Andrew cuomo’s pandering to the vile teachers union sets a record for shamelessness

Even in a state packed with shameless politicians, ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo has long stood out — but his gyrations in wooing the United Federation of Teachers as he runs for mayor are still a

marvel to behold. To be clear: We’ve long had the impression that Cuomo privately _despises _New York’s teachers unions, whether on personal grounds or (conceivably!) the principled

objections we share; it’s one of his most attractive qualities. And he took on _all _the state’s teachers unions early in his first back term as governor, first by championing charter

schools against an assault by then-Mayor Bill de Blasio and then by pushing for a rigorous-sounding statewide public-schoolteacher-evaluation process — a drive for which he declared himself

“the students’ lobbyist.” The unions hate charters, but saw the evaluations as an existential threat, since the point of them was to get incompetent teachers fired; they fought back, and

beat him soundly. But now the UFT could derail his comeback run, so Cuomo’s desperate to jump if he even _thinks_ the union might’ve said “frog!” At a cozy sitdown with UFT boss Michael

Mulgrew and union activists last weekend, the ex-gov attacked his own past support for teacher evaluations and disowned the money-saving “Tier 6” public pension reforms he pushed through as

gov. MORE FROM POST EDITORIAL BOARD He’s not yet trash-talking charters, but he’s getting closer. Notably, the 25-point education plan he dropped Monday could’ve been ghostwritten by a UFT

stalwart. It even buries his support for mayoral control of the city schools (which the union mislikes) at point No. 15, just above his remaining support of charters at No. 16 — which it

buried under the heading “Support Diverse High Impact School Models.”  Everything in the “plan” was either a boilerplate policy retread or an item off the UFT’s wish-list; it had not a

mention of turning around failing schools, raising math and reading scores or weeding out incompetent educators. Nothing about restoring academic rigor, expanding Gifted & Talented

programs or addressing special-education services. Fine: Andrew Cuomo is infamous for breaking his promises when they no longer suit his immediate needs; his sellout to the union now doesn’t

mean he wouldn’t someday defy the union, perhaps even to the benefit of city schoolchildren. But that doesn’t make his transformation from “students’ lobbyist” to UFT lap dog any less

pathetic.