I don't write often but when a Democratic Governor acts like Scott Walker, well, it's time to speak up.
It's no secret that Andrew Cuomo took a lot of campaign cash from the corporate education education lobby: Rich folks who stand to get even richer by degrading public education and privatizing. It's also no secret that Cuomo is a vindictive man, who is miffed that organized labor denied him an endorsement this year.
Today Cuomo held forth on how hard it is to fire tenured teachers, noting that it takes years to do so and that even teachers found guilty of sexually abusing children can't be removed from the classroom. You can read his comments here:
http://www.capitalnewyork.com/...
These are the same fairy tales Campbell Brown tells over and over, to an uninquisitive media that dutifully report it as truth.
The fact is that under reforms negotiated in good faith with New York's teachers unions in 2008, 2010 and 2012, none of what Cuomo is saying is even close to the truth. Statistics released by the State Education Department in April show that under these reforms, charges against tenured teachers are resolved, on average, in less than 200 days from the day the charge is filed if there is a full hearing. Most cases settle in a much shorter time, often by the resignation or retirement of the teacher. I will try to provide a link in a later diary, but the numbers are publicly available from SED. And, teachers found guilty of sexually abusing kids lose their jobs automatically, without a hearing.
Why teachers should not have the right to a fair, due process hearing if they are charged with misconduct or incompetence is beyond me. But if Cuomo really has a good faith belief that teacher tenure needs to be weakened even further, and if he really has any respect for New York's teachers, why does he not have the decency to make his case with telling such gross, obvious and easily disprovable lies?
I care about public education, and I care about the rights of working people, teachers included. As a lifelong Democrat, it breaks my heart to see a man like Cuomo, who holds the same office once held by FDR, doing so much damage to both. I hope in the coming year he will at least stop the misrepresentation. And I hope the Democratic Party will remember what it once was-- the party that fights for the little guy.
I apologize for a diary short on links...I am kind of new to this and will try to supply more in follow up entries.