Three days after blindsiding Mayor Bloomberg, Gov. Cuomo now says he wants to work with the mayor to end the "last in, first out" teacher layoff rule.
The policy requires that less experienced teachers are laid off first, before long-time educators (as opposed to on 'merit', which is what Bloomberg is pushing for.)
Bloomberg wants legislation passed as quickly as possible that would end the policy. A bill that would do just that passed the Republican-controlled Senate, but died in the Assembly with majority Democrats.
On Tuesday, Cuomo said he favored a slower approach to ending the "last in, first out" rule, but now seems more inclined to speed up the process, though he didn't offer a specific time frame.
"He needs a law passed," Cuomo said of Bloomberg. "He understands it's not easy getting a law passed in Albany, especially on a controversial matter like that, and he wants my help doing it. And I'm going to give him my help."
As for when the policy could come to an end, Cuomo said, "we're talking about the same time frame -- not tomorrow, but not six months from now, either."
Cuomo also added, "this is all short term, right? No one's talking long term here . . . You can say that we can't implement fully a long-term evaluation process, so we're going to have a short-term solution."
Bloomberg seemed pacified by the governor's renewed promise of cooperation.
"We both have exactly the same interest of getting the best teachers we can in front of the classroom," he said. "Sadly, we are going to have to lay off some teachers. We just don't have the money."
Bloomberg's fight to end the policy was also given a boost by US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, who said seniority should not be the only tool used in deciding which teachers are cut.
"If layoffs are based only on seniority, that doesn't help kids," Duncan said. "Particularly, it doesn't help students who need the most help. You have a concentration of young teachers in the most disadvantaged communities."
The argument for keeping "last in, first out" is that it protects teachers from being fired arbitrarily by administrators. Proponents of the policy also say that, supposedly objective criteria to base teacher performance on, like test scores, are unreliable.
Bloomberg has said he will be forced to cut more than 6,000 teachers if Cuomo's budget proposal passes.