Cuomo announces education reform panel

ALBANY -- Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced the appointment of a new "education reform" commission Monday, the latest in a series of initiatives he's launched to shake up the state's school system.

Cuomo, who has called school governance "the most complicated, intractable issue I've come across," gave his new panel great latitude to "look at anything that is necessary" to improve education.

The governor didn't rule out any topic, from charter schools to teacher recruitment to funding needs to control of the state Board of Regents -- the state's education policymaking board, whose members are appointed by the State Legislature, not the governor. The governor didn't criticize the Regents, but made clear he's not happy with the education establishment.

"We have not done as well as we can when it comes to public education," the Democrat said. In a version of a line he has repeated often during his 16 months in office, he added: "The priorities of the [education system's] financial interests have at times, in my opinion, trumped the interests of the children."

The governor gave the panel until December to come up with "preliminary" recommendations and till September 2013 to produce a final report.

"To be honest, one of the first lines of the report is going to say that government has failed to do what it should be doing," Cuomo said.

The initiative comes just two weeks before voting on school budgets begins -- the first votes since Cuomo and legislators enacted the state's property-tax cap. Districts that want to raise taxes by more than 2 percent (with adjustments for pensions and other costs) will need approval by 60 percent of local voters.

Cuomo's commission has representatives from a range of educational perspectives, as well as the business and political worlds. It will be led by Richard Parsons, the former chief executive of Time Warner and currently an adviser at a private equity firm.

Other members include State Sen. John Flanagan (R-East Northport), chairman of the Senate Education Committee; teachers' union president Randi Weingarten and Michael Rebell, the lawyer who successfully fought the state to spend more money on urban schools.

But there is no Regent nor anyone from a school board.

"The perspective of those who are elected by their communities to provide leadership and direction, oversee millions in taxpayer dollars and make decisions about programs that impact students for the rest of their lives ought to have a place at the table," said state School Boards Association executive director Timothy Kremer in a statement.