Cala vs. Cuomo on education

Governor Andrew Cuomo didn’t get everything he wanted in the state budget in terms of education. The state will develop yet another teacher evaluation system, and it will take four years for teachers to become eligible for tenure instead of three. But that’s quite different from Cuomo’s starting position.

And the impressive pushback against Cuomo’s education reforms in the weeks leading up to the final budget was far stronger than Cuomo probably anticipated. Cuomo has tried to spin it in a positive light, but he clearly walked back some of his demands.

And the tension won’t end with the passage of the budget. There continues to be strong resistance to testing and the Common Core curriculum, and some of the luster around charter schools may be fading.

Locally, some of the sharpest criticism against Cuomo and his policy ideas comes from Bill Cala, interim superintendent of Fairport schools. Cala skewered Cuomo at an education rally several weeks ago — a video of the event appeared recently on education historian Diane Ravitch’s blog.

The video is worth the 15 minutes it takes to watch it just to hear Cala talk about a letter he wrote to Cuba’s Castro brothers concerning Cuomo’s imminent visit.

Cala is something of a local education folk hero, and he has many supporters as well as tough critics. He’s not just outspoken; at times, he’s been defiant of state and federal authority regarding education. Though Cala lists a number of concerns with Cuomo’s education agenda, he also, in the video, zeros in on the main problem that has probably dashed any presidential dreams that Cuomo might have had: credibility. Many people aren’t buying what Cuomo is selling, and it’s not just teachers and their union leaders, as he so often frames the discussion.

The Democratic governor is still fairly popular in his home state, but he’s hardly an authority on ethics — his other big issue. In the video, Cala points to Cuomo’s campaign contributions from hedge fund managers – big supporters of charter schools. Cuomo called for adding 100 more charters in New York as part of the budget, but didn’t get it. And Cuomo’s handling of the Moreland Commission left many questions unanswered, and it seems that at least some of that suspicion has spilled over into perceptions about his handling of education.

This article appears in Apr 1-7, 2015.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

According to Tim Macaluso, “The video [associated with the article at the link below] is worth the 15 minutes it takes to watch it just to hear Cala talk about a letter he wrote to Cuba’s Castro brothers concerning Cuomo’s imminent visit.”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWlSEDENTQ…
I disagree. In my view, the most interesting statements in the video are not those about Cala’s “letter to Cuba’s Castro brothers.” Instead I found statements, such as those quoted below — to be much more interesting and important:

“We don’t value children,” which is an incomplete statement (at best). In order for such a statement to be fully developed, it would necessarily have to acknowledge the critically important fact that “we don’t value [some] children” nearly as much as we value others. For example, in general, we don’t value children in the district where my son attends school (RCSD) nearly as much as we generally value children who attend school in the district that Cala is Superintendent of, or the district where Cala’s grandchildren attend school.

“Martin Luther King said that our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” Well, it is a fact that for decades, thousands of predominantly black and brown children in particular (in the RCSD), and millions across the thoroughly racist U.S. nation-state, have been routinely socially promoted (to the extent and degree that many of them end up in high school still reading, writing and doing math at elementary levels),and many so-called “graduate” unable to read, write and/or do math at high school levels. You would think that this is something “that matters.” Yet many, and probably most in the room listening to Cala’s speech have been “silent” about this (for decades). Thus, in accordance with Dr. King’s quote above, one might logically conclude that many of the people in the room “lives began to end” decades ago.

“Our current laws and proposed laws expect that the most noble of professions, teaching, is to work the miracle of what decades of institutional, governmental and societal neglect, and racism have foisted upon the most vulnerable among us, our children, our future.” Obviously, “racism” has not “foisted” anything (at least nothing negative) on large numbers of “our children.” While on the other hand, the dual-headed monster and disease of individual and institutionalized racism, which are thoroughly bound up together, completely intertwined, and totally inseparable from one another, has and is continuing to “foist” a whole lot on some children. This is an important, dichotomous, distinction to acknowledge and address — as opposed to just ignoring, or attempting to gloss over it.

“Make no mistake that the laws governing education are feeding the school-to-prison-pipeline. I hope we didn’t need John Legend at the Oscars to inform us that we have more black and poor men in prison today than all of the people in captivity during slavery. I hope that wasn’t the first that we heard of that. When you have laws that are immoral; when you have laws that hurt; when you have laws that damage precious lives, it’s time to walk.” As it relates to the school-to-prison-pipeline, and laws, policies, practices, rules, regulations, and traditions that are “immoral, hurt, damage precious lives” — obviously, people should have been “walking” way before the proliferation of “high-stakes testing, the common core, and charter schools,” but most haven’t. Why is that?

Lastly, if it is true, as stated by Dr. Adam Urbanski, at the end of the video, that: “At the end of this agenda that’s being imposed [by Governor Andrew Cuomo — theirs, i.e., the people in the room] will prevail, and the children will benefit” — then I am left with a couple of critically important questions:

1) Which children (specifically) “will benefit,” and how so (specifically)?

2) If their agenda does “prevail,” once it has prevailed, what (specifically) will prevent the people in the room, and thousands of others who are not in the room, from returning to the old, entrenched status-quo, as they have done after their agenda has prevailed in the past (with one of the most
recent and outstanding examples being — return to the entrenched status-quo — following the defeat of proposed, and attempted imposition of mayoral control by former Rochester Mayor, and former New York Lieutenant Governor Robert Duffy and company?

One reply on “Cala vs. Cuomo on education”

Howard J. Eagle says:

April 8, 2015 at 1:30 pm

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

According to Tim Macaluso, “The video [associated with the article at the link below] is worth the 15 minutes it takes to watch it just to hear Cala talk about a letter he wrote to Cuba’s Castro brothers concerning Cuomo’s imminent visit.”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWlSEDENTQ…
I disagree. In my view, the most interesting statements in the video are not those about Cala’s “letter to Cuba’s Castro brothers.” Instead I found statements, such as those quoted below — to be much more interesting and important:

“We don’t value children,” which is an incomplete statement (at best). In order for such a statement to be fully developed, it would necessarily have to acknowledge the critically important fact that “we don’t value [some] children” nearly as much as we value others. For example, in general, we don’t value children in the district where my son attends school (RCSD) nearly as much as we generally value children who attend school in the district that Cala is Superintendent of, or the district where Cala’s grandchildren attend school.

“Martin Luther King said that our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” Well, it is a fact that for decades, thousands of predominantly black and brown children in particular (in the RCSD), and millions across the thoroughly racist U.S. nation-state, have been routinely socially promoted (to the extent and degree that many of them end up in high school still reading, writing and doing math at elementary levels),and many so-called “graduate” unable to read, write and/or do math at high school levels. You would think that this is something “that matters.” Yet many, and probably most in the room listening to Cala’s speech have been “silent” about this (for decades). Thus, in accordance with Dr. King’s quote above, one might logically conclude that many of the people in the room “lives began to end” decades ago.

“Our current laws and proposed laws expect that the most noble of professions, teaching, is to work the miracle of what decades of institutional, governmental and societal neglect, and racism have foisted upon the most vulnerable among us, our children, our future.” Obviously, “racism” has not “foisted” anything (at least nothing negative) on large numbers of “our children.” While on the other hand, the dual-headed monster and disease of individual and institutionalized racism, which are thoroughly bound up together, completely intertwined, and totally inseparable from one another, has and is continuing to “foist” a whole lot on some children. This is an important, dichotomous, distinction to acknowledge and address — as opposed to just ignoring, or attempting to gloss over it.

“Make no mistake that the laws governing education are feeding the school-to-prison-pipeline. I hope we didn’t need John Legend at the Oscars to inform us that we have more black and poor men in prison today than all of the people in captivity during slavery. I hope that wasn’t the first that we heard of that. When you have laws that are immoral; when you have laws that hurt; when you have laws that damage precious lives, it’s time to walk.” As it relates to the school-to-prison-pipeline, and laws, policies, practices, rules, regulations, and traditions that are “immoral, hurt, damage precious lives” — obviously, people should have been “walking” way before the proliferation of “high-stakes testing, the common core, and charter schools,” but most haven’t. Why is that?

Lastly, if it is true, as stated by Dr. Adam Urbanski, at the end of the video, that: “At the end of this agenda that’s being imposed [by Governor Andrew Cuomo — theirs, i.e., the people in the room] will prevail, and the children will benefit” — then I am left with a couple of critically important questions:

1) Which children (specifically) “will benefit,” and how so (specifically)?

2) If their agenda does “prevail,” once it has prevailed, what (specifically) will prevent the people in the room, and thousands of others who are not in the room, from returning to the old, entrenched status-quo, as they have done after their agenda has prevailed in the past (with one of the most
recent and outstanding examples being — return to the entrenched status-quo — following the defeat of proposed, and attempted imposition of mayoral control by former Rochester Mayor, and former New York Lieutenant Governor Robert Duffy and company?