Times Unions Calls Cuomo On His State Of The State Speech

Nice editorial yesterday in the Times-Union, calling Cuomo on his funding for public education, his refusal to either increase funding or reduce state mandates that tax districts to stretching point, and his failure to acknowledge the problems with the state's CCSS implementation and the Endless Testing regime that is in part required by his APPR teacher evaluation system.

The editorial writer notes how "demoralized" students are over being tested on material they have yet to be taught, how all the excess testing is an outgrowth of Cuomo's vauned "accountability" measures for teachers and schools.

Here's how the editorial sums everything up:

What we heard from Mr. Cuomo was a short list of ideas, not a comprehensive vision for public education at a time when students, parents, and educators need leadership of a kind that they can’t get from an education commissioner or a Board of Regents. It takes a governor who, with poetry, paints an inspiring picture of the future, and, with prose, assures them that it isn’t just about pretty words.

In effect, Cuomo is painting over the vast problems in the school system, making believe the APPR teacher evaluation system is workable (when it's pretty clear that the excess testing and compliance work is detracting from the real job of educating students), making believe the CCSS implementation is fine and swell and non-controversial, making believe the Endless Testing regime isn't spurring revolts all over the state and making believe the top-down reform agenda from the SED/Regents isn't undercutting their own reforms.

It's arrogance from Governor Cuomo, pure and simple - he thinks he can just continue to shove this reform agenda down the throats of NY State students, parents and teachers regardless of the pushback and eventually they'll get tired of complaining and protesting and back down.

He is wrong about that.

He is simply throwing more kindling on the anti-CCSS, anti-APPR, anti-inBloom fire that is going to eventually come back and burn him.

Ignoring the growing protests over the SED/Regents reform agenda around the state is not going to make these protests and the protesters going away.

Even the press, outside of the corporate press in NYC, is starting to see through the SED/Regents/Cuomo reform agenda mess and calling them on it.

The more Sheriff Andy shoves this stuff down people's throats, the more students, parents and teachers he angers and brings to the rebellion.