their actions. Many parents have appealed to individual Regents and asked for their support of parent efforts to resist harmful education reforms. Likewise, powerful advocacy representing parents, teachers and school administers have also appealed to the Board of Regents but they are not listening.
Retired PJSTA member Philip Tamberino wrote a letter to the editor that appeared in Newsday…
Supporters of the Common Core seem to believe that teachers and administrators don’t want the accountability connected to testing. They foolishly think that this opposition is just a roll-out problem, people will get used to it, and we will be better off. They refuse to recognize the revolution occurring right in front of them.
Teachers put their students first. The overwhelming majority were graded effective or above even with a faulty, inappropriate and invalid test. So the premise that teachers have a self-serving motive is nullified. Teachers oppose these tests because they are not developmentally aligned to the students on their grade level.
Administrators understand that tying test scores to teacher evaluations creates an atmosphere that poisons schools. When your job depends on a score based on an invalid test, and students who have given up because it is just above their ability, you cannot get an accurate depiction of a teacher’s proficiency.
As a veteran, retired teacher, I cannot recall a time when teachers, administrators, superintendents and parents have been so aligned. That has to mean something. Yes, there is a revolution occurring, and the next step is to keep our children home on testing days.
The Albany Times Union published a comprehensive report about how wealthy “donors” in New York State use their money and influence to essentially run the New York State Education Department. The major donors include the Gates Foundation, the GE Foundation, and many of the other plutocrats who we typically see funding education reform in the United States. The most egregious name on the list, however, is none other than Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch.
Via the Times Union…
A team of two dozen well-paid analysts embedded in the State Education Department is having a dramatic impact on a reform agenda that’s causing controversy throughout New York.
None are public servants.
Supported with $19 million in donations from some of the nation’s wealthiest philanthropists, the Regents Research Fund team makes up a little-known think tank within the education agency. It is helping drive reforms that affect the state’s 3.1 million public school students and employees of almost 700 school districts.
So people paid for by private entities, not NYSED, are making policy decisions about education reform in New York State.
Barely heard of outside education circles and a mystery even within them, the “Regent fellows” are paid from entities such as the Gates Foundation and some salaries approach $200,000 a year. The arrangement is stirring concern in some quarters that deep-pocketed pedagogues are forcing their reform philosophies on an unwitting populace, and making an end run around government officers.
“We’re a public education system,” said Carol Burris, principal of South Side High School in Long Island’s Rockville Centre. “Having the wealthy pay for it, you’re seeing an agenda that is being pushed … at a rapid pace, and outside the system of public accountability.”
As Burris correctly points out, this is how the plutocrats get their way in regards to New York State education without having to be held accountable by the public as normal operatives of the state would. Sean Crowley from B-LoEdScene describes it quite nicely as well…
The idea of creating a merry band of edupolicy wankers and dressing them up as helper elves who operate outside of the state, the law and any real department is yet another of those clever shuck and jive maneuvers our oligarch class likes to use to put them and their wealth in a position to call the shots with no annoying checks, balances or any of that other quaint democratic process nonsense. They are charitably called the Regents Fellows and they are none of your business thank you very much. Tisch and her hubby kicked in the first million or so and soon after came the flood of cash from all the usual selfless altruistic billionaires. In short they work the will of Tisch and Co. and are accountable to nobody in State Ed or Washington or in any of the local school districts.
The Times Union continues…
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.
The Regents appear serious about expanding the group. Fellows who signed on for two-year stints have been extended, new research and policy analysts have been hired, and state officials cannot say if or when the experiment will end. Fellows say they don’t know when they’ll be done, but expect their assignments will run their course.
So things are progressing so swimmingly here in New York State that Merryl and her minions want to expand this group!
What have these “fellows” been responsible for?
The fellows have been involved in mapping teacher and principal evaluations, redoing student exams and working through the state’s implementation of the Common Core standards — reforms that have moved with a speed that many parents and teachers across the state have protested as hasty and harsh.
Ah yes, successful reforms such as teacher evaluations, standardized testing, and Common Core implementation… all the hallmarks of what is wrong with public education today.
So what does Queen Merryl think about all of this?
“Any state would be proud to have people of this capacity working as an arm of the state education department,” said Tisch, emphasizing her regard for staff staffers. “They couldn’t do it without the leadership, without the people who work for the department.”
Yes, we should be proud to have these people pushing an agenda that abuses children and aims to destroy public education! After all our primary goal for education in New York State should be to further line the pockets of the Tisch family and their cronies. Who are those people you may ask? Let’s refer back to this 2009 article from the New York Times, titled “Advancing Education, Through Work Ethic and Connections”…
… her rank in New York’s ruling class as the wife of James S. Tisch, the chief executive of the Loews Corporation, a conglomerate that includes hotels, insurance and oil-drilling operations.
She has enjoyed a decades-long friendship with her Upper East Side neighbor Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. She has celebrated Passover Seders with Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein. She counts among her closest friends Iris Weinshall, the wife of Senator Charles E. Schumer.
And then there is this…
It is such social connections that make Dr. Tisch’s influence difficult to quantify.
“When she needs something, she’ll pick up the phone and call the mayor or governor,” Mr. Fliegel said. “Merryl is not reluctant to intercede if she thinks it’s the right cause.”
Those aren’t the only people she calls. Who does Queen Merryl call when her refrigerator isn’t working?
“When my refrigerator is broken, I don’t call the service department,” said Dr. Tisch, the newly elected chancellor of the New York State Board of Regents and, by marriage, part of one of New York’s wealthiest families. “I call the head of G.E.”
Oh right, the head of GE. That’s who I typically call too.
So what do the other members of the Board of Regents think about these fellows? This New York Timesarticle from 2011 gives us a look…
“Private people give money to support things they’re interested in,” said Roger B. Tilles, a lawyer and longtime education administrator who has been a regent for six years.
…
Betty A. Rosa, who spent 23 years as a teacher and principal before becoming a New York City regional superintendent and a regent, said it was “absolutely wrong” that the fellows had spent what she considered to be so little time working in schools. Six of the 11 have never taught. The five others have a total of 10 years in the classroom and one as a principal.
…
Saul B. Cohen, a former president of Queens College who retired in December after 18 years as a regent, is angry that the board was not consulted about selecting the fellows. “They’re supposed to be advising us, but we had no role,” he said.
Dr. Cohen was also upset that the state’s Race to the Top application — which included major policy decisions like using student test results to evaluate teachers and principals — was not shown to the Regents before it was submitted to Washington. “The board had to rubber-stamp it after the fact,” he said.
Dr. Rosa said the Regents saw only “bits and pieces” of the application beforehand.
Several board members said they had been marginalized under Dr. Tisch, who took over in 2009 and is widely considered to be the most powerful, controlling chancellor in memory.
Tisch’s agenda has become crystal clear. Use private money to hire outside “help”. Use that help to marginalize the people who New York State has appointed to handle matters of public education. Allow the “help” to recommend and push a reform agenda that makes considerable amounts of money for the very people who “donated” money that pays for the help. Laugh all the way to the bank.
So tonight, if you are attending Senator LaValle’s dog and pony show at Eastport High School, speak your mind. Let Dr. Tisch know how you feel about her actions as Regents Chancellor. LaValle, King, and Tisch think they can control the agenda by pre-selecting the speakers and questions. It is a situation that begs for civil disobedience. Tisch has skated away for too long without having to answer to anyone. Make her answer to you tonight.
We are entering an important period of time in the push back against the education reforms in New York State. Fearing for their jobs next November, we are beginning to see some movement from state legislators on the school reform agenda. This is to be expected, as they have been hearing more about this agenda than anything else. Recently Senator Flanagan indicated that when the legislature convenes in January we should see quick action on the student privacy issue. Make no doubt, this is excellent news and it shows that finally legislators are starting to listen.
This, however, is not nearly enough. It became fairly predictable a couple of weeks back that there would be some movement in this direction. Legislators are fearing for their jobs and Commissioner King has had enough vitriol directed towards him that the state is now willing to throw us a bone. But as we have stated time and again, nothing but a full withdrawal from Race to the Top in New York State is acceptable. That is the message our legislators should continue to hear until they have delivered it.
There is a danger that with the passage of legislation restricting the data sent to inBloom people will be appeased. That is what John King and Merryl Tisch are hoping. That is what Andrew Cuomo is hoping for. That is what John Flanagan, Ken LaValle, and the rest of the legislature is hoping. That they can offer up the privacy issue in the hopes that the public will thank them, jump into their holiday season, and forget all about the rest of the abusive reform agenda.
There have been signs that some people are ready to head down this road. Here is No Kids Data NY:
Thank you Senator Flanagan…. The late night hours are starting to pay off! We have been heard http://t.co/8r4BAKcnTA
Again, let me be clear, limiting student data that is passed on is a win for our movement. It is something to be thankful for and a feather in our cap. But I am not ready to throw too many plaudits in Senator Flanagan’s direction yet. Keep in mind, Senator Flanagan is a major reason we are in this mess to begin with. Along with Andy Cuomo, puppet John King, and puppet master Merryl Tisch, he has been at the forefront of pushing the abusive reform agenda in New York State. Senator Flanagan has a long way to go before I am sending him a thank you card. A lot needs to be accomplished before I can be assured that the money that his chief campaign contributor, Michelle Rhee, gave him is not being spent to continue to harm students and teachers in New York for the benefit of private corporations.
The Smithtown News recently published a great editorial, titled “Change course on King/Flanagan agenda”, about Flanagan’s role in harming public education in New York State. It’s behind a pay wall so I’ll only give you the highlights. All bolded emphasis is mine.
On the organized opposition against the reform agenda…
Call it the King/Flanagan agenda, and it stinks.
The opposition has become so angry that wherever Senator Flanagan, SED Commissioner Dr. John King and Regent Chancellor Dr. Merryl Tisch go from one end of the state to the other, people start screaming at them.
On what may be part of Flanagan’s motivation (though the Rhee bucks help too)…
Ever since NYSUT refused to endorse him for re-election in 2010, Mr. Flanagan has been out to get public school teachers and he is hell-bent on taking the public school system down with them. He has jumped to the center of the charter school bandwagon, which drains money from public schools, he has fostered implementation of an inherently unfair and flawed APPR system, he has ushered in the misguided and premature implementation of the Common Core Learning Standards and he has allowed the implementation of the abusive testing of students.
After commenting on the $1 billion in state aid that Long Island districts have lost while Flanagan has either been the ranking Republican or Chairman of the Senate Education Committee…
Never has Long Island faired so poorly in terms of state aid as it has under the educational leadership of John Flanagan, and now his failed policies are threatening to destroy the quality educational system that we have enjoyed here on Long Island for generations.
On Flanagan’s hearings around the state that are dedicated to the reform agenda…
The hearings should have been held before implementing these new policies, not after. The intent now is only to act as political cover for Mr. Flanagan, who will try to emerge as if he resolved this difficult problem.
Remember though, he is the root cause of the terrible situation facing public school education right now. He needs to be replaced whether the problem is ultimately solved or not.
It really was a great article that reminds us that John Flanagan is one of the primary reasons we are in this mess. So I will hold my thank you until the entire agenda is repealed.
The Official Website of the PJSTA 