Major Moskowitz Meltown Comes Courting Cuomo

It's all over whatever it is that used to be Gotham Schools. Eva and her buds are upset. Apparently, when de Blasio said charters might have to pay rent, he was referring to none other than charters that have a lot of money. You know, the ones that are so flush with cash they can lay out a half a mil a year for someone like Eva.

That's why they've given almost a million bucks to our good pal Andy Cuomo. You know, the self-proclaimed student lobbyist. Only it turns out our student lobbyist has no power over education, and every screw-up is the fault of the Regents, over which he has no control whatsoever. Unless, of course, they mess with the APPR system that judges gym teachers on math tests, and all teachers on Common Core tests. That's sacrosanct, and though student lobbyist Cuomo has no say over eduction, he will not bend on New York's precious junk science.

Also, student lobbyist Cuomo is lobbying for merit pay. Just because it's been around for a hundred years and has never worked anywhere is no reason to give up on it. Who knows how many teachers are holding back the good stuff until they can make an extra few thousand dollars a year? Those are the kind of teachers Governor Andy wants to encourage, because there's no better motivation to help children than money.

Governor Andy knows a lot about the motivating power of money. That's why Eva and her hedge fund pals are rushing to him. After all, every dime that they pay in rent will be a dime's less profit, or possibly even a dime out of the pocket of Eva herself. This, of course, is unacceptable. Perhaps Eva and Andy, being motivated by money, cannot conceive of why anyone would be otherwise.

I like money. I haven't had a raise in over five years, and I could use a little more. I have a kid I need to put through college. Of course if I had a salary like Eva's I could send her to Harvard. Nonetheless, I'm not holding back anything from my students.

But now that Eva has lost her hotline to Tweed, who has she got? Apparently, she's got Governor Cuomo, the Democrat who goes after unions, the one who never met a reform he didn't like. Proof-shmoof. If DFER thinks it's a good idea, if they send him yet another ten thousand bucks, and if they want it, that's good enough for him.

It's almost like having Mike Bloomberg up in Albany. Now that Cuomo's ego doesn't need to compete with Bloomberg's, now that the man at Gracie Mansion is not a fanatical ideologue, just about anything reformy looks good to Andy Cuomo.