‘SHIELD’ LAW: Gov. Cuomo and Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos approved restricting the public disclosure of teacher-evaluation data. (
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ALBANY — Despite Mayor Bloomberg’s push for full disclosure of the data, state lawmakers yesterday slammed the door on public access to teacher evaluations in one of their last acts before leaving Albany for the summer.
Teachers’ names will be shielded in evaluations released to the public under the bill Gov. Cuomo proposed and is expected to sign into law.
Only parents would be able to see the names of their kids’ current teachers under the plan, which passed by wide margins in both houses of the Legislature.
With the lawmakers all up for re-election this year and a round of teacher scores due in mid- August — and subject to full public disclosure — the Republican-controlled state Senate jumped on board the Cuomo plan yesterday amid reported pressure from the powerful teachers unions.
Sources said union bosses pushed Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R-LI) to pass the bill in exchange for campaign help — or at least neutrality — for key Republicans including Sen. Martin Golden of Brooklyn.
Skelos acknowledged having spoken with American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, who also is the former boss of the city’s United Federation of Teachers.
But he denied that the conversation was political, and he and Golden denied that they were promised union political help.
Weingarten did not return calls for comment.
The Democratic-controlled Assembly and the state and city teachers unions had signaled their support for Cuomo’s bill Tuesday after the governor had submitted his take-it-or-leave-it bill minutes before a late-Monday deadline.
Cuomo had vowed not to waive a rule requiring legislation to “age” for three days before being voted on.
The lone dissenter in the Senate’s 58-1 vote yesterday, Andrew Lanza (R-SI), said he opposes any disclosure of what he predicted will be flawed and misleading evaluations.
But Mayor Bloomberg and state Conservative Party Chairman Michael Long lobbied their Senate Republican pals to oppose the bill because it limits disclosure.
Bloomberg pointed to a 2011 court ruling prompted by a Post lawsuit to compel the city to release unredacted versions of all current Teacher Data Reports.
“I believe that parents have a right to full disclosure when it comes to information about their child’s education, and I am disappointed that this bill falls short of that goal,” Bloomberg said yesterday.