Gov. Cuomo, following through on an ultimatum to Mayor Bloomberg and the teachers union, will take action Feb. 22 that could lead to the imposition of a new teacher-evaluation system on the city, The Post has learned.
Cuomo told Bloomberg and United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew that if they can’t hammer out an agreement for an evaluation system by Feb. 22, he’d submit an amendment to his new budget plan giving the state Education Department authority to impose its own evaluation system on New York City educators, an administration source said.
The city has already lost $250 million in state money by failing to adopt a teacher-evaluation plan, and Cuomo’s action is designed to prevent it from losing any more.
“The governor is saying he’s putting the kids first, and that he wants to make sure that politics and ideology don’t get in the way of investing in improved performance in the classroom,’’ said a Cuomo administration official.
The amendment, certain to be approved by the Legislature, would still give the city and the UFT until as late as Sept. 17 to reach an agreement — the date set in state law for final approval of the next round of special-education grants.
Late last week, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) a strong teachers-union ally, and the leaders of the Senate made clear that they’re ready to back Cuomo in imposing a settlement on the city.
***
New York Republicans fear they’ll have no serious candidate — and maybe no candidate at all — to run against Cuomo next year, despite a poll showing that his popularity is on the decline, GOP leaders have told The Post.
Some leaders say their party, in decline for more than a decade in New York and now seen as in crisis nationally, could face what one called “an unprecedented’’ disaster in 2014 with an all-but-unknown candidate — or a nutty candidate like the thuggish Carl Paladino, who ran against Cuomo in 2010 — at the top of their ticket.
“If you have a Paladino, or someone like him, as the candidate, you can kiss goodbye any chance of retaking the [state] Senate and we’ll probably lose three or four more congressmen,’’ said one of the state’s most influential Republicans.
Republican activists warn that 2014 could be a replay of not just Paladino’s 2010 loss, but of such previous embarrassments as former Assemblyman John Faso’s hapless challenge to then-Attorney General Eliot Spitzer in 2006 or even Pierre Rinfret’s near-catastrophic defeat at the hands of Gov. Mario Cuomo in 1990.
New York-based national GOP strategist and pollster John McLaughlin, who has run dozens of races in New York, was pressed by The Post to name a single credible candidate to challenge Cuomo next year.
‘’Right now, no one comes to mind. There doesn’t seem to be anyone interested in it,’’ he said.
State GOP Chairman Ed Cox initially had trouble coming up with any potential candidates.
When he finally did name several possible challengers to Cuomo, he cited individuals who are virtually unknown and, in two cases, potential candidates who have already taken themselves out of the running.