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In spite of threats from the NY State education commissioner that he'd "withhold tens of millions of dollars in federal grants to struggling schools" unless the districts and teachers union came to an agreement on teacher evaluations by January 1, the two parties failed to do so. Governor Cuomo said, "I am disappointed that agreements could not be reached. Students lose... because of this failure." Yes, they'll probably lose $100 million in federal money, $60 million of it meant for NYC schools.

The Daily News reports that Cuomo, "in his second state-of-state address Wednesday, will accuse New York’s schools of being unaccountable and announce a commission to come up with reforms." A source says, "The failure to pass the teacher evaluation system is an example that not only is the system broken, but the ability to monitor the system and come up with a method to ensure kids are educated properly is broken."

The teachers union and school districts were having a tough time agreeing on what would be a fair system, and the Times said the sticking points were "the type of help poorly rated teachers would get to improve their performance, and the appeals process available to teachers facing termination after receiving poor ratings two years in a row." The United Federation for Teachers president Michael Mulgrew told Gotham Schools that be doubted the Bloomberg administration really wanted to negotiate while Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott told NY State officials that the union was aiming "to protect the very worst performing teachers."