Nearly four years ago Andrew Cuomo was elected governor of our state.  Our profession has never been the same.  He came in promising to be the lobbyist for students.  Since then he has underfunded public education while providing tax cuts for corporations and New York’s wealthiest citizens.  He has pushed waves upon waves of high stakes testing onto our students and teachers.  He has presided over the implementation of the tax cap that has decimated school districts across the state.  He has pushed for an increase in the number of charter schools, robbing even more money from public schools.  He pushed for a teacher evaluation plan based upon junk science, and he even called for the “death penalty” for schools with failing scores on his high stakes tests.

To be clear, there has been no greater enemy of public education in New York State the last four years than Andrew Cuomo.  In the years since Cuomo has taken office I have watched colleagues laid off.  I have seen others retire and not be replaced.  I have watched valuable programs and resources be slashed from our district while the number of hours dedicated to useless high stakes testing has soared.  In my last year teaching before Governor Cuomo took office I had a class of 17 (!!!!) fifth graders.  This year I have 27 fifth graders.  While not all problems in our industry can be traced back to Cuomo, nobody has played a bigger role in the decimation of public education than he has.

We’ve known for a while that he was a crooked politician.  Based on yesterday’s classless and cowardly act we know he isn’t a much better person either.  So it is high time that we boot Cuomo out of the highest position in state government.  Tonight I call on every public educator in New York State, every parent whose children have been exposed to the abusive education reform agenda of the last four years, and every person who attended the #NoMoCuomo rallies this past spring to dedicate the next two days to ousting Cuomo from power.  A few ways you can help…

• If you are a registered Democrat, VOTE ON TUESDAY for Zephyr Teachout and Tim Wu.  You can find your polling place here.
• I will be hosting a Teachout/Wu phone bank party at my house tomorrow night in Rocky Point.  Feel free to join us.
• If you live too far away (or perhaps you just don’t like me, lol) you can have your own phone bank elsewhere.  Click here for details.
• Contact every possible registered Democrat that you know and urge them to get to the polls on Tuesday to vote for Zephyr Teachout and Tim Wu!  If you only know Republicans or Independents, urge them to contact the registered Democrats that they know!

Cuomo has beaten us up for four years.  It’s time to give him his Eric Cantor moment!