What a horrible time to be Governor Andy. Here he is in the middle of a fight over releasing teachers evaluations. On one side he has teachers (not including the UFT because they already caved) and on the other side he has New York City super villain Uncle Mike and his henchman Sock Puppet Dennis Walcott wanting to shame and humiliate teachers in their ques to to diabolically take over the world of education. What is a governor to do?
There was a glimmer of hope,
a glimmer of maturity from Governor Andy for a brief second in yesterday's Daily News. Governor Andy in his best transliteration of Mario said;
“To those people I say, really? Disclose all the evaluations for public employees?” added Cuomo. “Then how come you’re only singling out teachers? Where’s the policeman’s evaluation? Where’s the fireman’s evaluation? Where's the evaluation of the mayor’s staff, and the governor’s staff and the [Assembly] speaker’s staff?”
Yes, where, where, where????? Where are these evaluation of other public servants?
But as the hack Ken Lovett reported;
Fans of releasing the teacher evaluations publicly argue there is a difference between educators overseeing kids and other public workers.
And this ditty;
Cuomo agrees — but said he’s trying to come up with a plan that balances the teachers’ rights to privacy and parents’ right to know.
I like how Lovett refers to those that only wish to humiliate teachers as "fans," as if they are rooting for the Yankees or Mets, but I digress.
But what is Governor Andy to do? But more importantly, why is it that teachers must be shat upon time and time again? Why not cops?
Why not release NYPD police officers evaluations to the public? Isn't a citizen's right to know about the police officers arrest records, and patterns, important? What about any disciplinary records of these cops? What about complaints about cops? As a citizen living in a precinct would it not be beneficial to know which cops have made erroneous arrests, been disciplined, have had complaints made, or worse, have used their weapon once too often? Surely, a police officer
using a gun the wrong
way can end someone's life. I deem that worse than a student having that so called "bad teacher."
While we are on the subject of cops, how about seeing the evaluations of the "house mouse?" Yes, that is the term given to that officer who sits around the precinct all day too chicken shit to go out on patrol.
Why can't we see the evaluations of firefighters? Would not one who is in a burning house wish to be rescued by someone not grossly overweight and who will be able to complete a rescue?
What about doctors who are employed by the
NYC Health and Hospitals? Should we not have an evaluation on how many patients have died when cared by these doctors? How many malpractice lawsuits have been filed? How many won? Lost? Settled?
Hey, while we are on a bender here, what about MTA bus drivers and motorman? We should all be able to see their safety records and evaluations. We entrust these people to get us to our destinations with safety. Why are we not able to see how they rate? Hell, let's throw in the captains of the Staten Island Ferry. Gosh darn it!
As far as politicians, they are evaluated by whether or not they get elected or re-elected, so why not throw open the books and let's look to see everyone of their donors and how it correlates to how they vote. That includes Governor Andy.
But it will never happen. Like the Jews in Nazi Germany were, teachers make great scapegoats to blame all of society's ills on. That, and the above mentioned professions are largely phallic based, and will be untouched by those making bad decisions who feel they have bad penises. Bashing teachers is just another misogynistic ploy by powerful men to keep women down.
The bullshit and hypocrisy that emanates from Gracie Mansion and Albany smells like New Jersey on a humid, hot summer day. The pollution needs to be cleaned up.
1 comment:
There have been too many instances of malicious or incompetent school supervisors issuing bogus performance evaluations and ratings.
Perhaps they would be less likely to do so if they knew that the evaluations and ratings were available to the general public and the media.
The following advisory opinion and judicial decisions present some extremely strong reasons in favor of disclosure of not only public employee ratings, but also the documents that were used to prepare them:
Excerpt from a Freedom of Information Law advisory opinion issued by the NYS Committee on Open Government:
"Relevant is §87(2)(b), which permits an agency to withhold records when disclosure would constitute 'an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.' Although the standard concerning privacy is flexible and may be subject to conflicting interpretations, the courts have provided substantial direction regarding the privacy of public employees. It is clear based upon judicial decisions that public employees enjoy a lesser degree of privacy than others, for it has been found in various contexts that public employees are required to be more accountable than others. Further, with regard to records pertaining to public employees, the courts have found in a variety of contexts that records that are relevant to the performance of a public employee's official duties are available, for disclosure in such instances would result in a permissible rather than an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy...Conversely, to the extent that records are irrelevant to the performance of one's official duties, it has been found that disclosure would indeed constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy..."
http://docs.dos.ny.gov/coog/ftext/f14287.htm
Excerpt from a North Dakota judicial decision:
"Hovet next alleges that he has a right to privacy guaranteed to him by the United States Constitution and the North Dakota Constitution, which will be violated if the public is allowed to inspect his personnel file. Teachers, like students, do not 'shed their constitutional rights . . . at the schoolhouse gate.' Tinker v. Des Moines Community School Dist., 393 U.S. 503, 506, 89 S.Ct. 733, 736, 21 L.Ed.2d 731, 737 (1969). But we rejected the claim that a governmental employee's personnel file is protected by a constitutional right to privacy in City of Grand Forks v. Grand Forks Herald, supra. Our position has not changed."
http://www.ndcourts.gov/court/opinions/870224.htm
Excerpt from a Michigan judicial decision:
"Significantly, none of the documents contain information of an embarrassing, intimate, private, or confidential nature, such as medical records or information relating to the plaintiffs' private lives. Moreover, the appellants have not alleged specific private matters that would be revealed by the disclosure of their personnel records. Instead, the requested information consists solely of performance appraisals, disciplinary actions, and complaints relating to the plaintiffs' accomplishments in their public jobs. Because the requested information does not disclose intimate or embarrassing details of the plaintiffs' private lives, we hold that the requested records do not satisfy the personal-nature element of the privacy exemption."
http://caselaw.findlaw.com/mi-supreme-court/1287882.html
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