De Blasio & Parents Call on Mayor Bloomberg, Teachers to Reach Deal on Evaluations

Public Advocate Bill de Blasio joined fellow public school parents in front of the Department of Education’s headquarters today to call on the Bloomberg Administration and teachers to hammer out an agreement on teacher evaluations. The deadlock in negotiating a new evaluation system for teachers could cost New York City approximately $600 million in federal and state education funding. Governor Andrew Cuomo has set a February 16th deadline for the City and teachers to reach a deal.

“Parents have had enough of the posturing and accusations. Everyone wants what is best for our kids—let’s act like it. Our city’s schools need a deal that fairly evaluates teachers and brings real accountability to the classroom before we reach the February 16th deadline,” said Public Advocate Bill de Blasio. “It’s time to stop the posturing and reach an agreement that preserves vital funding for our schools.”

De Blasio urged the City and teachers to resolve outstanding disputes over how to handle the appeals process for teachers with poor evaluations, so that a system can be in place for the coming school year as required in New York’s agreement with the US Department of Education.

The Bloomberg Administration and United Federation of Teachers agreed to implement an equitable system to evaluate teachers as part of an August 2010 agreement that helped New York secure $700 million in Race to the Top funding. Negotiations in the eighteen months since have not yielded an agreement, raising the real possibility that New York City could lose out on millions in State and Federal funding.