A group of public-school parents filed a lawsuit yesterday, challenging Gov. Cuomo’s legal right to punish the city for failing to meet a deadline for a deal on new teacher evaluations by rescinding $250 million in funding.
Papers filed in Manhattan Supreme Court argue that the move is unconstitutional, in part because it harms the education of the city’s 1 million students.
“They are unwitting victims whose vital educational interests are irrationally being forfeited as a penalty for offenses that they did not commit,” the documents say.
Attorney Michael Rebell said if state officials believed the city needed the $250 million for education, then the inability of the teachers union and city to reach an evaluation deal wouldn’t change that need.