Governor Cuomo and other reformers in Albany had reason to celebrate in the spring when the governor signed a landmark pension bill that experts say will save the state something like $80 billion over the next three decades.
Now, however, we’re beginning to understand that welcome as those reforms were, the state and the city still face a potentially catastrophic fiscal crisis if more radical changes to public pensions are not made soon. Read More
We have long known that Governor Andrew Cuomo is a bit of a gearhead—so much so it appears he has no interest in putting his considerable political capital behind the latest efforts to revive congestion pricing, being led by former transportation commissioner Sam Schwartz. WNYC asked Governor Cuomo about the Schwartz plan, first championed by Times scribe Bill Keller. Governor Cuomo plead ignorance. Read More
Governor Cuomo and other top policymakers and legislators are in the process of negotiating a deal that would give parents of public school children full access to teacher evaluation data. That’s good, but there’s the not-so-good part: The data will not be released to the general public.
That’s a bad deal. How bad? Well, all you need to know is that there has been some discussion about possible prosecution of parents who slip the data to news organizations. That this kind of conversation is taking place at all should persuade Albany to make the data available to everyone. Complete transparency would make the issue of parental prosecution moot.
Those who wish to restrict access to the data note that evaluations of other public employees are not subject to disclosure. That’s true, but other public institutions are not in the midst of a once-in-a-lifetime transformation, at least not to the degree that public education is. Read More
Ordinarily a Republican victory in a heavily Democratic State Senate district would be seen as a blow to a Democratic governor. It only makes sense, right?
Wrong. After all, these are not ordinary times. Read More
Yes, gambling is going on all around us, and nobody is shocked to hear about it. That’s why Governor Cuomo and the State Legislature were right to take a big step toward the construction of seven new casinos in the state. Simply put, if you don’t build them, they won’t come. Read More
Moments of absolute clarity are rare in politics. Governance usually is a muddle of compromises, short-term solutions and outright evasions. It isn’t pretty, but nobody ever said democracy was a work of art. Competing interests need to be satisfied; elections need to be won.
But every now and again, politicians and policymakers are confronted with a dilemma so profound and so frightening that the usual methods of operations can no longer apply.
Such a moment is here. State and local governments are on the verge of bankruptcy because of the spiraling cost of public employee pensions. The time for reform is now. Read More
A week after Governor Cuomo and the teachers union agreed on a new, more robust system to evaluate public school teachers, the city released data reports measuring the performance of about 18,000 of the city’s 75,000 public school teachers. Advocates of educational accountability have good reason to cheer.
The battle to make the teacher ratings public was long and difficult, thanks to the predictable efforts of the United Federation of Teachers, which devoted a portion of its vast resources and energy to keeping the ratings away from the prying eyes of parents and taxpayers. The UFT was not particularly gracious in defeat—it never is. Union head Michael Mulgrew said the city’s Department of Education should “be ashamed of itself.” Shame, it should be noted, is not a characteristic we associate with the UFT.
The ratings are not perfect. Read More
It took long enough, but in the end, New York’s public school students won an important victory last week when the teachers union and Governor Cuomo came to an agreement on a new teacher-evaluation system.
The most immediate benefit is easy to measure: With an evaluation system in place, the state moved closer to qualifying for $700 million in federal aid through President Obama’s “Race to the Top” funding mechanism. The feds were threatening to withhold the money if New York did not implement a required evaluation system. While the state still may have to clear up other issues before qualifying for the aid, it’s clear that the evaluation system is a major step in the race to the top. Read More
Video
Everybody but Governor Cuomo is certainly trying.
The TriState Transportation Campaign just launched a new set of radio ads ahead of public hearings next week for the administration-approved, mass-transit-less bridge planned to replace the dangerously deteriorated Tappan Zee. The spots conclude: “Without transit, we’ll be stuck in traffic for decades. Tell Albany—we need transit on the Tappan Zee.” It is the same message offered by a recent video produced by the group that shows politicians and planners on both sides of the river and the aisle support mass transit on the bridge. They all want to know why after a decade of planning, after 280 meetings, it must all be cast aside. Read More
Governor Andrew Cuomo says that if the teachers union continues to obstruct the implementation of a new, robust evaluation system for teachers and principals by Thursday, he’ll act on his own and impose a system. That’s precisely what he ought to do.
The showdown still was underway at press time, but regardless of whether or not the governor and the union reach an agreement, a larger point remains: Once again, the teachers union, emboldened by its allies in the Democratic-controlled State Assembly, has resisted efforts to bring accountability into the classroom.
Unlike his fellow Democrats in the Assembly, Mr. Cuomo has shown that he understands the reactionary role the teachers union continues to play against the effort to bring much-needed reform to poor-performing school districts. Mr. Cuomo is acting on behalf of poorly served students and their parents. The union, of course, is simply trying to protect incompetent teachers. Read More
