Gov. Andrew Cuomo State of the State address 2013, less grandstanding when he spoke in this video, but still touts allocating grants to schools not based on financial need but on performance. And his reform commission proposed teachers pass a bar type of exam to recruit into the profession. Yet, with a starting salary for a teacher in Buffalo Public Schools at $32,800, it discourages prospective candidates from entering the profession.
"For the fifth year in a row, Maryland’s public school system took the top ranking in an annual study that examines state education policies and student achievement across all 50 states and the District according to the Washington Post. Education Week gave Maryland a B-plus in its “Quality Counts 2013” assessment. Maryland was the only state to earn the grade. Massachusetts, New York and Virginia trailed immediately behind Maryland, with overall grades of B. These four states maintained the same rankings they held in last year’s report."
When it comes to education, some topics Cuomo discussed were longer school days and years, more pre-kindergarten and funding based on performance and paying high-performing “master teachers” $15,000 extra a year for four years to teach other teachers.
Poughkeepsie Journal/Associated Press, January 2013
Although it got bad press when it recently put down over $300 million to buy the progressive Current TV from former VP Al Gore, the deal helped Al Jazeera expand its viewers to 40 million in the American market.
It's an award-winning broadcast news known for coverage of global events from Arabe Spring to Al Qaeda and controversial messages from Osama Bin Laden a decade ago.
Al Jazeera has a respectable worldwide audience based in Qatar funded through its emir.
There was some bad media attention when Time Warner dropped Current TV after Al Jazeera sealed the deal, but it's not final.
Al Gore founded CurrentTV in 2005.
Al Jazeera buys CurrentTV from Al Gore captures wider US TV audience
Dr. Rick Timbs, Statewide School Finance Committee commented on the report criticized it for not going far enough to help school districts in high needs areas from the inequitable state school funding formulas and the devastating impact of the property tax cap on others.
“It is no secret that there are gross inequities in aid cuts and in the distribution of aid to school districts,’’ said Dr. Timbs. “The more than 400 school districts that make up the SSFC need SOLUTIONS to stem the massive aid cuts they have endured in recent years —cuts that deny children a sound, basic education. They need solutions like an end to state-created funding cuts, increased mandates and changes to the Foundation Aid Formula —changes that would distribute aid based on need, rather than politics.’’
