Governor Cuomo Likes Commissions/Councils: Can Schools Be “Reimagined” in the Midst of a Pandemic and Devastating Budget Cuts?
Candidates and electeds will make momentous decisions over the next few months. For candidate Joe Biden an educational agenda: we all remember the truly terrible decisions made by Obama, decisions that still haunt us.
Candidate Biden appointed an 8-member team; Governor Cuomo appointed a 25-member“Reimagining Education” Advisory group and Mayor de Blasio a 45-member advisory council.
Do these groups, whether you call them Blue Ribbon commissions, task forces or advisory councils actually influence policy? Are they a method of building consensus among disparate interests? Or, simply ways to push the crucial decisions down the road?
A neuron fired: didn’t Cuomo establish other commissions?
In 2013 the governor established the “New NY Education Reform Commission: Putting Students First,” a Blue Ribbon commission; led by former American Express CEO Richard Parsons, with a staff of researchers. The members of the commission included a wide range of policy makers, light on teachers and parents. The commission was charged with “assessing the New York State public education system and creating a plan that would better its overall structure, operation and process” as well as “exploring best practices and models from other states and nations that created significant cost savings for taxpayers and improved student achievement.”
After more than a year, many meetings and stakeholder community input the CONTINUE READING: Governor Cuomo Likes Commissions/Councils: Can Schools Be “Reimagined” in the Midst of a Pandemic and Devastating Budget Cuts? | Ed In The Apple