State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo told RA delegates Friday that his office would fight corruption in the education system, making sure that "every dollar is going where it is supposed to go."

In an electrifying speech that ranged over education policy, the labor movement and his work as attorney general, Cuomo declared, "I am A.G. because of N-Y-S-U-T. That's how I spell my alphabet!"

He promised to follow up the education loan scandal he uncovered last year with additional investigations, including testing practices "to make sure they are not rigged."

He also cited an investigation his office is conducting into school districts that are siphoning off education funds by hiring individual attorneys as employees from the law firms they hire as consultants. The individual attorneys are thereby entitled to salaries and benefits.

Cuomo thanked teachers not only for educating his children and for ensuring the promise of public education, but also for their longstanding support of him and his father, former Gov. Mario Cuomo. He recalled that when his father first ran for governor and was given little chance against then mayor of New York Ed Koch — a campaign Andrew had run as a 23-year-old campaign manager — the effort had succeeded because of strong labor support.

"That was enough," Cuomo said, because labor is not a special interest, as critics have charged. "They call it a lobbying group. Baloney! It is the voice of the middle class and we are proud of it and never run from it."