Cuomo watch: Schools open budget hearings

The customary legislative hearings on the state budget get under way Monday and the first one -- on the schools -- could be a doozy.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo delivered as a centerpiece in his proposed budget an ultimatum to school districts and unions. Any district that doesn't have a new teacher-evaluation system in place in one year, he warned, would lose its share of a scheduled $805 million increase in school funding.

Teachers' unions and the state Education Department are in a legal skirmish over the evaluations and state Education Commissioner John King is slated to appear first before the joint legislative hearing, with the official topic being "elementary and secondary education."

The hearing is due to convene at 10 a.m.

-- Yancey Roy