Gov. Andrew Cuomo used his annual budget address on Jan. 21 to announce the creation of a commission to fix the problems with the statewide implementation of the Common Core Learning Standards.

“The way Common Core has been managed by the Board of Regents is flawed,” the governor said. “There is too much uncertainty, confusion and anxiety.”

He called on the panel of education experts and legislators to put a corrective action plan in place by June.

“The UFT applauds Gov. Cuomo for his leadership in trying to solve the problems caused by the flawed rollout of the new Common Core standards, not just in New York City but across the state,” said UFT President Michael Mulgrew. “We hope his panel will find ways to make sure that every school receives the materials and training needed to help all children reach the new, higher Common Core standards.”

In his address, the official launch of the budget process in Albany, Cuomo proposed a 3.1 percent increase in direct aid to city schools for the fiscal year that begins April 1. If his executive budget is adopted, it would represent the third consecutive increase in the education budget.

The governor also asked the state Legislature to eliminate K-2 standardized testing, saying that “there’s no reason school districts should make 5-year-olds take standardized tests.” Some 12,000 UFT members signed a “Recess from Tests” petition this fall, calling for a ban on bubble tests in those early grades.

The governor also pledged his support for full-day prekindergarten for all 4-year-olds, though he refused to embrace New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s proposal to create a dedicated revenue stream by raising income taxes on high-income earners. Instead, Cuomo said he would pay for pre-K with $1.5 billion in state funds over five years.

“The state will pay for it and the state will be proud to pay for it,” the governor said. The initiative would include a review of standards and teacher credentials, he said, so that pre-K is not just “baby-sitting.”

De Blasio responded later that day by characterizing the governor’s support for pre-K expansion as “encouraging” but “different than what we intend to do.”

Mulgrew expressed satisfaction that both leaders had committed to universal pre-K.

“As educators, we have waited for generations for the promise of all-day, quality pre-K to become a reality,” Mulgrew said.

Cuomo repeated his call for a $20 million Teacher Excellence Fund, which would award high-performing teachers with $20,000 bonuses. The budget documents say, according to UFT officials, that the program must be worked out in collective bargaining and can be used to fund a teacher career ladder.

If the Legislature agrees, a $2 billion bond act to upgrade technology in schools statewide will appear on the November ballot.

With a 3.8 percent increase in education funding including funds for universal pre-K, the state education budget for the coming fiscal year would total $21.9 billion. The executive budget calls for high-needs school districts to receive more than 70 percent of the $807 million increase in education aid next year.

“This is a good start for the legislative process, one that puts the needs of New York’s children and educators at the center of the debate,” Mulgrew said.