public school cartoon

A lot of us are loyal liberals, passionate Progressives, devoted Democrats. However, that doesn’t mean we blindly support Democrats who don’t act like Democrats, at least not if we want this country to evolve and prosper. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is one of those Dems who has given real Progressives pause. And by pause I mean hives.

For example, Cuomo attacked teacher pensions in his second inauguration speech. And here’s another link you may find interesting. Now back to Moral Monday already in progress…

If you aren’t already familiar, meet the preacher behind Moral Mondays: Reverend William Barber. Rev. Barber is in Albany, New York today having a Moral Monday protest. He’s being joined by education groups and community groups, including the Alliance for Quality Education, New York Communities for Change, NYSUT, UFT and AFT.

That’s right, a major civil rights leader is calling out Gov. Cuomo for being on the wrong side of the civil rights issues on education. This comes on the heels of a new report that shows inequitable funding has gotten worse under Cuomo.

To be fair, Cuomo is known for his progressive stand on social issues, but when it comes to education and economics? Notsomuch. He bullies teachers the way New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie does. Well, nobody does that quite like Christie, a point on which most people can agree.

But Cuomo has pushed for more testing and using discredited methods of using test scores to grade teachers. And– ahem!– he’s even called public schools a monopoly that needs to be broken in favor of private interests. Not exactly a Progressive’s Progressive, now is he? Sadly, his education positions don’t sound all that different from Scott Walker’s, Rick Snyder’s, and the aforementioned Christie’s. Someone pass the Calamine, I’m feeling some hives coming on.