Post by Chris_Wendt on Feb 1, 2015 9:42:52 GMT -5
Governor Cuomo is playing hardball with the State Legislature and the education unions as the state budget process is starting up. I highlighted some of the Governor's moves in my blog the other day:
But this year, this week, there is another BIG BLACK CLOUD gathering over Albany, one that has never existed before, and one that has upset the balance of power that has existed since 1994, when Sheldon Silver became Speaker of the NY State Assembly, and took absolute control of legislation and the the attendant budget negotiations ever since. As of right now there is a vacancy in the Speaker post, which will not be resolved until February 10th, when the Assembly Democrats conference will elect a permanent replacement for Silver.
I firmly believe Cuomo had known of the pending demise of Silver and this emboldened Cuomo to get tough on the education establishment and especially the Teachers Union. Whoever replaces Silver as Speaker will not be Sheldon Silver, will never have been one of the 'Three Men in The Room' with the Governor and Senate Majority Leader, and, the new Speaker may not be as beholding to the Teachers Union as Silver was. Yes, the new Speaker will most likely be from The City (NYC), and will be a senior member of the chamber. But there are many new and emerging pressures on the Assembly in particular which are at odds with the traditional requisites laid down by the Teachers Union as quid pro quo for public support and election financing for state politicians who toe the (Union) line, so to speak.
Let's review the list, above.
Those particular four (4) points are anathema to the Teachers Union. I don't know how negotiable any of them are at this point, especially with Silver out of the picture. The new Third Man (Sliver's replacement) will be walking into 'The Room' for the first time—a complete novice—to engage the Governor and Dean Skelos in face-to-face budget negotiations behind heavy, closed and locked doors.
We have all witnessed, and should have given serious due recognition to both Cuomo and Skelos for having forged a real working bipartisan alliance between them. I would suspect both Cuomo and Skelos will make it a top priority to bring the new Third Man onboard with their alliance, which should be extremely attractive to a brand new Speaker to become part of...potentially an historic alliance of unprecedented accomplishments in the offing, mostly operating to and by upending long established precedents held so dearly and tenaciously by the Teachers Union (refer to the list).
I am keeping in my mind those crappy Common Core ELA Assessment scores for the past two years as being fuel for the fire which may well forge significant, even stunning, legislative changes in Albany this year.
Curious,
Chris Wendt
"NY State's Governor is again holding educators feet to the fire during the nascent state budget development process, by demanding or insisting upon new laws:Many of us State Budget watchers would normally just chalk this up to politics as usual, even though that last bullet point is very unusual on its face. What we all normally expect is that the Governor has always released the computer runs to school districts reflecting a scenario for state aid the following year which always has served as the worst case scenario for school districts, because the State Legislature always sweetens the pie, and almost all districts almost always get more aid than is reflected in the Governor's preliminary budget. It has worked that way for almost all of the past 34 years I have been involved in school budgets, with 1989-90 having been the most notable exception, 24 years ago, when Mario Cuomo cut state aid to school districts (the state ran out of money) leading to double-digit school tax increases statewide.
- More Charter Schools
- Greater reliance on Common Core test scores for teacher evaluations
- Tenure reforms
- Making the ersatz "Tax Cap" permanent
- Not releasing to school districts the preliminary (baseline) state aid projections from his preliminary budget (taking away their ability to featherbed their local school budgets)."
But this year, this week, there is another BIG BLACK CLOUD gathering over Albany, one that has never existed before, and one that has upset the balance of power that has existed since 1994, when Sheldon Silver became Speaker of the NY State Assembly, and took absolute control of legislation and the the attendant budget negotiations ever since. As of right now there is a vacancy in the Speaker post, which will not be resolved until February 10th, when the Assembly Democrats conference will elect a permanent replacement for Silver.
I firmly believe Cuomo had known of the pending demise of Silver and this emboldened Cuomo to get tough on the education establishment and especially the Teachers Union. Whoever replaces Silver as Speaker will not be Sheldon Silver, will never have been one of the 'Three Men in The Room' with the Governor and Senate Majority Leader, and, the new Speaker may not be as beholding to the Teachers Union as Silver was. Yes, the new Speaker will most likely be from The City (NYC), and will be a senior member of the chamber. But there are many new and emerging pressures on the Assembly in particular which are at odds with the traditional requisites laid down by the Teachers Union as quid pro quo for public support and election financing for state politicians who toe the (Union) line, so to speak.
Let's review the list, above.
- Charter Schools
- Greater reliance on Common Core test scores for teacher evaluations
- Tenure reforms
- Making the ersatz "Tax Cap" permanent....
Those particular four (4) points are anathema to the Teachers Union. I don't know how negotiable any of them are at this point, especially with Silver out of the picture. The new Third Man (Sliver's replacement) will be walking into 'The Room' for the first time—a complete novice—to engage the Governor and Dean Skelos in face-to-face budget negotiations behind heavy, closed and locked doors.
We have all witnessed, and should have given serious due recognition to both Cuomo and Skelos for having forged a real working bipartisan alliance between them. I would suspect both Cuomo and Skelos will make it a top priority to bring the new Third Man onboard with their alliance, which should be extremely attractive to a brand new Speaker to become part of...potentially an historic alliance of unprecedented accomplishments in the offing, mostly operating to and by upending long established precedents held so dearly and tenaciously by the Teachers Union (refer to the list).
I am keeping in my mind those crappy Common Core ELA Assessment scores for the past two years as being fuel for the fire which may well forge significant, even stunning, legislative changes in Albany this year.
Curious,
Chris Wendt