Letters

Letters to the Editor: No more 'status Cuomo'

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Refuse to Support the 'Status Cuomo'

On February 16, 2012, Governor Cuomo boasted of his new teacher evaluation plan saying, "Today's agreement puts in place a groundbreaking new statewide teacher evaluation system that will put students first and make New York a national leader in holding teachers accountable for student achievement. This agreement is exactly what is needed to transform our state's public education system.”

In his 2015 State of the State address this past January, Cuomo called the evaluation system that he is responsible for putting in place “baloney”.


Now, because his evaluation system did not reinforce his false narrative of failing schools and failing teachers, he wants a new system that relies more heavily on student test scores even as other states are moving in the opposite direction, by placing less emphasis on high stakes, standardized tests.

Cuomo’s education policies are driven by spite, not research, as he aims to fulfill the privatizing wishes of his wealthy donors. He’s determined to implement a punitive teacher evaluation system because the state teachers’ union would not endorse him. He ignores the recommendation of experts along with the pleas from the tens of thousands of voting citizens who opted out of state tests last year while listening to the recommendations of a few hundred hedge fund managers who gave generously to his reelection campaign.

As a taxpayer, I wonder how much Cuomo’s original teacher evaluation system cost us and how much more he is willing to waste in order to achieve his desired results.

As a parent, I’m concerned that lengthy, questionably appropriate, never piloted exams are being given to my child, not to give me a better understanding of his learning, but to rate his teachers using a faulty method that has been criticized by the American Statistical Association, the American Educational Research Association and the National Academy of Education. Governor Cuomo refuses to make decisions based on educational research. I refuse to let my son take the ELA and Math exams this April. Refuse to support the status Cuomo. Support public education!

Keith Gamache
Parent, East Rockaway