A.F.T. head: Cuomo agenda ignores inequity
BUFFALO—By blaming teachers for some students’ poor academic performance, Governor Andrew Cuomo has ignored the troubling racial segregation and socioeconomic inequity in New York’s public schools, a national teachers’ union president argued on Saturday.
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers and former president of New York City’s United Federation of Teachers, said Cuomo has ignored the other factors that impact student performance.
“He is peddling a theory that basically says there is a direct correlation between the effort of a teacher and the outcome of a student, and that direct correlation can be measured by an English or math test score, and that all you need to do is shake teachers up in order to make that work,” Weingarten said during a speech at a New York State United Teachers convention in Buffalo.
“So what the governor has done is, he’s actually taken everybody else off the hook,” she said. “He’s actually said, the only thing that matters is shaking teachers up … not poverty, not parents, not the kids themselves, not what the government should be doing in terms of equity. And that is what is most wrong about what he's done.
“What that does is, it allows the state of New York to have the largest funding gap between rich and poor kids in these United States of America,” she said. “It allows the state of New York to have the most segregated school system in these United States. And that is unconscionable for the Empire State. That, my friends, is what we are fighting.”
Echoing NYSUT president Karen Magee’s remarks earlier in the convention, Weingarten argued that the union has been strengthened by members mobilizing against Cuomo’s education reform agenda.
“We face big fights, and we come through them tougher and stronger and more united,” she said. “Thanks to our union and your passion, we will come through this bigger fight even tougher, even stronger and even more united than ever before.”
Rich Azzopardi, a spokesman for the governor, responded in a statement to Weingarten's comments: “Our reforms are about helping New York's children, not placating special interests.”A.F.T. head: Cuomo agenda ignores inequity | Capital New York: