Cuomo challenger Teachout: Drop Common Core, fund schools
OSSINING – Cheered on by teachers and education advocates, unlikely gubernatorial candidate Zephyr Teachout promised Tuesday evening to provide equitable school funding and to return decision-making to local communities.
Teachout, who is challenging Gov. Andrew Cuomo in a Sept. 9 Democratic primary, said that Cuomo has proven to be anything but the advocate for children he said he would be. She repeatedly criticized the state's budget formula that has cut school aid for years to help get New York out of the red.
"Everybody is looking for some magic bullet," she said. "But if you don't fund schools at the most basic level, you can't teach."
About 100 people, close to half teachers, came to Louis Engel Park on the Ossining riverfront to applaud Teachout, who has gained some traction with educators and parents who oppose the state's education reform agenda.
"What we have seen in the last four years are teachers who are treated like suspects instead of mentors," she said.
Teachout, a liberal who is a constitutional law professor at Fordham Law School, has pledged to stop the implementation of the Common Core standards. She said Tuesday that the Common Core is "leading to teaching to the test" and that educational standards should be developed by communities.
"They should come from people with real classroom experience and parents working together," she said.
Although New York's political focus has shifted to accusations that Cuomo silenced a commission investigating government corruption, debate over the Common Core has proven to have staying power. Educators and advocates with a wide range of political views have taken aim at the current wave of government-imposed school reforms.
Tuesday's rally was organized by Lisa Rudley, an Ossining parent who is a founding member of New York State Allies for Public Education, and Adam Yuro, a Bedford teacher who was president of the teachers union for eight years.
"Now New York has a choice," Yuro told the pro-union, solidly Democratic crowd. "Make sure everyone knows that."
Cuomo's campaign is challenging whether Teachout has been a New York resident for five years. Teachout, who will be in a Brooklyn courtroom Thursday to prove her residency, laughed off Cuomo's challenge.
She described a vision of public education with small class sizes, early intervention for children who need it and art in every school.
"Every child deserves to have a teacher who has the time to pay attention to them," she said.
Cuomo's Republican challenger, Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino, has also pledged to drop the Common Core and replace it with New York's own standards. During the spring, he promoted the fact that he and his wife decided not to allow their children to take the state's English language arts and math tests.
But many teachers and union representatives are concerned that Astorino supports the growth of charter schools and might seek to curtail overall spending on education.
Twitter: @garysternNY