Cuomo amps up pressure on teachers

By Michael Gormley ALBANY, N.Y. — Gov. Andrew Cuomo declared Feb. 1 that the “Battle of Albany" is on.

Taking on the state's traditionally powerful teachers unions, Cuomo threatened to impose tougher job evaluations by Feb. 16 if the unions continue to, as he put it, block progress. The evaluations taking into account student performance were required by law two years ago. Lack of labor agreements now threatens more than $1 billion in school funding.

“You may not hear the cannon and musket fire, but this battle of Albany, that's going on," Cuomo told the New York State Association of Counties. “We're talking about fundamental change. This has been a system that for 15 years has been dysfunctional, for 15 years that has been operated by the special interests."

Cuomo said he would use the rare power of New York governors to insert his evaluation system for teachers in budget bills. Unlike in most states, that leaves New York's Legislature with the option of approving the whole budget bill or rejecting it, and possibly shutting down government after the April 1 start of the fiscal year.

“Two years later, nothing's happened," Cuomo said of the teacher union negotiations. “And the federal government called and said it wants its $700 million back." He referred to the federal Race to the Top competitive grant that New York won in part for promising a tougher evaluation system. Additional state funding is also at risk.

The New York State United Teachers union and state Education Department have said negotiations are progressing and some districts are settling the issue.

NYSUT President Richard Iannuzzi said Feb. 1 that significant progress is being made toward implementing the evaluation system, but progress has been delayed by the state's appeal of a judge's ruling that the Board of Regents crafted flawed regulations that double the importance of standardized tests.

“All across the state, teachers and school districts are working to develop rigorous and fair evaluation systems that are good for students, fair to teachers and that work for their own communities," Iannuzzi said. “What they don't need is another 'one size fits all' unfunded mandate imposed by Albany bureaucrats."

The union said its statewide advertising campaign will promote “locally developed evaluation systems that advance excellent teaching."