Mayor: No deal on NYC teacher evaluation plan

NEW YORK (AP) -- Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Thursday the union representing 75,000 teachers in New York City "unilaterally walked away" from negotiations over a teacher evaluation plan, putting the city at risk of losing up to $450 million in state aid and grants.

But United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew blamed Bloomberg for the impasse and asserted that "the intransigence of the Bloomberg administration on key issues has made it impossible to reach agreement on a new teacher evaluation system."

Each of New York state's nearly 700 school districts was told to submit a plan to the state Education Department for approval Jan. 17 or lose their increase in state aid. All but New York City and three smaller districts had submitted plans by Wednesday.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo said earlier Thursday that the midnight Thursday deadline was firm.

"Please hear me — there will be no extensions or exceptions," Cuomo said.

Teacher evaluations have been contentious around the country and sparked a strike in Chicago last fall. A law passed in New York in 2010 required districts to submit evaluation plans. Twenty percent of the evaluations must be based on students' growth on state tests. Another 20 percent must be based on local measures and the remaining 60 percent must include classroom observations and can also include parent or student surveys.

Bloomberg told a news conference at City Hall that the UFT had made unreasonable demands including a requirement that the evaluation deal sunset in June 2015. He said that would render the evaluation system "meaningless" because it takes two years to get an ineffective teacher out.

"If the agreement sunsetted in two years, the whole thing would be a joke. Nobody would ever be able to be removed," he said.

Additionally, Bloomberg said the union wanted to double the number of arbitration hearings available to teachers who filed grievances as part of the evaluation process.

"That would make it, again, much harder to weed out ineffective teachers because more and more of these cases would go to arbitrators, and it would bog our principals down in lengthy arbitration hearings, taking precious time away from their duties as school leaders," Bloomberg said.

But Mulgrew responded: "I have never seen such a blatant misrepresentation of the facts."

In his statement, Mulgrew said Bloomberg "blew the deal up in the early hours today, and despite the involvement of state officials we could not put it back together."

Cuomo said school districts and their unions have until the deadline to submit their plans "or they will forfeit the increase in education aid they have been counting on and both parties will have failed the children they serve."

Assuming it misses the deadline, New York City stands to lose $250 million in state aid and $200 million in grants that are tied to having an evaluation plan. That's a small percentage of the city Department of Education's $19.7 billion operating budget, but the loss would be felt.

Mona Davids, president of the New York City Parents Union, said she blamed both the city Department of Education and the union for the breakdown in talks.

"They had an entire year to negotiate a teacher evaluation system and waited until the last minute to begin serious negotiations," she said. "With only 13 percent black and Latino high school graduates college ready, I guess nobody will ever be held accountable for failing to provide our children with a high quality education."

Meanwhile, the state Education Department said it approved a plan Thursday for Buffalo, the state's second-largest city.

"The new evaluation plan is great news for Buffalo teachers, administrators, parents, and most important, Buffalo students," Education Commissioner John B. King said.