As everyone who comes around here knows, I am incredibly dismayed by the direction of public education policy that Governor Cuomo is pursuing in New York State. I am unashamedly of the opinion that New York State Public Schools are among the best representations of what American Public Education can be, and I think that the Governor is pushing an agenda that will substantially degrade our state's capacity to offer high-quality public education to our students. Of particular concern are the Governor's plans to increase the impact of state-exam scores, and his decision to provide a merit-pay-style bonus to teachers who rate as "Highly Effective" (as discussed by me most recently here).

Which is why I'm excited to announce "The New York Teacher's Letter", an effort by the public school teachers of New York State to let the Governor know what we find objectionable about his education policies without going through the usual advocacy channels that he seems to have decided are not representing the interests of the students of the state (e.g. NYSUT).

You can read the letter on the front page of NYTeacherLetter.org. Teachers and supporters can add their names to the letter by filling out this form. Anyone who wants to learn more about the project can check out this page, or contact me.

Please share the New York Teacher's Letter with anyone and everyone that you think should know about it. Hopefully, if enough people speak, someone will listen.