Will the Legislature do what's needed to qualify New York for some of the $4 billion in Race for the Top funds?
After months of wrangling, Albany will decide sometime in a 90-minute window on Tuesday, between 3 p.m., when the state Senate reconvenes, and 4:30 p.m., when the state's application is due in Washington, DC.
The federal competition will likely be won only by states that have adopted several education reforms that teachers unions hate, including good charter-school laws and the use of student-achievement data in evaluating teacher performance.
Amid the last-minute brinkmanship in Albany, the New York State United Teachers and its allies, including the so-called Alliance for Quality Education, are trying to insert poison pills into the deal.
Even in Albany, where few things truly shock anymore, NYSUT's brazen cynicism is raising eyebrows:
* NYSUT is trying to reopen the mayoral-control debate, settled last year after tortuous negotiations, by pushing to remove Mayor Bloomberg's authority to locate charter schools in Department of Education facilities.
As the union knows full well, ending co-locations would leave Bloomberg unable to fulfill his pledge to create 100 charter schools in New York City over the next four years.
The Legislature should simply declare the topic of co-location settled and move on.
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