Cuomo watch: Kids' lobbyist? Job's taken

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, continuing his broadside against the education establishment, said in his State of the State address that students were the only entity without a lobbyist, so he would fill the role. His declaration prompted State Boards Association Executive Director Timothy Kremer to courteously call out the governor in an online video.

"I have to respectfully disagree, governor," Kremer begins. "School board members are lobbyists for students. School board members are elected by their communities . . . The decisions school boards make are not about advancing adults. They are about building the future for children."

Cuomo has called school governance the "most intractable" problem he faces. The state Education Department happens to be one of the few state agencies a governor doesn't control.-- Yancey Roy