Cuomo to appoint new education commission

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo used the occasion of his State of the State speech on Jan. 4 to announce a new state commission to recommend education reforms in two key areas: teacher accountability and student achievement, and management efficiency.

Clearly frustrated by stalled negotiations on a new teacher evaluation system in school districts across the state, Cuomo indicated that he wanted the commission to reexamine the topic.

“We need a real teacher evaluation system,” he said. “The legislation enacted in 2010 to qualify for Race to the Top just didn’t work.”

UFT President Michael Mulgrew saw potential in the commission.

“Rather than do what New York City now does, which is to set its educational policy by a political agenda, the commission could look at the research about what really works in schools,” he said. “The commission could also shine a light on management inefficiencies, like the fact that the New York City Department of Education promised to use three-quarters of a billion dollars in state money to reduce class size — and then let class sizes go up every year.”

The governor provided few details about who would be appointed to the commission or how it will operate, saying only that the new commission will be bipartisan and its members would be jointly appointed with the state Legislature.

In a speech largely devoted to an ambitious job-creation agenda, Cuomo also proposed another commission that would make further revisions to the state tax code, building on the state Legislature’s surprise December agreement to cut taxes for the middle class but tax top earners at higher rates.

A more progressive tax code will cheer state workers, but the governor’s call in his speech for a less generous pension tier for future government employees was not so well received. Cuomo proposed a Tier 6 for newly hired workers, calling it part of “mandate relief.”

Several union leaders criticized the plan, with one saying that cutting benefits to future workers was akin to the state “eating its own seed corn.”

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who spoke before the governor, presented a harder-hitting agenda for taxpayer and worker relief. He said the Assembly majority would work this year to raise the state’s minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to make New York more competitive with surrounding states; cut taxes for families earning below $30,000 and end taxes for those making less than $25,000; and increase state funding for community colleges.