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January 30, 2013

Cuomo proposes state takeover in NYC teacher eval impasse

by Geoff Decker, at 1:41 pm

Appearing with legislative leaders this morning, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that he would seek the right to take over teacher evaluation planning in New York City if local negotiations fall through again.

Cuomo said he still hoped Mayor Bloomberg and teachers union president Michael Mulgrew can break their impasse and agree to a deal on their own terms. But the two sides have failed to reach a deal for more than a year, despite mounting financial penalties for the city, and they fiercely defended their positions in back-to-back legislative hearings this week.

Negotiations resumed this week, and Cuomo said he’s planning to “firmly request” they get a deal done.

“If they don’t, then let the state step in and let the state … determine the evaluation process and impose it on the city of New York,” said Cuomo, who was flanked at a press conference by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate leaders Jeff Klein and Dean Skelos.

Cuomo said he would propose a law that would give the State Education Department and the Board of Regents the ability to select and approve a plan for New York City. Cuomo said the city would still be in charge of implementing the plan.

Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers, said in a statement that he “would prefer a negotiated settlement,” but supported state intervention if talks fail again.

Last year, Cuomo convinced legislators to let him tie state school aid increases to teacher evaluations. Most districts complied with the law and got their evaluation plans in by a Jan. 17 deadline. New York City’s absence, Cuomo said today, was the “notable exception.”

It’s not the first time that a state takeover in evaluation planning was floated. Last year, more than a dozen education reform groups, including StudentsFirst and Democrats for Education Reform, asked Cuomo to give the state authority to adopt a default plan for districts that didn’t have a deal in place by a certain deadline.

Update: The teachers union have also called for this plan in the past. In 2011, when the UFT and the city were at another stalemate on negotiations, Mulgrew wrote a letter to Chancellor Dennis Walcott requesting that the two sides use a binding arbitrator to settle a dispute.

More recently, groups that have spent months lobbying locally for a deal have given up hope and called on Cuomo’s intervention.

“We don’t have the right local leadership to come to a deal,” Jonathan Schleifer, executive director of Educators 4 Excellence, said this week. “If the governor wants a meaningful evaluation system, he’s going to have to get more involved.”

New York City is already down $240 million in state aid this year, because of the missed Jan. 17 deadline. The gap will result in steep cuts to the Department of Education’s central and school budgets, Bloomberg said yesterday.

Bloomberg is asking the legislature to restore that funding and he has some support in the Assembly from Silver, and Brooklyn Assemblyman James Brennan, who proposed legislation to revoke the penalty.

Still, Cuomo said today he’s standing his ground. ”They missed the deadline. A deadline is a deadline.”

Today, top legislators signaled that they are inclined to fulfill Cuomo’s teacher evaluation wishes again this year.

Klein and Silver, two New York City Democrats, said they supported the effort to prevent further cuts to school budgets.

“I think that it’s appropriate to put in place a system … to make sure our children don’t lose the resources that those $250 million will provide,” Silver said.

“We can’t have have another situation where the union and the mayor can’t agree and our children suffer because of it,” said Klein, who heads a breakaway Democrat coalition of lawmakers in the Senate.

Skelos, the Republican leader who shares power in the senate with Klein, was less committal in his remarks.

“I agree with the governor that the deadline has passed and hopefully the two sides will come together prospectively,” Skelos said.

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  • Waititoutmulgrew

    It would be wonderful if the state intervened.  This way, we can shut up bloomterd once and for all!!!!! Yes, you go cuomo..give it to bloombird to learn a lesson

  • sicktestingteacher

    The evaluation deal is horrible for teachers!!!!!!!!! We should get back to teaching and stop all this evaluation crap.  We spend so much time on curriculum mapping and other such nonsense that our students are being hurt.  How do standardized multiple choice tests help students learn how to think, reason and write? They don’t, they just make the testing companies rich.  I wish the UFT would just draw a line in the sand, and the pols who never taught a class in their lives would leave us alone.

  • sickoftestingteacher

    The evaluation deal is horrible for teachers!!!!!!!!! We should get back to teaching and stop all this evaluation crap.  We spend so much time on curriculum mapping and other such nonsense that our students are being hurt.  How do standardized multiple choice tests help students learn how to think, reason and write? They don’t, they just make the testing companies rich.  I wish the UFT would just draw a line in the sand, and the pols who never taught a class in their lives would leave us alone.

  • Guest

    This will NOT be good for teachers. But, it would be even worse for Bloomberg.  

    If this happens, watch the lawsuits.  

  • Night Rider

    Doesn’t Cuomo know how to play this game? Here is the deal: NY State was awarded “Race to the Top” money that is to be distributed to school districts that negotiated new evaluations with their local teacher unions. If a district did not come to an agreement, they do not get the money and that is that. Cuomo just assumed that every single teacher union would simply lie down and accept the fate of a new evaluation system. Well guess what? 5 districts did NOT AGREE TO A NEW EVALUATION. That means that these districts do not get the Race to the Top blood money. That should be the end of the freakin’ story. But ohhhhh nooooo! Cuomo has to get his way by changing the rules to the game as he goes along. New York city has to eventually agree to a new evaluation system and we will when we are darn ready to. (And that will not happen until there is a new mayor in town) The only ray of light that I see here is that Mulgrew will not agree to anything that Bloomberg throws on the table. Cuomo would at least have to base “his” evaluation in the same format as the majority of other teacher unions evaluation plans that were approved in NY State. If and when that happens, Bloomberg is going to go 100% bonkers!

  • Pogue

    “Do what I say or I will force it upon you anyway!”…

    Now, that’s what I call a “Democratic Governor”

    From extended term limits to Grand Bargains to Wall Street bailouts to forced Union surrenders…politicians sure do whatever they want regardless of thought or concern or care to John Q. Public.
     

  • Ellen

    Anyone ask him to step in on the bus driver strike?

  • T.K.

    If Cuomo “forces” a new teacher evaluation plan in NYC there will be a massive lawsuit. Why? Because a change to our evaluation system is a change to our legally binding contract between the UFT and the DOE. Our current contract is protected by the Triborough Amendment which means that the current UFT contract stays in effect until a new contract is NEGOTIATED between the UFT and the DOE. Cuomo would not only have to change the teacher evaluation law, he would have to change the Triborough Amendment law which would impact every single municipal union in all of New York State. Labor lawyers would be lining up in droves if Cuomo tries to pull this off.

  • wise owl

     That’s exactly right. I have no interest whatsoever in merit pay but respect those who do. If you are a teacher and you want merit pay then only YOU should be evaluated by the new system. All others stay with the old system. I think that that is fair enough.

  • Allycat

     How is it that we’re not hearing about the other districts that also misssed the deadline ?

  • wise owl

    Race to the Top is one of Obama’s pet projects. So it comes out that if Cuomo does not implement it he is defying the president’s wishes. If Bloomberg cannot get this deal passed then he is defying Cuomo and is viewed as incompetent by him and can’t get the job done.OBAMA, CUOMO,BLOOMBERG. Sunshine lollipops and rainbows. Your tax money at work

  • wise owl

    I’m convinced that Cuomo is definately eying the presidency. This deal would look good on his “resume”. You know to show that he did something. I have to say that his father Mario was a lot different then him.

  • wise owl

    EVALUATE THIS: When are we going to have working elevators in all New York City Public schools? When will they be repaired? Some elevators have been broke since the hurricane and we are told that they are waiting for a part? That is is too expensive to fix? How much longer do we continue to run up and down the stairs carrying all sorts of heavy things. Is the mayor waiting for a teacher to collapse on the job? What about the students with disabilities that are forced to walk up and down the steps? Please look at the “working conditions” in which we are “forced” to work in everyday. Don’t even get me started on air conditioning. It’s still the wintertime but I know that the sweat will be the rolling off of me and my students soon enough in the classroom. What about when kids are taking regents and the room is so hot that some have to walk out and not complete the exam? This is just a “sample” of the working conditions in which we teachers work under. I should be evaluating the mayor for not giving a damn!

  • GUEST

    We’ll soon be hearing from the lunatic groups such as E4E and others how wonderful this is (not that they have the slightest clue but it sounds good).  But no matter.  Andrew was so effective against LIPA and Con Ed.  If they don’t get power back immediately, they wil have to answer t me, said Andrew.  And they answered, boy did they answer.  I had to wait 5 days to get my power back and there were no trees down and three blocks from where I live they had power the whole time.  They easily could have run a line off the part that was working and within 12 hours of the end of the storm restored my power.  When they got around to it, it took 15 minutes to fix.  But they made me and my family wait in the dark for 5 days, losing hundreds of dollars worth of perishabe goods and they answered to the governor.  He really got them off their rear ends

    Teachers pay COPE dues to make sure our legislators protect us from this garbage.  At one point in time, Shelley Silver could easily have done away with the school closings and the rest of the stuff that has been done to the teachers but Randi Weingarten thought she woud go down as an obstructionist and hurt her chances to a position in the Obama administration.

    The UFT leadership has sold the members down the river time after time  The fact is, as noted, Cuomo or Bloomberg or anybody else cannot make changes to the collective bargaining agreement according to the Triborough provisions.  Where is Mulgrew telling them to go fly a kite; if he doesn’t agree there can be no changes in the evaluation system.

    But then again, Mulgrew and the rest of them read the Daily News and one should read this morning’s Daily News editorial with its usual attack on the UFT.  Tell them, Michael, to go fly a kite.  See you in court.

  • wise owl

    I’m going to use the Daily News to line my kitty litter box.

  • Rocksandwoks

    Let me put aside my personal thoughts on the educational impact of this negotiation–does anyone know if this arrangement is legal?

  • Night Rider

    How can anybody not see between the lines and realize the massive conspiracy at play here? Mulgrew will look like a “hero” to the UFT rank and file if he does not agree to a new teacher evaluation. Cuomo will look like a “hero” to the population of New York State because he is now going to force a new evaluation on the teachers of NYC. Bloomberg will look like a “hero” to the population of NYC because he refused to settle for what he calls a sham evaluation with the UFT. In the end, the ed-deformers/corporate goons win because they are the ones who call all of the behind the scenes shots and are now one step closer to their goal of breaking all public employee unions

  • SayNoToAccountability

    Merit pay please.  55k for a grad school degree isn’t great in this economy.  It’s called a new normal.

  • East Sider

    an expedited binding arbitration under PERB auspices would resolve the outstanding differences quickly ..

  • Jkloiu

    It is spelled definitely.

  • Former Turnaround Teacher

    Soon there will be a law floating around the assembly for state and “gubernatorial” control of schools…

  • Kenny

    Hey Mulgrew, how will will it feel to be the one to give back everything the UFT originally fought for?  How does it feel to be on the wrong side of history?  Are you really that out of touch? 

  • Soccermom56

    What are you talking about Kenny?  So the 98 percent of districts that have an agreement gave up everything?  No! They complied with the law!  Or is it not the law?

  • Calvados

    A previous poster is correct .. This all political bluster.. Cuomo has no legal ground to stand on. Triborough protects state contracts and RTT specifically states in no uncertain language that teacher evaluations have to be “collectively bargained.”  Under these laws terms can not be be imposed unilaterally.”  

  • Soccermom56

    I agree in that Cuomo will look great.  I disagree with your suggestion that Bloomberg will look great.   Bloomberg will never look great.  There will be a sunset which he didn’t want, there will be arbitration which he didn’t want, and he cannot take credit because Cuomo will take the spotlight.  Just like on gun control, just like with Sandy.  

  • Soccermom56

    I second that

  • Soccermom56

    BECAUSE WE ARE BIGGER.

  • Soccermom56

    Ask any teacher who was U rated and how it’s working out for them.  This may be much better.

  • SayNoToAccountability

    I think of how many posts of yours on this website and I think of your phrase “your tax dollars at work”.

    Maybe if you “veterans” spent more time lesson planning, you wouldn’t fear the administration coming in to your classroom.  Tenure doesn’t mean you’re the best teacher ever.

    You’re too interested in the politics of it all instead of just doing a good job.  Those of us who work our butts off are consistently recognized and rewarded.  What’s your beef?  Remember, point the finger at everyone else but yourself

  • stopthemadness

    The only reason that students would suffer is that the governor tied funding to what is a collective bargaining issue. Will he be imposing APPR on charter schools that get state funding?  Are their plans in?  How about Eastern Suffolk BOCES? They do not have an approved plan?  Does Nassau BOCES have one?… none is listed.  So where does the  governor and the commissioner stand on that. They created an awful plan and now they are foisting it on schools…. or at least some schools.

  • Peoria22

    Most newbies are idiots who lack content skills in their subject areas. They are just praised by Bloomberg and Cuomo because they are cheaper as a cost. Remember the goal of this neoliberal policy is to get rid of as many veteran teachers before they are eligible to collect their pensions with unreduced benefits. I will wager a huge bet that many of these so called young phenoms will score lower on a content speciality test than the so called “incompetent” teachers. So please shut your mouths you E4E loving hipster trust fund baby losers

  • Minni64

    Wow! ….I find your comment totally disrespectful….you are doing exactly what they want us to do….divide amongst ourselves so they can conquer us……it’s not that we “veterans” spend more time in politics than lesson planning….believe me, if you are a veteran teacher you know how to create and implement a lesson without the horse and pony show they are teaching you now……this is the only profession where being a veteran doesn’t count…..would you like to be operated on by a surgeon who is doing the surgery for the first time on you or one who has done it successfully therefore a master of the game 1,000 times…..we have worked our butts off too…..you are reaping the benefits of our union when it was really strong: you can thank the union for your weekends…..that’s right, your boss would have had you working through them….you can thank our union for not having to do lunch duty and hall patrol….school aides do that now…..you can thank the union for you getting paid on the 1st and the 16th and during the summer…that’s right, we used to get paid once a month……so you better pay attention to politics of it all or what we have worked hard for will be taken away!…..teachers choice is now down to $40….. It used to be as high as $250!……watch and learn young’un.

  • Perry

    There is nothing in NYS law that creates a make or break timeline for evaluations to go through. (Regardless of what you may have read in the papers) School districts that have a locally bargained agreement with teacher unions can agree or disagree on evaluations and will gain or not gain additional funds based on that fact. The only stipulation in the law is that districts will not gain Race to the Top funds if they did not agree to a new evaluation system. In other words, NYS school districts are entitled to the basic school funding that they have always been given. Cuomo has no right to hold back regular funds from school districts that did not agree on new teacher evaluation systems as these funds were not attached to the Race to the Top.

  • A.S.Neill

    As you say, Cuomo may have “no legal ground to stand on”. But this is now. However, if he’s powerful enough and can get the legislature to do his will, this can change. As you also say, there may be a political cost if he does this and aspires to the oval office as well as I think he does. What worries me is that Obama himself got away with repudiating his 2008 educational promises on fully funded Head Start (a fact never mentioned in any publication that I am aware), but then went on to institute the disaster of Race to the Top which is causing the precise situation that we face now of forcing destructive ed policies for money. It’s a disgrace that the teachers’ unions went along with this by servilely endorsing Obama a second time in 2012, and this includes both Weingarten and Mulgrew. So, Andrew may very well think he can get along with it also. And he may be right.

  • Fodder

    You don’t get it. Bloomberg will look great to the general public because he DID NOT agree to a sunset. He won’t get the sunset but he will look good to the general public because he demanded a sunset clause and would not “cave in” to what the UFT wanted. He can say that he stood his ground against the UFT but Cuomo went over his head and created an evaluation system that Bloomberg never wanted. In the end, Bloomberg can say that he fought the good fight against the “evil teacher unions” but can place the blame on Cuomo.

  • Peala

    What the heck do you mean “rewarded”? You sound like a DOE plant to me. (I hope I am wrong)

  • Maddog

    why does mikey want to cut vision screening for kids..what a total bafoon..purposely hurt children …but munch mike

  • Peala

    Very true indeed! Obama is the top dog that created this whole mess. It is a massive shame that every teacher union in the United States endorsed him. I knew better to have voted for him and told my colleagues not to vote for him, but it all fell on deaf ears. Folks now have to reap what they sowed. 

  • wise owl

    If you added up all the blogs against the new evaluation on this site (not just mine) you would realize that “majority rules” and “seniority rules” too. Seniority is alive and well and you know that you will be the first to go if the new evaluation does not pass and it won’t. I am friends with some young teacher  who nicknamed me, wise owl. I have not poisoned their minds. I have enlightened them. Three of them have been teaching for FIVE YEARS and have not been tenured. Their probation has been extended and they have received S observations/ ratings. The principal does not want to give them tenure so that he can  continue to “wipe the floor up with them”.  They are looking into the mirror of their future and see what is going on. They are already considering other careers when the economy improves. I have and still do work hard. I have had illegal programs and had to tolerate them. I’ve worked in the worst schools in the worst neighborhoods and saw enough to last a life time. Did you read my post about the broken elevators? Do you think that an untenured teacher could complain about anything without retaliation? I speak up for those who can’t but I would not speak up for you. You don’t like my posts because I tell it like it is and you can’t take it.

  • wise owl

     Thanks!

  • wise owl

    You need to explain this to SayNoToAccountability. I don’t think that this person understands.

  • PaHRiZ

    I’m a veteran who lesson plans everyday, but never looks at his plans, because I don’t need to look at them.  However, when one of you new “teachers” see one of my lesson plans, you practically have an orgasm.  Something to consider: your working hard, doesn’t necessarily mean you’re doing better than I am.  Another thing, just beacuse the principal likes you, it doesn’t mean you’re an effective teacher, it could just mean you’re his lap dog.  How do I know I’m doing a good job?  The principal hates me, but he can’t get me to teach enough extra classes for him, young kids like you don’t have my experience and your students’ passing rates are nowhere near mine.  My principal begged for my Power Point and SMART Presentation from a three hour PD I did for the school…and you know what?  I’ll never receive any recognition from him, but my colleagues, now that’s something else. :)

    Stop being so smug young’un…I’ll take your shine, your per session, and your girl if you bring her around, LoL (kidding, mmm, not really)…we were all young once, and we all knew it all.  Remember, one day some new young’un will be preaching to you one day, and you won’t like it one bit.
    :o )

  • Waititoutmulgrew

    The UFT will be thrilled to have ANYONE but this bloomterd to negotiate with.  I believe that Cuomo knows that its bloomterd holding up everything…..The UFT even requested a mediator if you recall and the bloomterd doe didn’t want that either…..They just want what bloomterd wants…..so the UFT will be thrilled to have Cuomo intervene

  • Waititoutmulgrew

    let him do it so we can shove it down bloomterds ***

  • Waititoutmulgrew

    I’m using the rag paper for my puppy to crap on

  • Waititoutmulgrew

    the mayor already spoke on air conditioning…he said to tough it out……remember, he noted that students should not let the heat effect their test taking abilities…..he bloomterd is truly a bozo people sorry but i cant help myself

  • Waititoutmulgrew

    yeah guy you have no pension and you make peanuts.  eventually you will quit because you will not get tenure even though you think you are some kind of wonder boy…most newbies go through that phase thinking suddenly they have become moses…..but after 3-4 years and no tenure reality sets in and then you will quit and get a job in sears or something like that..you know I’m just saying

  • wise owl

    We need to keep an “eye on Quinn”. She is a “snake”. She is going to tell us what she thinks we want to hear. She is already trying to distance herself from Bloomberg. Let’s hope that Bloomberg does not decide to “buy” the election for her like he did for himself. He knows that there are a lot of poor people out there that need the money and buy try to buy them off. He is power hungry and he really does not want to let go of the job.  Having Quinn  as mayor will be like him still being in the position. As a matter of fact don’t be too surprised  if Quinn “gives him” some type of “job”.The “all powerful OZ” has spoken and now needs to get into his hot air balloon and take off ASAP. Booo! Booo!

  • Invictus

     Cuomo is a version of the Supreme Leader in the great NYS level.  I would watch what he would shove the UFT in order to make himself look Conservative enough….Not that it matters, after his pool favorability numbers are down to the Mid 50s….after having shoved the Assault Gun bill in Albany…..  Perhaps he would be reckless enough to radicalize big labor in NYC and perhaps for the entire NYS at large.

    He cannot expect to give pieces of steak for the DeFormer camp and give rotten crumbs of fake dried up bacon to labor and still expect to be loved.  

    His plans for the White House will forever be that, simply unattainable plans. 

    What him for he will surprise even the most jaded in the most negative way. 

  • Calvados

    It is not disgraceful that many teacher unions went along with the R2TT mandate. I look at it as a simple case of survival and picking a better day to make a stand. Remember, these mandates are very expensive and there is no federal money to pay for them after 2014.  The next wave of RTTT funding is by district, not by state.  The public is naive to this fact, but unions know the truth, local BOEs also know what will happen, it is a primary reason they wanted a sunset clause included. I am certain the overall attitude towards these evaluations will be very different in a years time once local taxpayers get the bill.  And eliminating or even modifying Triborough, which will be required to do what Cuomo suggests, would be a huge escalation. It would not only get the attention of teachers, it would alarm all public sector unions. He may be popular but he doesn’t posses that much political capital. 1 in 4 households in NY are union.  It would put all public sector unions on a war-footing equal to what we saw in Wisconsin.  If Cuomo doesn’t know this there is no way he’ll win his next election for Governor, let alone a election for President .    

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