We are a fortunate group here in the Northeast, aren’t we? Whether you live in New York State, or the “Garden State” of New Jersey, you get a Governor who will figuratively take your lunch money and then explain to you why it’s your fault, and that you were actually asking for it. Andrew “Because I said so” Cuomo, and Chris “Crisco” Christie, opposite sides of the political aisle perhaps, but in many ways fraternal twins in their makeup, attitude, and approach. Let’s just say this, if you went into the boys room in high school, and Christie and Cuomo followed in behind you, you were probably heading for a “swirly” at the most, and extraction of your lunch money at the least!
Cuomo and Christie, about to extricate the collective “lunch money” from the New York State and New Jersey state legislatures. (Associated Press)
Chris Christie is a fascinating fellow. The thing that made him popular enough to be considered a serious candidate for the Presidency, his brutish, “tell it like it is” style, is also the part of his personality that people hate about him the most. (Much the way people feel about my razor sharp wit) Christie’s bold “in your face” approach that he employs when dealing with the media, protesters, teachers, hippies, and those who don’t love Bruce Springsteen consists of using intimidation and insults to cower these inconvenient enemies into silence. Whether this will work on the national stage is hard to say, but it propelled him to two easy victories in his run for the Governorship of New Jersey. He did however run into a little trouble shortly after the election of 2013. Apparently some of his over-zealous aides were angry at the Democratic Mayor of Fort Lee for not endorsing “Crisco”. They decided to shut down a couple of entrance lanes onto the busiest bridge in America, the George Washington Bridge. Chrisie denies any wrongdoing, and so far he hasn’t been charged with anything, but it did bring into question his “bullying” style. One of the individuals involved was a long time loyalist of Christie’s named David Wildstein. Wildstein claimed that he and Christie had a relationship that went all the way back to high school. Christie however, tried to create some space between himself and Wildstein. As you watch this, I dare you to try not to think of every guy in high school that you hated:
(It is so indicative of Christie’s style that instead of simply stating that he had no memory of Wildstein, he instead felt the need to recite his list of High School “achievements” from his college application form.)
If you need more convincing of Christie’s true nature, consider this. The guy who grew up in New Jersey, the man who portrays himself as being “Mr. New Jersey”, is a life-long Dallas Cowboys’ fan. That is beyond sacrilege. He lives in a state where two teams play including the Cowboys’ arch-rival, the New York Giants. Also, keep this in mind. He’s in his 50s, which means that when he was young and formulating his opinions, the Jets and Giants were terrible. So what’s a band-wagoner to do? You root for the most successful team of the time. The Dallas Cowboys. Character, reveal thyself!
Have two people ever deserved each other more? (Times Union)
Andrew Cuomo is a much bigger disappointment to me. I was a huge fan of his father, Mario Cuomo, a three-time Governor of New York from 1982-1994. Mario Cuomo was a rarity in politics, a humble civil-servant, with a poetic command of the English language. I actually met Andrew Cuomo at a Democratic fundraiser in Ballston Spa, when he was running for Attorney General. He was very friendly and engaging and I was happy to vote for him for “AG” as well as when he ran for Governor in 2010. It seemed however, that right from the beginning, he was already running for President. Cuomo like Christie applied a “take no prisoners” approach, often “ticking off” a lot of his core constituency, particularly teachers.
Now, the idea that bad teachers should be protected no matter what, is not a position I endorse, despite the fact that not only am I a teacher, I’m a former local Union President in my school district. Cuomo’s position that students should achieve, and that incompetent teachers should be fired isn’t unreasonable by any stretch. Let’s face it, there are bad cops, firemen, lawyers, and Native American Chiefs, why wouldn’t there be bad teachers, and why shouldn’t a district have the ability to replace them? However, like anything else in our world, it’s not that simple.
“I believe I could fit all of the good teachers in this state right between my hands.”
(Times Union)
(Times Union)
Cuomo, either to cozy up to the Republicans in the New York State Senate, or to the wealthy Wall Street corporations who run Charter Schools, or to simply make it appear that he’s not beholden to the Teacher’s Union for an eventual run on the national stage, has made it his mission to go after teachers. The hammer he yielded in this attempt was called “Common Core”. Common Core is simply a new approach to learning, where students are asked and expected to think and read critically. There is less reliance on finding the facts, and more emphasis on the “how and why” involved in answering questions, particularly in the fields of English and Math. Again, there is nothing wrong with this. Teaching critical thinking skills should allow our students to compete in the increasingly demanding world of business and technology. The problem was, that Cuomo was so hell-bent on going after teachers, that he forced the roll out of Common Core based exams before teacher’s had a chance to be properly trained. Why would he do such a thing? Well, it would allow him to use the lower student test scores as a tool in which he could now begin the firing of teachers.
Common Core was stopped in its tracks as soon as Suburban Mom’s saw that their little Einsteins were getting significantly lower scores, derailing Cuomo’s “Higher Standards”. (Associated Press)
Cuomo began his “mission” during one of his “State of the State” addresses. He proclaimed himself the “advocate for children”, since parents, teachers, and School Boards all had their own advocates. Cuomo made the type of mistake that all people who know nothing about public education make. He believed that if you do something hurtful to teachers, somehow students will benefit from this. Under the threat of losing funding (Gee, I wonder who that would hurt if a district lost its funding) school districts put through Teacher Evaluation plans. Guess what, most teachers were deemed to be just fine. Cuomo said, “not good enough”. But before he could do anymore damage, the 2014 election arrived, and he found himself on the defensive as parents began removing their children from these tests, thereby putting a wrinkle into the whole system. The criticism of Cuomo became intense. In order to show that he cared about education, and wasn’t just trying to hurt teachers, he released this little piece of propaganda:
You can see what the ad says, but he just vetoed his own bill which would have disregarded Common Core scores for two years. It was his bill! (TImes Union)
In the advertisement, Cuomo says that he believes that the best teacher is still the parent, working with their child at the kitchen table. Well of course, it worked on “Leave it to Beaver”, why doesn’t it work today? Since all children come from middle to upper middle class homes with a mother and father living together and happily married, a teacher’s job has never been easier. Except, how many of our students, in Buffalo, Albany, New York City, Jamestown, Syracuse, Rochester, Roosevelt etc…come from this type of home? If you’re a teacher, and you’ve taught in Schenectady and Niskayuna, would you say those experiences are identical? Cuomo refuses to acknowledge such differences, and is simply looking to break what he calls the “monopoly” held by public schools. That’s some monopoly. It’s the equivalent of putting up two flea-bag Hotels on Baltic and Mediterranean and collecting 200$ each time the “doggie” lands on it.
“Gee, it’s great to know that if I don’t get this common core math question, my Dad will actually be HOME to sit patiently at the kitchen table with me. This way, this uncaring teacher won’t stunt my chances of being successful.” (Associated Press)
I think that when you are evaluating Christie and Cuomo, it pretty much comes down to this. There are certain people in this world who can only interact with others if they carry the “hammer”. If they know they have the upper hand, then they can deal with the people around them. If not, then they don’t know what to do with themselves. You can tell this by the way they both attempt to bully the media. Wouldn’t it be interesting to get the opportunity to see both of these politicians with their guard down? It would be nice if we could ask them one question. ”When you thought about running for Governor, why did you want the job?” I wonder if they thought they would do great things and make a difference and help people. Instead, they seem more interested in cozying up to their rich friends and settling political scores. Since they’re politicians, we’ll never know.
P.S. – Hey, big shout out to New York State Assembly Speaker, Sheldon Silver for being arrested on corruption and bribery charges. He has certainly proven once and for all, he is in every way, a match for Joe Bruno!
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