Cuomo’s Outlook on Education

The education system here in New York has been a topic of discussion and debate in our state politics. Even though the politicians intents may be unclear, they all are obviously looking at the bigger picture when it comes to these issues. The full ramifications of the new policies they make can have a big effect on the students and staff here at Weedsport. The decisions they will make regarding Cuomo’s plan will make some changes in small schools that some of us here would not like if they came to pass.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo recently released a new plan to reform the education system, saying “Our education system needs dramatic reform and it has for years, I believe this is the year to do it.” According to reporters there at the presentation he described a new plan to the teacher’s union that would make it much easier to fire bad or lecherous instructors, redesign the unclear system for teacher tenure and evaluation systems, and increase the cap for student enrollment in charter schools by 100.

This new system would be implemented for the purpose of reorganizing the school systems, possibly merging small schools and cutting off loose ends. It has many new policies regarding school functions and gives the state government much more power over the education department. One of these policies includes much more thorough teacher evaluations and stricter degree requirements. This is especially important as he reported saying that one third of all incoming teachers were reading at below the level of a senior student.

Cuomo’s plan also offered incentive for new incoming educators in the form of paying the tuition for “top” student teachers out of SUNY or CUNY colleges. This along with a $20,000 bonus for high performance teachers as well as help to improve those who scored poorly. Cuomo was also pushing for tax credits to those who donate to public and private schools.

Cuomo wrapped up his proposal saying “Education, the great equalizer. This is the area, my friends, where I think we need to do the most reform, and, frankly, where reform is going to be difficult given the situation in the way education is funded in this state.” and encouraged the government to act against the unions and consider his plan. This however did not stop the upheaval of his idea from the teacher’s union and their allies.

However we must consider that if this or a very similar plan for education went into action, it could affect a small school district like Weedsport greatly. The possibility of merging with Port Byron is a foreseeable outcome lying on the horizon. Hopefully delaying itself to after the majority of those student reading this graduate of course. That merge would be a big impact on our community and would be a forced ending to Weedsport’s long-time rivalry with our neighboring school.

One cannot deny the facts and statistics that would lead to the logical conclusion of merging these two districts. They are both small and in close proximity to each other, and one district and building would be a lot easier to manage than two. But can we throw aside our history and pride to merge with our rivals? Its not like the plan would give us much of a choice.