Cuomo To Withold Education Aid Until Teachers, City Agree On Evaluation System
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Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the city will not receive education aid after it failed to reach an agreement on a teacher evaluation system, a notion that didn't sit well with the mayor, who offered up some other suggestions for the state. NY1's Courtney Gross filed the following report. A failure to reach an agreement on a teacher evaluation system may not have any consequences for the city -- at least in city coffers.
"We are always talking to the governor's office and to the speakers office, and the two majority leaders offices, and I think they fully understand that we would like to have those monies put back in the budget," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Speaker, who represents parts of lower Manhattan, is on board with Bloomberg. He wants to put that education aid, about $260 million, back in the budget.
Last week a state judge temporarily blocked the state from withholding the cash.
But on Staten Island on Monday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo was asked whether he would fight to keep this funding out of city's pockets.
"The short answer is yes," he said.
But the long answer is more complicated.
"New York City by the way still doesn't have a teacher evaluation system in place," Cuomo said. "I want to say to every school district, you are not going to get the additional money unless you perform. And performance is having a teacher evaluation system."
The city lost millions of dollars in state education aid when it failed to reach an agreement with the teachers union on an evaluation system in January.
The deadline was imposed by Cuomo.
The mayor gave the governor another piece of advice, saying Albany should consider taking his soda ban statewide to ban the sale of large sugary drinks in grocery stores.
"If you have a 32 ounce in front of you, you are more likely to drink the whole thing, than to have a 16 ounce and get another," Bloomberg said. "But the state should do the same thing in stores, I couldn't agree more with you."
The city's soda ban goes into effect in two weeks and it applies to establishments with restaurant grades given by the Department of Health.
Bloomberg said it can't regulate supermarkets because they are overseen by the state.
Cuomo's office would not weigh in on the mayor's idea on Monday.