Teacher Unions Decry Longer Tenure Period, Evaluation Revisions

Though some education proposals pushed by Governor Cuomo were either scaled back or shelved under the $142-billion state budget passed early on April 1, Teacher unions remained angry about those that survived, including some they said further accentuated the role of standardized testing in Teacher evaluations.

They did count some victories. School aid statewide increased by at least $1.6 billion, one of the largest increases in years, and legislation about how long to extend mayoral control and whether to add 100 more charter schools, originally packaged in the spending plan, is likely to be debated over the final three months of the session. A receivership plan, which would have placed poor-performing schools under state control—which Mayor de Blasio fiercely resisted last month as an erosion of his authority—was largely defanged.