Gov. Cuomo suggested yesterday that he favors merit-based teacher lay offs in times of fiscal hardship, rais ing this critical question: Does he support the principle strongly enough to make it public policy?
“I think a better system than ‘Last in, first out,’ [which is] a seniority-based system, is a system that is based on merit,” Cuomo said.
“I think seniority has been used as a proxy because there really is no objective evaluation criteria, there is no objective evaluation system right now, and there needs to be,” he added.
Time to create one, we’d say.
Which is to say, the governor himself now holds the key to ending the archaic, union-mandated “Last in, first out” system in favor of merit-based layoffs.
He needs to go for it.
Cuomo, who has cautiously eased himself into this position, obviously knows how to read public sentiment — and a new Q-Poll says 85 percent of New Yorkers favor merit-based layoffs.
The Legislature has begun to act — state Senate Education Committee Chairman James Flanagan (R-Suffolk) has introduced a bill to repeal LIFO and establish a comprehensive list of interim objective merit-based criteria.
Yesterday, the bill picked up an Assembly sponsor: Manhattan Democrat Jonathan Bing, who was targeted by the United Federation of Teachers last fall after he introduced a LIFO-repeal bill.
But while Flanagan’s bill presumably enjoys the support of Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, Bing can’t count on leadership support for his measure.
That’s because Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and his principal puppet-master, the UFT, hate it.
And that’s because it is a solid first step toward LIFO repeal.
So much so, in fact, that Cuomo & Co. would do well to adopt it for their own.
It mandates collective bargaining to decide on a permanent set of objective, merit-based layoff criteria — but also establishes interim procedures that would enable Mayor Bloomberg to go ahead with the 4,700 teacher layoffs he says are needed now.
Bloomberg is working for repeal. But Cuomo commands the high ground in Albany; if he chooses to adopt the cause, LIFO repeal will have a much better chance of happening.
It’s not often that a public-policy reform of this magnitude enjoys the support of fully 85 percent of New Yorkers.
True, Cuomo is doing pretty well in the polls himself for someone who’s backing a genuine austerity budget.
He could seize this issue and look even better.