Supporters of the state’s rigorous Common Core tests have a surprising new ally: the Rev. Al Sharpton.
Sharpton on Friday blasted the state teachers union as irresponsible for urging parents not to allow their kids to take the upcoming standardized exams in math and English.
“I’m opposed to a widespread opt-out without real dialogue . . . If you lose federal funding, what happens to those kids?” Sharpton told The Post at the National Action Network convention in Midtown.
Gov. Cuomo and state education officials said school districts could lose federal aid for not complying with national requirements if too many students skip the exams, which are being given in Grades 3 through 8 starting Monday.
Sharpton said his criticism was directed at Karen Magee, head of the New York State United Teachers union, and other union activists who work mostly in suburban and upstate school districts.
Union officials are encouraging a boycott to protest a controversial new provision in the state budget approved by Cuomo and the Legislature, which more closely links teacher evaluations and tenure to student performance on exams.
“We are encouraging parents to opt out,” Magee declared last month.
“I’m opposed to a widespread opt-out without real dialogue . . . If you lose federal funding, what happens to those kids?”
- Al Sharpton
But Sharpton said a boycott could hurt urban kids and pointed out that neither he nor NAN chapter leaders in upstate cities such as Buffalo and Syracuse were consulted about the opt-out campaign.
He also praised the leader of the city teachers union, Mike Mulgrew, and Randi Weingarten of the national American Federation of Teachers for taking a more reasonable position by leaving the decision up to parents.
“I am for protecting teachers. I’m for protecting resources. But I’m not for something that’s not been thought out and talked out,” the civil-rights preacher said.
“For them to arbitrarily say ‘opt out’ and not evaluate or deal with any of the consequences . . . that is something I could not support. We could lose federal funding.”
Sharpton said there are legitimate concerns about overreliance on exams to rate students and teachers — that they could become too punitive or be based on faulty data.
“But having said that, for the state teachers to just say, ‘Don’t weigh your options, just opt out,’ and not even meet and talk with leadership and communities that are affected, I’m totally opposed,” he said.
Cuomo, who briefly stopped by the convention, also took issue with the opt-outs.
“It would have an effect on the teacher-evaluation system. But more importantly, it would have an effect where you wouldn’t qualify for federal money,” Cuomo told The Post.