Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s education agenda took a solid one-two to the gut, courtesy of two of New York City’s heavy hitters during a joint budget hearing on education in Albany on Feb. 3.

UFT President Michael Mulgrew and Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña slammed Cuomo for the governor’s failure to pay the city the $2.6 billion in state aid that city schools are owed from the 2006 settlement of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity lawsuit.

Mulgrew told lawmakers that payment of the CFE lawsuit should have been a priority of the governor’s considering that there is a budget surplus of more than $5 billion.

“I thought, for sure, with a surplus this year that the governor would be talking about the state meeting its CFE obligation,” Mulgrew told reporters after the hearing. “Instead I hear he wants to put all the schools in receivership, and those are all the schools that are supposed to be receiving the CFE money.”

Mulgrew said that the UFT was considering going back to court to force the state to pay if the obligation isn’t addressed in the budget.  

“The court said the state is not meeting its constitutional obligation on funding in needy school districts,” Mulgrew said. “We’re not going to let that stand.”

The chancellor agreed with Mulgrew. “It is time to make a significant down payment on this obligation this year,” she said.

Fariña, meanwhile, also panned Cuomo’s proposals to make student state test scores account for 50 percent of a teacher’s rating and to bring outside experts to observe the teachers.

“I absolutely believe that holding teachers accountable only on test scores and outside evaluators is not a good idea,” Fariña said.

The chancellor said outside evaluators would lack a complete enough picture of a teacher to make a fair judgment. Fariña said factors such as attendance and collaboration should be considered in measuring teachers’ performance, noting that test scores were being de-emphasized across the country in teacher evaluations.

Mulgrew said many of Cuomo’s proposals have been tried elsewhere and failed. “Instead of accepting responsibility for the failed Common Core implementation and his failure to properly fund our schools, the governor has instead trotted out a group of discredited ideas that do nothing to help children,” he said.

Mulgrew said that the governor’s ploy to hold desperately needed additional school aid hostage unless lawmakers passed his education proposals was tantamount to an “extortionary scheme.”

The UFT president added that the governor was sending a disappointing signal to aspiring teachers.

“His proposal said, ‘Do not go to a needy school, and don’t teach the neediest students. If you do, I’m going to drum you out of the profession,’” Mulgrew said “That’s a bad signal that he shouldn’t be sending if you’re trying to attract and retain teachers.”