Mamie Till Mobley

"There was an important mission for me, to shape so many...young minds as a teacher. God took away one child but...(gave) me thousands. And I have been grateful for the blessing." Mamie Till Mobley

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Gov. Cuomo educational vision...



“I think the inequity in education is probably the civil rights issue of our time. There are two education systems in this state. Not public private. One for the rich and one for the poor and they are both public systems.
The way we fund education through the property tax system, by definition is going to be unfair. And it is. The state is sup- posed to equalize or come close to equal- izing with its funding. That’s the CFE law- suit that the state is yet to fully fund.” 

Instead of following up to equalize educational opportunities for poor children in public schools, under  Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the state is yet to fully fund CFE law-suit.

What Cuomo attempts to propose is to place public schools under a czar and receivership. Why?

Is Andrew Cuomo for real?

Gov. Andrew Cuomo sent a letter to Board of Regents to review the public school model in St. Lawrence Massachusetts for experimenting with this model in NYS.
Jim Malatras, his director of state operations wrote the letter. Next time ask an educator to write the rational because the data to support what Cuomo has in mind doesn't justify what he is asking in a receivership model. Cuomo aught to have a cadre of educational advisors Malatras is far from one. He may have credentials in political science but not in education.
With the data Malatras presented it would seem the whole state should be under a receivership which is far from the truth in a state among the pack leading in the nation on overall graduation rates.

Receivership schools: is this what Cuomo had in mind for New York?

“What we’ve done in Lawrence is not a traditional district system nor is it a charter school system,” said Jeffrey Riley, the state-appointed receiver of the district who acts as superintendent. “What we’ve done is created a third way of doing business.”
"Charter school operators have contributed to the schools’ improvements, but there are major differences between a school operating under the state’s charter law and one under state receivership that’s being operated by a charter network, officials said."
“Under receivership, when the state takes over, we’re no longer bound by the collective bargaining agreements or the budget and staffing decisions that have operated up until the receivership, so the state had the ability to make changes,” Chester said. “We have complete control over the budget. Where collective bargaining agreements are an impediment to implementing the turnaround plan, we can implement changes … and we have control over staffing."

Whitney Tilson (3rd background)

Whitney Tilson (3rd background)
"Let’s be honest: we need a lot more well-off, well-educated white folks with a personal stake in both charter schools and education reform in general if we’re going to take reform to the next level, both politically and operationally.Whitney Tilson, hedge fund manager and major funding angel for the school privatizing Democrats for Education Reform, thinks there’s not enough rich, educated white folks.( Preaprez) click photo to his blog.

Arne Duncan

Arne Duncan
U.S. Secretary of Education, click photo