Maybe one day New York will have a meaningful way to fire lousy public-school teachers. But plainly not in time for the kids now stuck in their classrooms.
Because the message out of Albany is no one there is ready to do any such thing.
On Tuesday, Gov. Cuomo said he was “cautiously optimistic” about a deal with lawmakers to delay or relax at least some parts of the teacher-evaluation law.
Passed in 2010, that law linked student test scores with teacher ratings that supposedly could get a bad teacher sacked.
Still, the teachers unions have succeeded in resisting accountability. Even after Cuomo “toughened” the rules, for example, 92 percent of teachers outside Gotham last year were rated “effective” or better — at a time when 69 percent of the students had flunked math and reading tests.
This year, the unions beefed up their opposition because low scores on the new Common Core tests put even more teachers at risk.
In response, Cuomo suggested “adjusting” the link between test scores and teacher ratings. Meanwhile, union shills in the Assembly (i.e., most of its members) want teachers held completely harmless. And Senate GOP leader Dean Skelos is likely to cave, too.
This has the feds threatening to withhold $292 million they granted to the state after New York promised to use Common Core curricula and link tests to teacher ratings. The US Department of Education’s Ann Whalen warned Tuesday against “breaking promises” and “moving backward.”
On Sunday, The Post’s Susan Edelman showed how tough it is to fire teachers. Now Albany wants to make it even tougher.