Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY)
Gov. Andrew Cuomo is on an education crusade. Unfortunately, it's a crusade to force teachers to
teach to the test, to
withhold billions in school funding, and to
put charter school chains over special education students. Unsurprisingly, the New York Democrat's crusade is well funded by the charter school lobby (including the hedge funders who stand to profit)—but it's not going over so well with actual New York voters.
A new Quinnipiac poll finds that Cuomo's approval rating has dropped to 50 percent, with 39 percent disapproving of the job he's doing as governor. Just 63 percent of Democrats approve, which Quinnipiac describes as "lackluster ... low for same-party voters." Education looks like the key reason for Cuomo's drop from a 58 percent approval rating in late December:
Education should be the top priority for the governor and the State Legislature, 24 percent of voters say, while 15 percent list the economy/jobs and 12 percent list taxes, two issues which usually top the priority list. Only 5 percent list government corruption or ethics.
With a negative 28 - 63 percent, Cuomo gets his worst job approval rating for his handling of education. [...]
By a 55 - 28 percent margin, New York State voters trust the teachers' unions more than the governor to improve education in the state. All party, gender, age and regional groups agree.
Cuomo is still the governor and he still has a lot of big money on his side. He can do a lot of damage. But you'd think this level of animosity toward his education agenda—anger so high it pulls him down—would at least give him pause. Then again, his modus operandi has always been more about bullying people into going along with him than about getting them to actually like him.