Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and top Democratic legislators held a celebratory press conference at 10 p.m. Monday to hail the creation of a final bill on public education reform.
But the two Republican leaders at the state Capitol – Senator John McKinney of Fairfield and Rep. Larry Cafero of Norwalk – were not there at the press conference.
The reason, they said, was that they had not yet read the 175-page to 200-page bill as of 11 p.m. Monday.
“There is no bill to read,” Cafero said, adding that “99.9 percent of the General Assembly has not seen this bill.”
McKinney and Cafero said they might eventually support the 97-section bill, but not until they have read it.
“We shouldn’t be voting on a bill without having an opportunity to read it and review it,” McKinney told reporters in the Capitol press room at about 11 p.m. ”You can’t vote for this based on concepts.”
McKinney said he initially received a summary of the bill and then received a working draft of the bill that did not completely match up with the summary.
A strong Democratic supporter of the bill, Rep. Douglas McCrory of Hartford, came to a press conference at 10 p.m. at the state Capitol and asked a reporter to see a copy of the summary because he had not yet seen the bill.
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4 Responses to GOP’s McKinney, Cafero Have Not Read Education Bill By 11 p.m. Monday
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Take the “Pelosi Challenge”and pass the bill so you can find out what’s in it.
1. there is a song in a musical play about the communist takeover of the former czechoslovakia that has a czech offical, in reference to soviet “proposals” for legislative action, singing “i sign, i sign, i don’t even read it..”
2. should anyone actually interested in education dive into the pages of the bill he or she will be hard-pressed to find anything about education…money and power to be sure, speculation and generalization, paragraphs, but anything to do the the experience of learning and its environment, nuh-uh.
2a. example: even if one favors a longer school day, there is no idea in the bill of just how hours added might be used or what adjustments to an admittedly flawed school day design, might help make all the hours more effective in meeting the objective of developing the habits of mind that mark educated and, eventually, self-educable, men and women…maybe we can get to that stuff after we spend another few million and ensure that the commissioner is happy with his authority.
I am utterly amazed that our elected leaders managed to pass a lengthy education reform bill in the middle of the night. Just how many people have actually read the bill and understand the components of this legislation?
I must say I am looking forward to elections- I will be working actively to suppport the Republican nominees- and I am a registered Democrat.
They should regulate themselves–make it so no bill can be voted on until it has been available online in its final form for 48 hours for every 100 pages.