Without a compromise in sight and just weeks left in the legistative session, education reformers on all sides are turning up the heat. The governor is promising to veto the weakened reform legislation now before the General Assembly, the Connecticut Education Association, meanwhile isn’t backing down, launching a new ad campaign. Other education reform groups continue to sponsor those radios that suggest the whole issue is as simple as a few legislators cutting a sinister backroom deal.
While The CEA’s Phil Apruzzese says that “the stakes could not be higher,” they are not so high that the CEA wants to make any concessions and support any of Gov. Dannel Malloy’s more aggressive reform proposals. The union continues to fight the governor’s desire to give the education commissioner new powers to remake failing local schools.
CEA Executive Director Mary Lofus Levine says her group has not “hesitated at the state level to take a leadership role in promoting educational improvement:”
And we are showing our leadership again today as we seek to broaden public awareness about the governor’s damaging proposals. Too many are unproven and untested—notions that will ultimately hurt, not help, our children to succeed and close the achievement gap.
Malloy spokesman and chief strategist Roy Occhiogrosso, responding to the CEA’s latest TV ad, said that “the problem’s been that the leadership of CEA hasn’t been trying to represent teachers; they’ve been representing themselves.” Parents and families, Occhiogrosso said,
… support the Governor’s proposal. Interestingly, when teachers hear what is actually in the proposal — more resources for their classrooms, personalized professional development for them, an evaluation system that recognizes the good work teachers do every day — when teachers hear this, they’re supportive too.
The governor ought to compromise and back off on his plan to link teacher evaluations to hiring and firing decisions. But the CEA, instead of making Malloy the education villian, should admit that bold new initiatives must begin at the state’s lowest performing schools.
So as time begins to run short, we get more polarizing advertisements and rhetoric. Where is the American Federation of Teachers – which helped to craft a school reform contract in New Haven – in all this? Why aren’t state legislators stepping up to help find some middle ground here?
It could be a long spring and even longer summer ahead.
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9 Responses to Education Reform Forecast: More Bluster, No Compromise, More Heat
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I understand Malloy’s strategy: he puts forth union friendly proposals and expects little lip in return.
The problem: every union organization lives to negotiate and always views the initial proposal as a trial balloon.
Malloy needed to offer vouchers in his first proposal. The unions could stamp and shout and posture and eventually Malloy could concede some major concessions and look like he got whipped by the big, bad unions in negotiations.
I hate those types of negotiations. Avoiding them isn’t realistic with SWAT teams of negotiators on the other side. They live for these moments. It’s their thing. A victory justifies their existence.
The Malloy proposal didn’t leave room for a win/win negotiation. It was too timid and union friendly out of the gate. No room for the legislature to play either. It was strung too tight.
When someone speaks inaccurately about something they don’t have all the information about you would say they misspoke. When they repeatedly state inaccurate information despite knowing the truth – that is dishonesty. Roy Occhiogrosso, Gov. Malloy and Ed. Commissioner Pryor seem to be falling into the latter category quite regularly when it comes to discussing CEA and AFT leadership. For the record, so that we can stop these dishonest attacks, teachers support their union leadership and oppose the portions of the Governor’s plan that are unproven, do little to support students, but much to harm the teaching profession and the students we serve. The pieces of the Governor’s plan that teachers support, like money for early childhood education, better professional development, real and useful evaluation – CEA and AFT leadership support as well.
By the way Rick, if you continue to print this nonsense that the Governor and his cronies espouse without calling them out on it, then it is clear you are no longer guilty of misspeaking.
To Peter,
That is all Rick knows…..he continues to print what they want. There is little investigation on his part…is he unmotivated? Is he lazy? Is he in their pocket? Does he just not want to learn? I don’t know. I check once in a while, but there are better journalists and papers to read that report on both sides. Check out http://www.ctnewsjunkie.com
Very little journalism here. Yes, it is an opinion piece, but he just keeps repeating the same lies, fed to him by Dannel, Roy and Stefan.
One more site to check out Peter. CT “reform” and all their connections makes the Washinton Post.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/how-ducation-sausage-gets-made-the-story-behind-a-reform-story/2012/04/15/gIQAWLkKKT_blog.html#pagebreak
Isn’t being a total lackey and an instrument of the Democrat party in the Courant’s job description? Rick’s been a model employee for the Courant!
Evidently that is very true and not much effort is required. All he does is keep repeating the same sound bites over and over just like the Governor. I suppose this must be the fault of a teacher from their childhood.
The Hartford Courant…and Rick Green, open for Democrat (funny) Business!
Also drinking the liberal Kool-Aide Susan Campbell, and Frankie “Goes to Hollywood” Harris III!
Ed Reform
1. Expand Preschool in urban areas. Start earlier for ELL homes.
2. Change the school year for 4 week summer breaks instead of 10 and breaks in between quarters. Keep the 180 days, just make it more efficient.
3. Start residential schools for young students in dangerous areas or homes…5 year olds bringing heroin to school for example.
4. Retain students who are not on grade level for reading and math.
5. Take bold steps like Vernon and get rid of neighborhood schools. (Saves money)
6. Give 2-3 NON-EVALUTIVE state standardized tests in reading, writing, math and science each year and create a state database to track transient students.
7. Teach kids in the most affected areas the physical and emotional consequences of sex, drugs, alcohol, and bullying each year from grades 7-12. Teach high schoolers life skills on top of this.
8. Survey manufacturers and businesses in the state every 5 years and have high schools and community colleges set up programs and internships that meet their needs.
9. Regionalize administrative services. Why does every town need curriculum coordinators for the same curriculum or superintendents. CT has around 180 Superintentdents while DE has around 30. Regionalizing administrative services and even staff and faculty, yet keeping town lines for students will save huge amounts of money and keep local taxes lower.
Rick, this is ED reform from a teacher’s point of view.
Add in school vouchers and open school choice to use union and non-union personnel in competition to provide many of the alternate education scenarios you describe and it’s on the right track.
States using milestone tests to determine social promotion or retention exhibit success when leveraging the right remediation resources at the right time and drawing a line in the sand for promotion. Third grade literacy as an example.
Accountability required! Teachers with students constantly underperforming their demographic peers face removal without lengthy due process considerations.
Parents should not be required to send their kids to union schools. Period. It’s offensive in these failing schools where union teachers say “don’t blame us” — no one else can do better. As Milwaukee found out it costs 40% to use non-union schools and some do argue these non-union schools do better at 40% of the cost of failure.
http://tinyurl.com/7xvlbmm
If CT used that 40% funding formula and used the savings to increase the contact hours and add additional services including parental outreach and remediation and technology we’d have a statrting place for real reform. And for creating a new union that accepts the new realities and job requirements of their profession.