Oh Dear Lord, I Agree With Mike Bloomberg About Something...NY State Teacher Evaluations Should Be Public

NY State is about to pass a teacher evaluation plan. Naturally the teacher unions are freaked out about it. But since they are alone in their opposition they are trying to minimize the damage. Unfortunately Governor Andrew Cuomo is willing to cave in to them.

A plan to restrict the release of teacher evaluations is an “outrage” and would be a major cave to the unions, Mayor Bloomberg declared Friday.

“We have to run the system for the kids, not for the teachers,” he said on his weekly radio show.

...

A Cuomo administration source insisted the governor has not signed on to the union plan, but didn’t rule out portions of it being incorporated into a final deal.

Cuomo, the source said, supports full disclosure of all teacher scores — but the identities of the instructors would only be revealed to the students’ parents.

“If you’re not a parent, the name shouldn’t matter to you,” the Cuomo source said. “You may be moving to Brooklyn and want to know how the teachers in PS 40 are doing or how the sixth grade is doing. The name doesn’t matter.”

Bullshit. This information should absolutely be made public. Even if you're not a parent in a particular school or district you're paying city and state taxes that pay for the schools and for the teacher's salaries.

The reality almost all public employee pay and performance information should be public. If you don't want your work records made public...don't work for the public. Get a job in the private sector, problem solved.

When you find yourself agreeing with a moron like Bloomberg, you should reject your stance. Having done that, I'm chalking it up to Bloomberg being the blind squirrel who found a tasty nut. Hopefully, the NY State GOP, which controls the state Senate will stand tough for parents and taxpayers. We'll see.

BTW- It doesn't sound like the unions and Cuomo are expecting a lot of "Damn, they are doing awesome" reports, does it?

posted by DrewM. at 04:24 PM

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