N.Y. teachers union blasting Cuomo in new multimillion-dollar ad campaign

[Omaha Steve]

Source: W Post

By Valerie Strauss

The United Federation of Teachers in New York is launching a multimillion-dollar ad campaign blasting Gov. Andrew Cuomo for education policies that have sparked a protest movement among parents and educators.

The union said the campaign began Tuesday with a 30-second ad in the New York City area and moving to the rest of the state on Wednesday. It will run on popular television shows, such as “The Blacklist” and “Mad Men,” as well as during Yankees and Mets baseball games and news networks and programs.

Cuomo recently pushed through the legislature a package of education reforms that angered teachers, in part by elevating the importance of standardized test scores in teacher evaluations. Thousands of parents in New York have opted their children out of the state-mandated high-stakes tests that started last month and are continuing this week. A group of seven New York State Teachers of the Year wrote Cuomo an open letter in February, saying in part:

We are teachers. We have given our hearts and souls to this noble profession. We have pursued intellectual rigor. We have fed students who were hungry. We have celebrated at student weddings and wept at student funerals. Education is our life. For this, you have made us the enemy. This is personal.

FULL story at link.



N.Y. Gov. Andrew Cuomo delivers inaugural address in Buffalo on Jan. 1, 2015. (REUTERS/Lindsay DeDario)

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2015/04/22/n-y-teachers-union-blasting-cuomo-in-new-multimillion-dollar-ad-campaign/

[donnasgirl]

1. Being from NY

And having many friends and neighbors who are teachers, I am going to say this one time. This Governor has made it extremely hard on any Democrat who in the future wanting to run for Governor, the people whom I know simply do not know who their friends are anymore.