Andrew M. Cuomo has had nearly two terms as governor to
significantly improve public education in New York. He has failed to use his
bully pulpit to promulgate policies to improve student outcomes. New York’s
average student performance for reading and mathematics remains less than 50%
proficiency.
While Cuomo is articulate in his criticism of failing
schools, and what is needed to improve them, he has not acknowledged his
inability to be a change agent for public education.
Below are education-related excerpts from Cuomo’s seven State
of the State addresses, from 2011 to 2017. Note that his education agendas have
focused on higher education, early childhood education, funding, failing
schools, charter schools, technology, teacher training and evaluation.
“Higher education will be the key economic
driver. We look to partner with our great SUNY system, especially across
upstate New York in making this a reality. They will provide both
intergovernmental and intra-governmental coordination and be one-stop shops.”
“We need a meaningful teacher evaluation system.”
“We need better teachers. Teaching is one of the
most important professions in society. We must attract and incentivize the best
to become teachers. We need to overhaul the teacher training and certification
process, increase admission standards, and we should implement a bar exam type
test that every teacher takes and must pass before we put them in a classroom
to teach our students.”
“The next step now in our journey is to reinvent
our classrooms with new technology. We must transform our classrooms from the
classrooms of yesterday to the classrooms of tomorrow.”
“We are proposing that we will pay full
tuition for SUNY or CUNY for top graduates if they commit to going to teach in
New York schools for five years. And we will create a residency program to give
teachers early training just the way we do with doctors.”
“…We
have committed $1.5 billion to phase-in full day Pre-K for four year olds and
we are excited about that. We’ll invest another $365 million this year in Pre-K
for four year olds but we also want to take the next step and start designing
programs – not for four year olds – but for three year olds.”
“To ensure that charter
schools are serving all of the public, we will propose an innovative
anti-creaming legislation to ensure charters are teaching their fair share of
high needs populations, English language, learning disabled and free lunch so
no one can say that the charter schools aren’t taking the same cross-section of
public students that the public schools have.”
“Let’s dedicate $100 million to transform every failing school
in New York into a comprehensive, holistic, full-service community school and
change the basic education system in this state and stop the cycle of
incarceration in this state and paying for problems, rather than stopping the
problems at an early age.”
“I am proposing tuition free college at our SUNY and CUNY
schools and our community colleges for students or families making up to
$125,000.”
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When it comes to education, it is clear that Cuomo lacks
either the authority or influence to significantly improve education outcomes
for public school children in New York. While Cuomo should be given credit for
saying the right things, he fails to earn credit for doing the right thing when
it comes to education. This is unfortunate because as a state, we have too much
to lose. As Cuomo stated in 2012, “The
future of our state depends on our public schools. A strong, effective school
system is the hallmark of a healthy democracy.”
