Perdido Street School:
Don't Kill The Bees!
Perdido Street School Week
Don't Kill The Bees!
Mass murder at the Yankees game down in Florida - for bees: TAMPA — Steinbrenner Field was buzzing Tuesday, but it had nothing to do with the Yankees and Red Sox. The rivals were delayed for seven minutes in the bottom of the third inning when a swarm of bees wreaked havoc in left field. Boston left fielder Mike Carp pointed the bees out to umpires, who stopped the game while stadium employees tre
Why Isn't Eva Moskowitz Under Attack For The Harm Her "No Tolerance!" Policies Do To Minority Children?
From the Daily News: WASHINGTON — Black students — even tiny preschoolers — are more likely than white students to be suspended from public school, a study disclosed Friday. It has been well-documented that black children in elementary, middle and high school are more likely than white kids to be disciplined. But for the first time, the U.S. Education Department examined suspensions in preschool.
YESTERDAY
Tell Me Again Why The U.S. Should Mimic The Chinese Education System?
A lot of these suicide stories are coming from South Korea, another country with a high stakes education system that leads to an awful lot of stress and pressure on children and teens, but this one's from China: Surveillance cameras have caught the shocking moment an under-pressure Chinese student jumped to his death during class. Heart-stopping footage claims to show the at first motionless boy s
What's Going On In Budget Negotiations
State of Politics on the current state of the negotiations:Asked if he was reviving de Blasio’s push for a tax increase on those earning $500,000 and more a year to pay for a city-wide version of the plan, Silver didn’t deny it. “I’m looking for a reliable, sustainable funding source throughout the state,” he said. It is an interesting turnaround for the budget talks, which come a day after 59 peo
Skelos Storms Out Of Budget Negotiation Meetng
Time to read the budget negotiation tea leaves:State Budget talks appeared to hit a major snag Friday morning over the issue of universal prekindergarten. Senate GOP leader Dean Skelos stormed out of a four-way leaders meeting in Gov. Cuomo’s office just after 10 a.m. complaining to reporters that “certain members in the room that represent another branch” were too focused on New York City and app
Cuomo Threatens De Blasio Over Charter School Issues
The governor who claims he has nothing to do with education policy keeps getting involved in education policy: ALBANY - Gov. Cuomo is pressing Mayor de Blasio to resolve controversies over charter schools — including three lawsuits — before the state has to get involved, a source said. "The governor is urging the mayor to settle charter school issues, meaning co-location and funding issues an
MAR 20
Here's One Critic De Blasio Should Appreciate Having
They say you can know the mark of a man by the enemies he has - here's one enemy that Mayor de Blasio should be happy to have: It’s a tale of the 1% city for Bernie Madoff. The convicted swindler, cooling his heels in a North Carolina federal prison camp, is no fan of the progressive financial policies and vision touted by Mayor de Blasio. “I’m not a great fan of redistribution of wealth,” the 75-
Will Media Call Eva Moskowitz, Charter Allies On Their $3.6 Million Ad Buy In Last Three Weeks?
@perdidostschool can someone spent $3.6 million on restorative programs within public schools, infrastructure and classrooms— Mutale Nkonde (@yppe06) March 20, 2014Eva claims she has no money to pay rent but she and her allies drop $3.6 million on a three week pro-charter/anti-de Blasio ad blitz.The ads are still running, so that tally on the ad campaign will go higher.Can you imagine if de Blasio
Eva Moskowitz And Her Allies Spent $3.6 Million On Pro-Charter Ads In Last Three Weeks
How come they can't pay rent but they can spend $3.6 million dollars on pro-charter ads?A pro-charter school group has spent $3.6 million over the past three weeks on TV ads attacking Mayor de Blasio, an insider revealed Wednesday.Families for Excellent Schools — founded by a deep-pocketed group of financiers — has run a series of ads, including a spot blaming de Blasio for taking away the “hopes
Don't Buy The Poll Showing NYer's Roundly Despise De Blasio's Education Policies
Quinnipiac released a poll yesterday that claimed to find widespread disapproval of de Blasio's education policies: Voters are giving Mayor de Blasio a bad report card for his education policies. A Quinnipiac poll released Wednesday found that just 38% support de Blasio’s handling of the public schools and 49% disapprove. 40% want de Blasio to increase the number of charter schools while 39% want
Cuomo Underfunds NYC Public Schools
Cuomo bragged during a phone "town hall" that he is keeping state spending lower than the last 10 governors.Dunno where he got that stat - might have found it in the mashed potatoes Sandra Lee made for St. Patrick's Day - but given this story from Daily Politics, I can believe it:City funding of the Education Department in 2015 will outstrip the state's contribution for the fourth year i
MAR 19
Feds Threaten NY Over Race To The Top Funding
From Newsday: A top U.S. Department of Education official warned yesterday that New York and other states risk losing millions of dollars in Race to the Top incentives if they back away from efforts to strengthen teacher job evaluations or other initiatives financed by the federal money. The admonition came from Ann Whalen, director of the department's implementation support unit, who at a Washing
More Bad Scandal News For Chris Christie
A few days ago there was a report that the US attorney in New York had issued subpoenas to Christie ally and chairman of the Port Authority David Samson over potential conflicts of interest at the Port Authority involving Samson's law firm.Those subpoenas were retracted, perhaps because the US attorney in New Jersey had the jurisdiction in the case or because they had already drawn up the subpoena
Cuomo Uses State Tax Money For His Own Political Purposes
Not only are taxpayers funding commercials that tout Governor Cuomo's New York State and a weekly video round-up of "good news" in the state that ends up working as a "Vote For Cuomo" ad on the Internet, taxpayers are also paying for Cuomo to "stock the audience" at his speeches:Gov. Cuomo was so determined to stock the audience of his State of the State Address earli
Cuomo Will Try To Steal Money For His Charter School Donors From Traditional Public Schools
From Jessica Bakeman's Capital NY article about the complex budget negotiations around education issues:Cuomo came out strong for charters, in response to pleas from Success Academy head Eva Moskowitz, pledging to “save” them, and the Senate was the first to quantify what that will take: increased tuition rates that would be paid from traditional public schools to charters, a moratorium on chargin
Cuomo Looks To Take Gubernatorial Control Of NYC Schools
Jessica Bakeman at Capital NY:Will mayoral control be stripped to 'save' charters? Another fight awaits on the issue of charter schools. Cuomo came out strong for charters, in response to pleas from Success Academy head Evan Moskowitz, pledging to “save” them, and the Senate was the first to quantify what that will take: increased tuition rates that would be paid from traditional public schools to
MAR 18
Surprised These Poll Numbers Aren't Worse
A new Quinnipiac poll shows Mayor de Blasio under water in job performance:Less than half of New York City voters approve of the job Mayor de Blasio is doing in his first three months in office, a mediocre rating that is well below his NYPD Police Commissioner Bill Bratton and City Controller Scott Stringer, according to a new Quinnipiac poll. Forty-five percent of voters said they approved of de
Mayoral Control Of Yonkers School System Not A Done Deal
From Politics on the Hudson:A plan to give Yonkers Mayor Michael Spano more control over the city’s schools appears unlikely to garner Assembly support.The state Senate last week signaled its support for mayoral control of Yonkers schools as part of its one-house budget resolution, which was passed just after 2 a.m. Friday.But the two senators who represent Yonkers—Senate Democratic Leader Andrea
Chancellor Farina: Policy Changes Coming Soon
Lindsey Crist interview Chancellor Farina on NY1 and asked the following:Christ: So obviously, so much of the first two-and-a-half months, the conversation in the city has been about pre-K and after school, and there's many years after pre-K and many hours before after school in the day. When are we going to start hearing more about these concrete proposals and policy changes related to the rest o
Bridgegate Scandal Gets Closer To Christie
Chris Christie is making like he doesn't have three scandals dogging him (Bridgegate, Sandy aid, Samson at the Port Authority), going about his business as if he can be a viable 2016 presiential candidate and an effective New Jersey governor.But then you get news like this that pops up every now and then that let's you know just how tenuous a thread he hangs upon:Records released today by a legisl
Cuomo: Secrecy = Transparency
You just can't make this stuff up:Gov. Andrew Cuomo today defended the closed-door budget negotiations, saying “just because something is done behind closed doors doesn’t mean the process isn’t transparent.” He said he and legislative leaders have made their budget positions know publicly, and they need to meet privately to hash out the details. “Just because something is done behind closed doors
MAR 17
Cuomo On Defensive Over Charter School Stance
From Daily Politics:Gov. Cuomo Monday said he has no interest getting into the weeds about where charter schools are located within a city, just as long as they continue to exist. Cuomo made the comments during a press conference in his ceremonial Red Room office at the Capitol designed to push his property tax plan he wants included in a final budget. He dismissed as "silly" claims by c
When Does Cuomo Criticize Charter School Operators For Their Salaries?
From Ken Lovett at the Daily News:ALBANY — A leading activist for the poor who has ripped Gov. Cuomo over the issue of income inequality actually makes more money than the governor.Michael Kink, executive director of the union-backed Strong Economy for All Coalition, pulls in at least $183,000 a year, sources close to him say.Kink’s salary tops Cuomo’s $179,000 annual pay. It also dwarfs the less
Pre-K A "Massive Victory" For De Blasio
Blake Zeff at Capital NY:Put aside the chess-match analysis for a moment: The fact that Bill de Blasio is apparently on the verge of getting Albany to fork over hundreds of millions to fund pre-kindergarten is a massive victory for the mayor. This was an idea, remember, that was widely regarded as unrealistically ambitious when de Blasio first proposed to make it happen. The fact that Andrew Cuomo
Adivce For De Blasio To Recover From His Early Missteps
I've talked about how de Blasio needs to start getting savvier in his handling of the press and these phony "scandals" that have popped up like "forkgate" (when he ate a slice of pizza with a fork and some in the the press, barely out of middle school, mocked him for days over it) and the UES snow plow scandal that was ginned up by the Murdoch journalists at the Post and WSJ.Cr
Cuomo Likes Being A "Disruptor" Of Public Schools
From Capital NY:Governor Andrew Cuomo cast himself as a "disruptive" force in support of charter schools, in a congratulatory appearance on the first episode of John Catsimatidis' new radio show."That word is important, John: disruptive," said Cuomo, in a 10-minute appearance on Sunday morning, that included lots of praise from Catsimatidis, a former Republican mayoral candidat
MAR 16
Cuomo Already Looks To Cut De Blasio's Pre-K Money
One of the arguments Mayor de Blasio used for why he wanted to raise taxes on people making over $500,000 a year in NYC to fund his pre-K program is that he could on the money being there every year.If the money for the pre-K program came from the state rather than the tax hike, the funds would be subject to the whims of the governor, the legislature and the budgeting process in Albany and could b
The Problem With Supporting De Blasio
A Michael Fiorillo comment from Chaz's blog:DeBlasio has made some serious errors in judgment. The snow-day-that-wasn't is a sideshow, but his being caught flat-footed by Moskowitz is a big deal; he and the public schools were badly hurt by it.Sad as it is, he's probably the best we're going to see for quite a while, in that he doesn't want to see us eating cat food in a ditch somewhere. That sets
Cuomo Whines About Blogs
Sheriff Andy took a Sunday off from riding motorcycles with Billy Joel and enjoying Sandra Lee's delicious cooking to appear on radio with new talk show host John Catsimatidis: The 24-hour news cycle has made governing much tougher, Gov. Cuomo said Sunday morning. Asked by rookie talk show host John Catsimatidis on his new 970 AM show what he likes least about governing compared to when his fathe
Common Core Opponents Not "Drunk With Hysteria"
The attempt to marginalize Common Core opponents and critics continues unabated these days, with newspaper editorial boards like the one at the Daily News accusing people who are against the Core of being "drunk with hysteria."A New Yorker writes a letter in respone to the Daily News to let them know why they are off base in their attacks: We, the people, who are against the Common Core
MAR 15
Tony Benn On Hitler, Stalin And Bill Gates
From Tony Benn's last speech to Parliament:In the course of my life I have developed five little democratic questions. If one meets a powerful person--Adolf Hitler, Joe Stalin or Bill Gates--ask them five questions: “What power have you got? Where did you get it from? In whose interests do you exercise it? To whom are you accountable? And how can we get rid of you?” If you cannot get rid of the pe
Big Business Takes On Common Core Opponents
Stephanie Simon at Politico reports the business supporters of the CCSS are launching an expensive and widespread counteroffensive against Common Core opponents starting this weekend:A coalition including the Business Roundtable and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce will launch a national advertising blitz Sunday targeted at Republicans skeptical about the standards. Spots promoting the Common Core wil
Quid Pro Cuomo
From Politicker:A small crowd of public school parents and advocates stormed the lobby of midtown building where Gov. Andrew Cuomo was believed to have a meeting this afternoon. Waving “Quid Pro Cuomo” posters, the two dozen or so protesters rallied against proposed budget language that would give the state government some jurisdiction over city schools. The proposal, outlined by the State Senate’