Golden boot

Fresh Meadows: A medal for public service to every voter in the 22nd state Senate district who kicked Marty Golden’s rear end to the curb. Golden wanted the job security of teachers to be linked to their students’ performance on standardized tests. Kids’ natural aptitude, behavioral record, work history, poverty, lifestyle, social relationships and activities, family profiles and environmental problems did not matter to Golden. This man had more than a hangup about public schools and their unionized educators. He had a fetish. Now he’s history! It is poetic justice that he be put to pasture during the same week that the Board of Regents extended its ban on frivolously crucifying teachers for their students’ performance on a few tests that educational researchers and experts have widely condemned as fatally flawed. Golden was the Santa Claus wannabe in Albany for the pro-charter school streetfighters. He wanted the cap lifted and essentially wanted these private commercial enterprises to replace what he called “regular” schools. The public schools in Golden’s district are owed more than $62 million, but he over and over stood his ground to prevent those funds from being released. But he was adamant about securing $44 million for Manhattan luxury real estate developers. Soon-to-be-former Sen. Golden did a cost/ benefit analysis and decided that it was worth risking the death of children in order to advance peculiarities of his own political agenda. The UFT played a large role in making the voters in Golden’s district aware of his venal attitudes and sordid record, but it’s the communities themselves that showed Golden the door and dispatched him to find a new line of work. Now that’s what I call due process!