Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott says that if the teacher’s union can’t agree to a new teacher evaluation system, then cuts will have to be made to staff as well as music, art and sports programs, according to the New York Post.
Walcott has even moved the deadline for the new city guidelines to be in place forward to Dec. 21, almost a full month before Gov. Andrew Cuomo had said they should be instituted.
If an agreement can’t be reach, city schools would lose out on four percent of state aid, or more than $250 million, the Post reports.
“The current system makes it impossible to distinguish great teaching from good, good from fair, and fair from poor,” Walcott said on Wednesday.
Currently, 40 percent of a teacher’s grade comes from student test scores, and 60 percent from principal observations.
United Federation of Teachers head Michael Mulgrew said that Walcott and Mayor Michael Bloomberg are “playing politics with our schools” by threatening the loss of state aid.
