Gov. Cuomo yesterday said he’s introducing a bill that will force New York City, finally, to grade its teachers. Now it’ll be up to parents to grade Cuomo: Will his bill truly lead to better educations for their kids?
Ultimately, the proof will be in the numbers: Today, barely a few dozen teachers (of some 74,000!) are let go each year for poor teaching — though the state says roughly two-thirds of city kids aren’t prepared for college or a job after four years of high school. New Yorkers will know Cuomo’s measure has teeth when they see more teachers being fired for poor performance.
That may in turn hinge on whether it includes a provision that will see the evaluation system expire, or “sunset,” within a few years. The city teachers union is demanding a sunset clause. It knows that since the dismissal process can take a while, a sunset provision might effectively ensure that no one is ever fired.
Yesterday, Cuomo said that under his bill the state education commissioner would impose his own plan if the city and union can’t agree on one by June 1 — and would decide if and when the plan would expire.
Huh? Can’t Cuomo & Co. come up with a plan that doesn’t need to sunset?
Not only could an expiration date protect bad teachers; it could force the city to renegotiate with the union each year, giving labor another club with which to beat the city into agreeing to more favorable contracts — say, with higher pay.
Cuomo & Co. might argue that, like teachers, evaluation systems need periodic re-evaluation, and thus sunset dates.
But if sunsets are good policy, we have a proposal: Why not sunset the Triborough Amendment? This is the state law that gives public employees, including teachers, automatic raises when contract talks stall.
So long as the sun won’t set on a law that removes any incentive for teachers unions to agree to contracts they don’t like, why should it set on any system to grade them?