November 4, 2011
To New York: We Ain't Holding our Breath
By Elizabeth Ling, DFER NY State Director
This week Governor Andrew Cuomo announced the launch of a signature education program, his competitive grant for school district performance improvements. As New York's version of Race to the Top, it could eventually disburse up to $250 million to cash-strapped districts.
Meaning a district such as NYC could get $30 million over three years if it wins. What's not to like about that?
Well, under the grant guidelines, a district that is selected for an award can only receive funding if it has fully implemented the state's new teacher evaluation plan by the end of this school year. This requires the consent of its local teachers union.
Forgive us for being skeptics but, when it comes to district and union negotiations, you hafta understand that we education advocates have been disappointed time and again. More often than the Boston Red Sox have let down their fans. More often than George Clooney has disappointed his countless former girlfriends. More often than Mitt Romney has flip-flopped on policy positions. You get the picture.
A case in point (or several): NY State United Teachers' lawsuit to water down the state's teacher regulations. The NYC DOE and UFT's inability to negotiate at the bargaining table. And Buffalo's on-going comedy of errors as it attempts to address its failing schools.
You'd think there'd be a bigger sense of urgency in our state, given our looming budget crisis and our poor NAEP test scores. (NY lost the most ground in math among the states, as reported Tuesday.)
Since both districts and unions seem to have no intention of making the teacher evaluation law work, we ain't holding our breath that many kids will actually see a dollar of the governor's grant funding.
But, as a citizen of New York, I take this personally. And so, for each of our Big Five school districts that gets their act together, I'm offering to donate $100 to their teachers union's charity of choice. That's a bet that I would gladly lose.
Elizabeth Ling oversees strategy and operations for DFER's New York State advocacy programs. She focuses on building coalitions of various education reform groups, and works with legislators and government officials to help shape public education policies. Read more about Elizabeth here.