NY1 Exclusive: Fight Over New Teacher Evaluations May Cost City Millions In Schools Aid

By: Lindsey Christ

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The city is in danger of losing hundreds of millions of dollars in federal education money, because negotiations between the Department of Education and the teachers' union over a new way of evaluating teachers are not going well at all. NY1's Education reporter Lindsey Christ filled the following exclusive report.

In May 2010, the schools chancellor and teachers union president agreed to come up with a new teacher evaluation system. A few months later, they were rewarded for that, as the state won $700 million in the federal Race To The Top competition.

"We received the federal seal of approval," said Mayor Michael Bloomberg at the time.

"It's not just about all the noise and the rhetoric you hear about education, that there was real substance to this application," said United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew at the announcement.

The state Legislature passed the basic framework for the new evaluation system last May, with the union and city's blessings. The details just need to be hammered out, but now those details could derail the whole thing.

"Conversations have not been going well, and it's really about the approach to the evaluation system," said Mulgrew.

The money is supposed to start flowing into the school system next month. That means that by the end of this month, the city and union need to be on the same page.

But they have not been able to reach agreement on what tests should be used to evaluate teachers, or who will go into the classrooms to judge performance.

The union said the city is trying to dictate the plan, not negotiate it.

"Just telling us what you’re doing, that's nice, but it doesn’t work that way," said Mulgrew.

The city would get $256 million of the state's $700 million. When NY1 asked Mulgrew whether he would give in on some points to get that money, he said no.

"We’re not going to make a fundamental mistake that will harm children for 20, 30 years because someone is waving a carrot in front of us. It's not going to happen," said Mulgrew.

That did not sit well with Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott, who does not get riled up very easily. He fired back, "We’ve been engaged in good faith negotiations, so it’s disappointing that Mike Mulgrew felt the need to jeopardize those discussions, and hundreds of millions of federal dollars for our students, for a cheap sound bite. These comments suggest the union has no intention of implementing a real accountability system."

If they cannot agree, the city's money could go to other school districts in the state, at a time when every penny counts.