MYTH 1. Cuomo says the "cry that more money will solve the problem is false."

The reality: Money is desperately needed to provide what all kids need. Half of the state's school districts today are getting less state aid than in 2008. The Comptroller's Office reports that 90 school districts - more than 13 percent of districts statewide - are designated as "fiscally stressed" (January 2015) The governor's claim that the state has "the highest per pupil spending in the nation" is also false. Education Week reports that New York is in fact fourth when adjusted for regional costs. Meanwhile, the governor's cherry-picked statistics also ignore the reality that New York state excels in multiple measures of educational achievement and progress, including a steadily improving graduation rate. 

Teach for America, the education powerhouse that has sent thousands of handpicked college graduates to teach in some of the nation’s most troubled schools, is suddenly having recruitment problems.
 
For the second year in a row, applicants for the elite program have dropped, breaking a 15-year growth trend. Applications are down by about 10 percent from a year earlier on college campuses around the country as of the end of last month....
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The tones of surprise and outrage emanating from Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s lips in the wake of the stunning criminal complaint against New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver might give the impression that the governor hovers above the fray of Albany’s transactional politics.

“I’ll tell you the truth: I was totally shocked on a number of levels,” Governor Cuomo said of the allegations that Silver used his office to help politically connected real estate developers in their state business. Cuomo has positioned himself as a champion of ethics reform, declaring that “these acts of corruption are so damning.”
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On a quiet Ditmas Park side street, taxpayers shell out $2.3 million a year to lease space from the Catholic Church for a charter school called Brooklyn Dreams.

What’s shrouded in a cloak of secrecy is whether the arrangement is a good deal for the taxpayer.

That’s because a for-profit firm called National Heritage Academies acts as a middleman, renting space from the church at rates it calls “private.” Then NHA sublets the space to Brooklyn Dreams.
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New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has stirred the ire of educators across the state because of controversial new school reform proposals. To wit:

*Boost overall school funding by nearly 5 percent (but he would only provide the full increase if state legislators do what he wants on school reforms.

*Require that student standardized test scores account for a full 50 percent of a teacher’s evaluation rather than the current 20 percent. (Assessment experts say linking educators’ evaluation to tests scores is a really bad idea.)
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The United Federation of Teachers is taking aim at Andrew Cuomo's proposal to extend the charter cap as it hones its strategy to combat the governor's ambitious package of education-policy changes.

The U.F.T. held three "emergency" meetings with its members and parents on Thursday, ran a full-page anti-Cuomo advertisement in the Daily News, and released an extensive report claiming, among other things, that charter schools don't enroll enough high-needs students compared to their district school counterparts. 
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There are three possibilities why New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo would ignore the position of the American Statistical Association on how not to use statistics to evaluate teachers.

One is that he doesn’t know the organization’s position. Two is that he knows but doesn’t understand it. Three is that he knows and understands but thinks he knows better.
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