?Will Andrew Cuomo defy the special interests that have long controlled Albany ? starting with the public-sector labor unions whose political arm endorsed him ? to deliver the kind of change he promised in his successful campaign for governor of New York??
That's the question?E.J. McMahon, who runs the Manhattan Institute's Empire Center for New York State Policy, asks.??And he answers:??He has no choice.?
As McMahon?points out?the already massive budget gap ($8.2 billion) will grow to ?more than $9 billion? next year.? And as Mike Petrilli wrote the other day, ?To the Victor Go the Toils.? ??States and school districts are flat-out broke. Just about all of the typical budget tricks (cashing in rainy-day funds, refinancing debt, looking for one-time windfalls) have already been used.?
Clearly, as fat as it may be,?the financial diet?being forced on our public schools does not guarantee a good education ?? if you can spend lots of money badly, you can spend less money just as badly.? Potato chips anyone?
But here's what New York has going for it and why? the state?will surely be ? with due respect to Mr. Rotherham ? the bell weather of our education future:
?It has everything you could want and more:? more debt, more unions, more reformers, and, yes, ? don't forget Wall Street ? ?more money than anywhere else;?The state's new commissioner of education, David Steiner, actually knows who E.D. Hirsch is ? and a lot more;
?The state's new Regents chairman, Merryl Tisch, not only has almost as much money as Michael ?Bloomberg, she is as education savvy as Gotham's mogul public servant;
?Steiner and Tisch just moved the math and ELA proficiency goal posts from somewhere around the 40-yard line to about the 20;
?And they maneuvered nearly $700 million out of the Race-to-the-Top folks in Washington by promising to hold teachers accountable for student performance and to expand charter school opportunities.
Not bad.? Complicating matters, of course,?is the fact the Commissioner and Regents are creations of, and answer to, ?the bumbling, fumbling, corrupt Legislature. But it wouldn't be New York if the only drama was on Broadway.
The new governor elect has certainly talked tough ? his voluminous (252 pages) ?plan for action? promises a freeze on salary increases for state employees, a freeze on taxes, and a cap on local property taxes ? but he is no political na?f and may be able to actually get some of it done.? And he seems to be getting good advice on education, which he calls ?the new civil rights battle.? Cuomo supports charters.? And here's his take on the money:
New York public schools spend more per student than any other state ? fully 71 percent more than the national average, yet New York ranks 40th in the rate of high school graduation. Spending on salaries and benefits for teachers and other school district employees are also the highest in the nation. Yet only 67 percent of New York's students graduate from high school,34 and only 58 percent of these students receive a four year college degree by the age of 26.
Do we live in interesting times or what?
?Peter Meyer, Bernard Lee Schwartz Policy Fellow
