The commission, which is being led by the former Citigroup chairman Richard D. Parsons, has also gained two more well-known names from Wall Street: Sanford I. Weill, another former Citigroup chairman, and Stanley F. Druckenmiller, a billionaire hedge fund manager.
Naturally, one can't establish an education panel without a billionaire hedge fund manager. That's key if you want to discover the opinions of people who wouldn't send their kids to public school on a bet. The other Wall Street folks will surely reinforce that important point of view.
Governor Cuomo has added a few people who might be closer to education:
The new appointees include a parent advocate from Rochester, a newly elected school board member from the Adirondacks and a district superintendent from Central New York — three constituencies that the governor was criticized for not including on the panel when he announced it in April.
Fortunately, Governor Cuomo has not one single working teacher on the panel. To really round out the voices heard, it's important that not one single person who will be personally affected by the choices it makes have any voice whatsoever on it. There will be some retired teachers, who don't have to worry about Governor Andy's newly established Tier 6, or spending their twilight years eating cat food. Surely there will be gala luncheons for them in Albany, even as NYC teachers face their fifth year without a raise in salary.
The important thing for Governor Andrew Cuomo is to gauge the opinions of those upon whom his "reforms" will have no effect at all. For example, it won't be them with their junk science ratings on the front page of the New York Post after concerned parents leak them. And it won't be them with long lines of parents outside their offices demanding transfers to 100% rated Miss Eyre's class from abysmally rated Mr. Educator's class. That will be the working principals, who surely have nothing better to do than ward of hordes of parents angry about ratings that are essentially meaningless.
But if the editorial pages of the local newspapers say they have value, that should be good enough for anyone. In this modern age of the New York Post, Fox News, and "Democrats" like Andrew Cuomo, reality just won't do.
Posts
