Latest News and Comment from Education

Friday, March 14, 2014

3-14-14 Perdido Street School Week

Perdido Street School:






When Does De Blasio Realize Cuomo Is Not His Friend?
Hopefully he has realized this already after news like this:In a radio interview, Governor Andrew Cuomo downplayed the funding for universal pre-K. "Yes, that will be in the budget, but that's been established for a long time," he said. "The charter discussion is going to be new, and it's going to be important."The governor, who sources say got deeply involved in the negotiatio

Comptroller Stringer Shills For Eva Moskowitz
I've never much liked Scott Stringer, so maybe I'm not giving him the benefit of the doubt, but what I hear from him here is, he's backing up Eva Moskowitz: Controller Scott Stringer said he wants to audit charter schools — especially those colocated with traditional public schools.   Speaking to reporters after a lunch hosted by the Association for a Better New York — where Gov. Andrew Cuomo deli
NY Times: De Blasio Seeks Nine Year Teachers Contract
Oy:The de Blasio administration, seeking to be generous to its allies in labor without jeopardizing New York City’s finances, is pushing for what would be the longest-ever contract with the teachers’ union: a nine-year deal that would let the city stretch out potentially huge retroactive pay increases. In intense negotiations over the past week, people briefed on the talks say, the city has assert

Meet The New Member Of The Board Of Regents
From the Times-Union:With 20-20 hindsight, lawmakers are asking themselves what happened during their vote to elect members to the state Board of Regents, which sets education policy.During a rare joint session of the Legislature, Assembly members and senators on Tuesday re-elected three incumbent Regents. For the fourth seat, which had just been vacated, they chose a seeming long-shot: Sullivan C

What Message Was Sheldon Silver Sending On Charter Schools Yesterday?
From Capital Confidential:For the first time in anyone’s memory around here, Assembly Democratic Majority Speaker Sheldon Silver came into the LCA pressroom for a quick scrum on budget negotiations earlier Thursday. We’re all a bit unsure precisely what that means, although some suggested Silver was underscoring the importance of the New York City charter school fight.Mostly though Silver signaled

Cuomo Wants State To Have Power To Override Mayors On Charter School Decisions
And so Cuomo's shilling for the charter industry continues:Gov. Andrew Cuomo in a radio interview Friday morning said he wants a statewide law that would block a city’s mayor from revoking a charter school.Cuomo’s comments were aimed statewide, but in the context of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s decision to rescind the co-locations of three charter schools in the city that had been previous


What The City Is Proposing For Health Care Costs For City Workers
Juan Gonzalez in the Daily News on the first day of contract talks between the city and the unions: Talks began this week between the de Blasio administration and city unions over labor contracts for 300,000 municipal workers. It was night and day compared to the Bloomberg era. “I heard more worthwhile proposals in the first 45 minutes than I heard the previous three years,” Harry Nespoli, chairma
Court Rules Charter Schools Are Not Public Schools
And so Eva Moskowitz wins again: New York charter schools won a big victory Thursday when a judge ruled the state’s top fiscal officer can’t follow the money and look at their books. Charter school crusader Eva Moskowitz filed suit to bar state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli from auditing her 22 schools, all of which are publicly funded but also receive private donations. On Thursday, Manhattan Supre
3-13-14 Perdido Street School Week
Perdido Street School: State Senate Undercuts Mayor Control Of NYC Schools Over Charter School IssuesIt's interesting how the functionaries of the plutocracy like mayoral control of schools so long as the mayor in charge is pushing their agenda.But when he's not, they undercut it from Albany:The state Senate will propose sweeping measures in its budget bill to undo Mayor de Blasio’s ­moves against