Andrew Cuomo hates public education

Valerie Strauss, Washington Post - New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is running for re-election, has angered teachers, parents and education activists by telling the New York Daily News editorial board that he views the K-12 public education system as a “monopoly” and that teachers are opposed to be evaluated.

According to this story in the Daily News, Cuomo said that if he is re-elected, he would work hard to bust up “one of the only remaining public monopolies,” he said, referring to public education, and said that he likes charter schools because they introduce competition into the K-12 education world. He also said he wants to change teacher evaluation systems to increase more incentives and more sanctions in order to “make it a more rigorous evaluation system.” He was quoted as saying:

“I believe these kinds of changes are probably the single best thing that I can do as governor that’s going to matter long-term to break what is in essence one of the only remaining public monopolies — and that’s what this is, it’s a public monopoly.”

And he said:

“The teachers don’t want to do the evaluations and they don’t want to do rigorous evaluations — I get it. I feel exactly opposite.”

Predictably, educators and parents were furious at the governor’s comments. Billy Easton, executive director of the Alliance for Quality Education, a community-based organization that supports high-quality public education, said in a statement:

“Gov. Cuomo has laid clear plans to expand his frontal assault on our public schools through high stakes testing, starving our public schools and privatization. It’s not that shocking when you look at the enormous pile of cash he has raked in from the Wall Street billionaires who are investing in charter schools. He is rewarding his financial backers at a devastating cost to our children.”