GLYNN: Cuomo launches drive for better teachers

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Glynn

January 28, 2012

By Don Glynn Niagara Gazette The Niagara Gazette Sat Jan 28, 2012, 10:29 PM EST

Column by Don Glynn — Gov. Andrew Cuomo appears determined to address the outrageous conditions that have surfaced in schools across the state because incompetent teachers are protected by their unions.

“We must make our schools accountable for the results they achieve and the dollars they spend,” Cuomo said in his annual message to the Legislature.

A recent report of New York public schools showed that the city tried to expel 26 teachers from the classroom in 2011 for “gross incompetence.” Shockingly, that included English teachers who, it was charged, couldn’t write or speak the language properly.

The record also shows that the powerful teachers’ union that swept into a defensive mode succeeded in preventing about half of those teachers from facing any kind of suspension or dismissal.

As the governor has indicated in his demand for improving the system, the incompetent teacher problem is not restricted to the five boroughs of New York City.

“Everyone in public education (superintendents, principals and teachers) has his or her own lobbyist,” Cuomo told the state lawmakers, adding that he intends to be the lobbyist for the students.

As a way of attaining that goal, he has linked adoption of a statewide teacher evaluation regimen to the overall budget.

If the New York State United Teachers fail to adopt an improved evaluation plan, he will draft his own and make it part of the budget legislation.

If the individual districts don’t have that new teacher-grading regimes in place by 2013, they will lose out on the already approved 4 percent increase in school funding.

As much as Cuomo talks tough to the unions, he has to be realistic. If he offends them too much, they will hurt him in the next election. Teachers can have a powerful effect at the polls.

•••

HIGH ROLLER: Sports expert Tom Niland of Youngstown was undoubtedly delighted to hear that advice that Gov. Andrew Cuomo offered at the end of his press conference Thursday.

“Bet all your money on the Giants,” Cuomo said. He refused to predict the score or the point spread.

The governor couldn’t resist taking a shot at the Giants’ opponent in the Super Bowl. “Isn’t it interesting that no specific state identifies with the team?,” he asked about the New England Patriots. He noted that it’s like the Mid-Atlantic Chargers or something.”

Never lost for words, the governor added that the “geographic nebulousness” gives that region “semi-deniability.”

Niland, a staunch Big Blue fan for decades, seemed offended the other day when someone reminded him that the Giants are a New Jersey team.

Surely he agreed with Cuomo’s reply to that charge: “Read what’s on the helmets: New York Giants.”

•••

COSTLY SCAM: That CBS News report Thursday night was a shocking example of how organized crime and crooked medical facilities are bilking insurance companies and hiking rates for innocent drivers. The scumbags stage car accidents and — hard to believe — there’s no law in this state that expressly forbids such criminal stunts.

For the record, New York residents now pay 53 percent more in auto insurance premiums on average than drivers in other states. The scams are a major factor, according to a group known as New Yorkers Stand Against Auto Insurance Fraud.

•••

SPRUCING UP: Murphy’s Cafe, a popular spot at Third Street and Rainbow Boulevard, is closing for renovations, starting Monday.

Owner Mike Murphy said the restaurant in the Jefferson Apartments, will reopen Feb. 15.

•••

OFF THE PRESS: “The Buffalo Blizzard Book: The Snowy Saga of the City of Good Neighbors,” by Paul K. Moore (Data Reproductions Corp., 342 pages, hardcover, $29.95) is a timely publication for the 35th anniversary of the Blizzard of ’77.

Moore, who grew up in Clarence Center, graduated with a B.S. in meteorology from the State University of Oswego in 1985.

Beyond the blizzard that countless Western New York residents remember, this book is a 200-year chronicle of Buffalo and WNY’s memorable snowstorms, starting in 1811.

That was the year, as Moore notes, that the Buffalo Gazette, the Queen city’s first newspaper, first began publishing.

•••

A CHEAP SHOT: Overheard in Players Lounge, Niagara Street: “The post office says they raised stamps another cent because they need to upgrade their equipment. Apparently they’re going from semi-automatic to uzis.”

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