I’m stepping out. I want to push Roraback forward. He has got the integrity and the experience and the independence. He is the one [...]]]> Fifth District Republican Mike Clark tells me his campaign to win his party’s nomination never got traction so he’s cashing it in and endorsing Andrew Roraback:

I’m stepping out. I want to push Roraback forward. He has got the integrity and the experience and the independence. He is the one who can win this race for the Republican party … This is a winnable race. That’s what is important in my stepping aside. I want to push a guy who can bring this home.

Clark, a fiscal conservative and social moderate, is a retired FBI agent who helped to lead the investigation and arrest of former Gov. John Rowland. During the campaign he tangled again with the ex-governor, filing a Federal Election Commission complaint against Rowland for his behind-the-scenes role with Lisa Wilson-Foley, who is also running for the 5th district slot.

Republicans will meet Friday in Hartford to pick a candidate from the four candidates still in the race, a group that also includes Justin Bernier and Mark Greenberg. A primary is expected.

Linda McMahon:

Chris Shays:

Meanwhile, the Linda McMahon campaign is out with a new reminder about why she is running. (She wants to give back.)

Tax collections in New Jersey are running $230 million behind Gov. Christie’s projections after April revenue came up short, according to a state Treasury report released Tuesday. If the trend continues, Christie [...]]]> Malloy nemesis Chris Christie is finding that tax cuts may not be the route to prosperity. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports:

Tax collections in New Jersey are running $230 million behind Gov. Christie’s projections after April revenue came up short, according to a state Treasury report released Tuesday. If the trend continues, Christie and lawmakers may have to revise their plans to cut taxes, or they may have to find other places to trim the budget.

While Rhee is not required to disclose her spending, Reuters tracked more than $2 million in advocacy expenditures over the [...]]]> Reuters reports that Michelle Rhee, the former Washington, D.C. schools chancellor who now runs an education reform group, dropped a lot of cash in Connecticut with all those radio and TV ads:

While Rhee is not required to disclose her spending, Reuters tracked more than $2 million in advocacy expenditures over the past nine months alone. Among the line items: $790,000 on advertising and lobbying in Connecticut; $6,700 to wine and dine lawmakers in Missouri; and $120,000 in donations to candidates and political caucuses in Tennessee.

… an adviser to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg confirms that he provided financial backing for Rhee’s recent push into Connecticut politics.

1. Will the nation’s largest achievement gap narrow? Not immediately, but supporters of Malloy’s compromise plan believe that more spending, new intervention strategies, and the chance to target the state’s lowest-performing schools will make a difference. A “commissioner’s network” of struggling schools will be the state’s top priority. “We are now [...]]]>

1. Will the nation’s largest achievement gap narrow? Not immediately, but supporters of Malloy’s compromise plan believe that more spending, new intervention strategies, and the chance to target the state’s lowest-performing schools will make a difference. A “commissioner’s network” of struggling schools will be the state’s top priority. “We are now saying it is unacceptable for schools to drop below a certain level,” said Education Commissioner Stefan Pryor.

2. Overnight changes don’t fly. Like it or not, there wasn’t support for the larger reforms the governor and his supporters (including me) sought. The compromise that won overwhelming approval — and union support — is a more cautious approach, heavy on testing things out first. “We should never, ever do sweeping change. You are experimenting with kids,” AFT Connecticut President Sharon Palmer reminded me Tuesday. She’s mostly right.

3. Everybody likes reading and little kids. These are two of the most obvious (and costly) areas where spending more money makes a difference. There will be more preschool slots. More teachers will be taught effective strategies for reading instruction. This matters.

4. Labor contracts can, and will, be changed. This was one of the contentious issues that bogged down reform for weeks. Malloy sought the ability to step in and unilaterally change a collectively bargained teachers contract at a failing school. Under the bill signed into law Tuesday, contracts can be altered using an expedited negotiation process that includes teachers. This is a substantial change and will allow educators to redesign failing schools more quickly. For example, there is now a process to quickly renegotiate issues such as the length of the school day or year. Union opposition cannot stop the process.

5. Charter schools are the surprise winners. Viewed as deal-killers by the Connecticut Education Association, the state’s largest teacher union, charters instead emerged as surprise victors. State funding for charter schools will steadily grow in coming years, increasing by $1,100 per student to $10,500 per student this coming year. Significantly, charters will be scrutinized more closely and used as models for school reform — a provision that the Malloy administration was unwilling to back away from. Expect substantial growth in charter schools in coming years.

6. Finally, we may be able to clearly and fairly assess good teachers. After a disastrous start, when Malloy suggested that teachers earn the job security called tenure by just showing up for work, a significant new evaluation program emerged that could become the legislation’s biggest achievement, if it works. Teachers must demonstrate they are effective. Regular evaluations will be based, in part, on whether students are learning. Educators who are struggling will get additional help. Removing ineffective teachers will be easier. “It is designed to improve every teacher,” said State Board of Education Chair Allan B. Taylor.

7. How we pay for education was barely touched. This bill does the usual — adding more money for preschool and struggling schools for example — but it does not begin to address what critics say is a larger problem: the inherent inequality of a system that pays for much of public education based on property taxes. A mandated new accounting system will make it easier to understand and compare education spending.

8. Is it possible that Malloy may not be toast with teachers? Everyone, at this happy moment, now believes that there should be more “collaboration” between teachers and elected leaders when it comes to making changes in schools, at least until the next controversial proposal. CEA President Phil Apruzzese told me “there is still a divide” between Malloy and teachers, but he said his membership ought to give the governor a second chance now that there is agreement on this bill. “We have to look at this in total,” he said. Apruzzese said he hopes that in the future Malloy “listens to teachers first.”

9. Education Commissioner Stefan Pryor will be on the hot seat. Pryor and the State Board of Education must quickly address a long list of priorities, from teacher evaluation to turning around failing schools to restoring teachers’ confidence. He must show that these reforms can actually work in schools, improving learning for poor and minority students.

10. All of this could mean more education money from Washington. We’ve been three-time losers in the U.S. Department of Education’s Race to the Top initiative, costing the state hundreds of millions of dollars in federal aid. On Tuesday, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan had warm praise for Connecticut’s reforms.

The deceased:

Trinity College security officers reported to the administration within hours of the March assault of a student on the edge of campus that a witness described the two male attackers as “preppy-looking [...]]]> Eventually, the truth behind the Trinity assault story will emerge. An important detail surfaces today via my colleague Josh Kovner:

Trinity College security officers reported to the administration within hours of the March assault of a student on the edge of campus that a witness described the two male attackers as “preppy-looking white males” accompanied by three females “believed to be of college age.”

In internal reports obtained by The Courant, a security supervisor also reported that the suspects’ car never passed by responding officers on Summit Street, strongly suggesting that the car turned into the campus on Vernon Street, which is a dead-end that provides access to parking lots.

In the reports, the victim, Chris Kenny, and fellow student Tim Suspenski, who was with him, contradict the statement of the witness. They both said the attackers were “Spanish.”