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Albany, NY – Governor Cuomo spoke at the state's Martin Luther King Day celebration. One day before his budget plan is due, Cuomo attacked what he calls New York's "education bureaucracy" and vowed to make some changes.
Cuomo told a receptive audience at the Martin Luther King day ceremonies that education in New York has become an intractable bureaucracy, more concerned with the "business of education" than student "achievement."
"It is not about the adults, it's about the children," said Cuomo, to cheers. "The children come first."
Cuomo also expressed anger over the failure of some school districts to agree with teachers on an evaluation plan, putting hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funds in jeopardy. Cuomo says he's "considering" a requirement that any school district that wants to receive a planned 4% increase in school funding this year, must comply with the state education department's teacher evaluation plan first.
In Albany, I'm Karen DeWitt.