The Connecticut Education Association– under pressure from the governor, legislators and even the rival American Federation of Teachers – apparently believes that blocking any education reform could be better than what Gov. Dannel Malloy is proposing.
UPDATE: Take a look at the email sent out today from CEA President Phil Apruzzese and Executive Director Mary Loftus Levine. The union says that the email was “not directed at CEA members.” My earlier posts today suggested that was the case.
The email sends a pretty clear message to all concerned, particularly about blocking a deal and about what the CEA thinks about the AFT’s efforts to forge a compromise:
From: Phil Apruzzese & Mary Loftus Levine
Sent: Sun 3/25/2012 12:10 PM
Subject: Re: outstanding issues – Urgent
NEVER send anything to anyone until you send to Phil and me first. We spoke last night and we are not happy when you publicly disagree with us. AFT is playing you off against us, to get a deal. NO deal is always better than a bad one. From here on, I will be the spokesperson. If you want a caucus call one. While we appreciate all you do, you do not set policy, but rather advocate for our CEA positions. Now, if we disagree with what you sent we will let YOU know and you can send our changes as CEA’s. I will review later. Thank you. Also, if anyone attempts to contact you, please let me know immediately and refer them to me. Thanks again.
Here’s a response sent out Sunday night from the CEA’s Mary Loftus Levine:
“I inadvertently sent an internal email today to an external listserv. The March 25 email was an internal communication among the CEA President, the Executive Director, and an employee. It was not directed at CEA members. CEA members are tremendous advocates for public education and have communicated their concerns about SB 24 openly, freely, and consistently.”
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54 Responses to Internal CEA Memo: No Deal Could Be Better UPDATED
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Gotta keep the wage slaves in line. Particularly the talented ones.
Nothing’s changed. The openess of the Internet era has simply brought some sunlight to the little darkened corners.
Unions have a fiduciary duty to represent the financial interests of their clients. Any other romantic tales and fanstastical theories of unions and social justice are just that: fantastical romantic excess.
Student outcomes are not the union’s fiduciary duty. Quite the contrary: when push comes to shove student outcomes are sacrificed to better the client base financially.
In the UConn Hogan story and Special Master Adamowski story we once again have reminders that the education sector is all about money.
The tragedy of College Sports isn’t what’s happened to College Sports: It’s what’s happened to the education sector as a whole. Coaches who stretch the rules, play dirty, show no loyalty and pull down huge salaries are a product of the environment they work in. In comparison the coaches manipulate some small very budgets and are at least required to put a competitive product on the field.
Let me begin by stating that I am a CEA member and an officer of my teacher’s union local. Based on what I know about CEA’s lobbying efforts regarding the education reform bill, I have to believe that e-mail was directed to CEA staffers, not to individual teachers. CEA has been encouraging individual teachers to contact their legislators and has been advising them that using their own personal situations is most effective. I did not recieve this e-mail so it is clearly not being sent to all teachers in general as you seem to be implying.
The union has done a good job of notifying teachers of the situation and has called on teachers across the state to express their opinion of this bill. Certainly, the CEA has an interest in maintaining a collective bargaining system, but I believe that most educators would agree with this.
While the idea of “merit pay” is attractive, the implementation is difficult if not impossible, especially in subject areas that are not subject to standardized testing.
The idea of tenure is to assure teachers cannot be fired without cause and that “due process” is followed. The current process may be too onerous, and schools certainly should be able to dismiss teachers for just cause, but the idea of simply throwing out tenure and creating a system where teachers can be dismissed on a whim will not serve students well, and will probably just lead to a litigious response – a system bogged down in court cases, where on;ly the lawyers will benefit.
Most teachers put in more hours than they are paid for, purchase their own materials to make up for shortages and devote their lives and energy to helping young people succeed. Destabilizing the system will not encourage better teachers to join the profession, it will drive them away and end up hurting the children we all work so hard to help.
http://jonathanpelto.com/2012/03/25/these-billionaires-and-millionaires-sure-are-interested-in-education-reform-3/
Rick, you completely misunderstand the email.
Ray Rossamondo isn’t a teacher, he’s a CEA lobbyist and one of the negotiators on Ed Reform. He’s cooperating with AFT on trying to reform education. His boss, Mary Loftus-Levine, is upset because she doesn’t want a deal. She’s concerned he’s moving towards a compromise she doesn’t want.
It wouldn’t be the first time Rick misunderstood or misrepresented a situation.
I’m not sure why you posted this e-mail stating that it was directed towards teachers. I am a teacher, I am on the CEA mailing list, yet neither I, nor my co-workers received this e-mail. My guess is this was meant for someone else and you were forwarded the e-mail by an angry receiver. I would check your sources prior to posting in such a public forum. All you’re doing is stirring an already stirred pot.
Rick Green continues to embarrass himself. This email was NOT sent to CEA members… but to a CEA staff member. That fact totally changes the meaning of the message, doesn’t it, Rick? Will you retract, or issue a correction? I assume an apology is too much to ask for…
Rick Green’s hatred of teachers is causing him to stoop to new lows in his desperate attempts to spread his particularly venomous brand of propaganda. What’s the matter, Rick? Are you just bitter and jealous because someone of your intellectual ineptitude wouldn’t stand a chance in Hell of passing Connecticut’s stringent teaching certification process?
I receive CEA mailings through three different email addresses and NONE of them received this email.
Will you be backtracking and admitting that you jumped to conclusions, Rick? We are all waiting or you lose being considered a credible source? Waiting……….
As the editor of our town’s newspaper, The Gazette, in East Hartford I have been contacted by our local teachers union rep. I have spoken to her by telephone and she has e-mailed me. Last week we published a letter to the editor from an East Hartford teacher. I don’t think any of that communication was cleared with the CEA.
Don’t blame Rick–he’s just taking orders from old Roy O., aren’t you Rick?
That is exactly what I thought. What does Rick have to gain?
Bill Doak: This message was sent to a CEA employee, a paid lobbyist- NOT to teacher members. There is no “gag order” on teachers. Rick Green’s continuing misrepresentation (or simple ignorance) of the facts is, perhaps, worthy of some journalistic exposure…
This is not a surprise to teachers, but this was not sent to a teacher. Tell the whole story Rick. When the heat comes it will come from teachers, not to be confused with either union.
Serioiusly Rick, this was a very poor effort at journalism. You have no idea who the recipient of this email was, but you inserted an assumption–in the title!–without knowing for sure? Add my name to the list of people on all the CEA teacher mailing lists who didn’t get the email you quoted. This appears to be both biased AND lazy. Is this what it’s come to?
What does one call Rick, anyway? A “blogger”? A “commentator”? A “columnist”? Whatever the monkier, very different standards of integrity apply to him than to a “reporter” or “journalist”. This is appalling. There is no “gag order” on teachers. I hope Green’s employers take note of his deliberate obfuscations, or his simple ignorance of the facts of this vitally important public policy issue.
He’s a journalist. A yellow journalist…
Add my name also…I am on the CEA email list and I didn’t get this email. Rick, maybe you should retract the story or rewrite it. Are you reading these postings? H E L L O
Evidently, the coalition who brought us the State Income Tax along with Weicker -(Where are those tax dollars?)- would now have us support the Malloy education reform bill.
We have both the best educated workforce and the most rigorous teacher certification program in the Nation .
As a former Operations Manager in Manufacturing, we cannot create jobs because of our liberal bias when enacting, deciding and interpreting laws and regulations governing business combined with onerous : regulatory, workmen s compensation, taxes, unemployment insurance costs and the highest utility rates.(Check to see if Governor Malloy ever mentions one of these real business cost drivers at his next hometown meeting!)
In 1945 over 65% of non-farm payroll was engaged in manufacturing. In 1990,a lot less, but still over 320,000 people were engaged in manufacturing -today only 160,000 or less than 6% of non-farm payroll.
Where is the shortage? (If there is a need for a special skill set-then I am sure it can be addressed by designing a program via a partnership between Business/Government and Education.)
Despite Malloy’s protestations-Connecticut is just NOT business friendly!
To create jobs, we must elect people, who will undo the liberalism and freewheeling spending and its subsequent cost to business.
Don’t scapegoat teachers ! They are not responsible for this 65 year employment breakdown trend.
Governor Malloy and predecessors -YOU are responsible!
If SB24 makes teaching a high risk/low reward career-even if you do have the resources and ability to become a teacher-especially in a critical shortage area (which a lot of people just do not -or else we wouldn’t have shortages.)
Why would they even consider a career in teaching -especially in an inner city environment?
Here are the potential unintended consequences of SB24;
1 ) Discourage a lot of 1st career people from even considering to go into teaching as a 2nd career.
2) Cause a lot of new/young people to rethink teaching as a primary career.
3) Due to pay/step freezes over past years-most inner city teachers both non-tenured and tenured are below their comparable wage in surrounding suburban school districts. This causes a lot of teacher turnover /recruitment issues which could accelerate under SB24.Why put your career at risk in a difficult inner city school system for less money/less reward??
4)People will leave teaching-retire or go on to another low risk/higher reward career.
5) Schools are a direct reflection of the challenges we face to make society a better place and that starts with providing everyone with an opportunity to find a good job/earn a good wage and build a better life. Nowhere is this reflection greater than the inner city- where unemployment and poverty are at the highest levels and special needs the greatest….this manifests itself in the classroom everyday-all day!
6).The bashing of teachers from all levels and directions is incredible. The entire teaching force is being de-motivated.
Yet these are the same people who go in and motivate our young people-our future while under daily attack themselves.(Do you think they are doing this to teachers in China and elsewhere around the globe?)
7) Teachers( and teacher tenure) are not the problem-but they are part of the solution.
Rick,
Let me chime in also as the union rep for my school who never got the email you refer to, but who did get numerous emails from CEA higher ups to encourage every teacher to speak openly about Gov. Malloy’s proposed changes. It looks to me, at a minimum, that you jumped the gun. At the worst, it looks like you are biased against teachers, affecting all that you report.
I have received no emails as you suggest from the CEA rather- Here is what the CEA website says…
“Contact Your Lawmakers Today
The education reform debate is heating up and time is running out— with just days left for the Education Committee to fix Governor Malloy’s Education Reform Bill # 24.
Thank you to all of you who have been writing letters, sending emails, calling legislators, and getting teachers’ voices into the conversation. Please continue your efforts this week. Now, more than ever, teachers need to be persistent and unwavering in the commitment to ensure education reform gets done right for Connecticut’s students.
Your continued activism will ensure that legislators are hearing teachers concerns and will make the changes to the bill that so many are calling for— and that we know will improve education in Connecticut.”
As a CEA member and in response to the above request, the above two posts were sent out to many legislators by me.
The Malloy bill has money for failing schools, better training requirements for new teachers, rewards for them (like loan forgiveness) if young teachers work in improving schools, slots for early childhood education and more.
But what do the teachers talk about? Their evaluations, pay and job security. If people think that’s all they care about, there’s a reason – it’s all they talk about.
In response to the above post – the Malloy bill does not require better training requirements for new teachers. New teachers are already subjected to a rigorous training – through college courses, a student teaching position and then the TEAM portfolio. As of now, teachers are also required to get their masters degree within 5 years. The Malloy bill wants to do away with any higher education for teachers. (Does that make sense? Would you want to go to a Dr. that did not have “MD” after their name? Do you want your children to be taught by someone who is not invested in their own learning?)
How are “improving schools” and “failing schools” going to be judged? There have not been any clear cut answers put forth to determine that yet. There also needs to be more community building work around the schools, not just attempting to improve failing schools in communities that are below the poverty level. How do you expect children to learn in an unstable environment?
Teachers actually don’t spend the majority of their time worrying about evals, pay and job security. They spend the majority of their time worrying about why student A and student B are not making the progress they should be making. They worry about why student C comes in tired every single day. They worry about the 2 1/2 weeks that their CHILDREN are required to take hour long tests every day.
Yes, pay, evals and job security are nice. But before you point fingers, please tell me that you’ve NEVER talked about your own pay, job security or evaluations?
See below…this is part of the last email I received from CEA (as a teacher) from Phil Apruzzese. I agree…I think Rick jumped the gun. The email he has was directed to a specific person, not teachers.
Here’s a portion of the email:
Please continue your activism by calling and emailing your legislators so that teachers’ views are top of mind when the Committee votes to finalize the bill—scheduled for Monday, March 26.
Together we can help improve public education for all children and our profession.
Phil Apruzzese Mary Loftus Levine
CEA President CEA Executive Director
Do you care about your job? About being able to provide for your family? About being able to pay your mortgage? Should we stereotype that this is all YOU care about?
Bumper-Gov. Malloy spoke to a group of Waterbury business people recently and stated that if SB24 wasn’t passed he would not be able to create new jobs in Connecticut.As someone who actually ran a manufacturing operation in Connecticut with an employment level of 250-500 for 20 years.I can tell you that the provisions of SB24 will NEVER translate to any business’s bottom line and that there is NO linkage between SB 24 and job creation in Connecticut.Only when he starts to deal head on with the cost drivers outlined in my above post-then and only then will business stay and/or return to Connecticut.
As far as SB24 goes-if you want to keep all the good provisions that will actually help our students learn and strike out all the negative provisions aimed at teachers in the form of abrogating their rights to organize and collective bargain and have seniority rights as all union and most non-union shop do… then let’s do it and get this bill passed right now!!
Rick Greene writes like he skipped the ethics in journalism part of his own education. Greene twists the truth so badly in this article that he is now coming off as a pathetic little boy who slings mud when he finds that, unlike his opponent(s), he is unable to articulate a strong, cogent argument. THE MEMO WAS NOT ADDRESSED TO TEACHERS, Mr. Greene. Even simple lies don’t bear up under a little scrutiny- you should retract your article.
I don’t see evidence that he made it to any journalism classes.
Rick, getting a sense of the special interest ton of bricks that come raining down on anyone they don’t like, huh? Malloy was almost set on by this mob.
Want to read about special interest groups?
Check here for the newest philanthrocapilists who are now genuinely concerned about the poor children in CT:
http://jonathanpelto.com/2012/03/25/these-billionaires-and-millionaires-sure-are-interested-in-education-reform-3/
http://schoolfinance101.wordpress.com/2012/03/24/snapshots-of-connecticut-charter-school-data/
That’s why we need vouchers and the parental trigger. You can parade all the comparitive figures you want but if parents are happier that the environment and the resutls of the CHarters are better, than what good are attempts to spin the data?
There are many ways to spin the data. Once is that Charters do not take the kids from the best schools. Parents are happy with the best city schools. Instead they get students from the poorer performing schools. The failing schools. And now the students test as good if not better than the rest of hoice for the city?
Vouchers and the parental trigger allow parents to make the best choice for their child. A scatter chart is meaningless to parents in a crappy union school.
Some problems with your stats.
The most obvious one: special education. Apparently Charters either do not report their special education expenses separately or aren’t required to do so. Claiming they have zero expense is simply false. The zero should have been an alert: bad data. Outside the norm.
A good discussion on Charters and Special Ed issues at the CTMirror.
http://tinyurl.com/chn3xd6
Jeff-Kind of like the 65,000 angry people who came down on Weicker in Hartford over his ill conceived State Income Tax.Do you think that it is mere coincidence that the passage of the Income Tax and the immediate decline in manufacturing employment in Connecticut parallel each other?(Don’t you think that every worker in Connecticut, subject to the Income Tax, was looking for their employer to increase their wages to compensate for this loss of disposable income?.Another tax/cost placed on business in Connecticut!Net/net-another tax increase that impacts Connecticut negatively.)
One can only begin to imagine the fall-out from Malloy’s ill conceived education reform.(Both supported/endorsed by who else-the Hartford Courant!!!)
But still shows his disdain……he heard so he says:
“Over the weekend, before I received a copy of the CEA memo, I heard reports about teachers strong-armed for trying to talk with legislators on their own.”
http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/rick-green/hc-green-cea-memo-0526-20120325,0,6939664.column
Maybe you didn’t hear correctly. Strong-armed? You got your first headline and your first assumption wrong. Maybe you assumed it was the union….possibly it was building administrators or superintendents…that type of bullying happens every day.
OK- let me try to connect some dots here…
Schools are a direct reflection of the challenges we face to make society a better place and that starts with providing everyone with an opportunity to find a good job/earn a good wage and build a better life. Nowhere is this reflection greater than the inner city- where unemployment and poverty are at the highest levels and special needs the greatest….this manifests itself in the classroom everyday-all day!
..if Gov. Malloy would do the heavy lifting he was elected to do-and address the real cost drivers affecting business..then he could create a climate that would be conducive to private sector job growth.
…if we have job growth,then all parents, but especially inner city parents, can provide a better quality of life for their children
…if inner city children are enjoying a better quality of life ,then they can improve/do better in school.
..if they improve in school,then the achievement gaps will narrow.
(
You’re right sir! As soon as we get a bill that addresses these issues, I’ll let you know and break the story! The current one is lacking! It will only create job for millionaires! That’s job growth, but not for those poor kids.
URGENT!!! This is Rick Blue on the case with a special report. I just drank a tall glass of True Blue Kool-Aid and I am ready to fight for the rights of millionaires everywhere…Now, on to the story, I’ve uncovered a secret e-mail from Mary Loftus Levine that details a horrible scandal. See Below for yourself!!! If you dare…
Subject: Teachers who speak out will be locked in stockades!!
from: M.L.L
“No teacher can speak out! You will be punished in your local town square. I will personally come down and hit you with a tomato if you speak out against Malloy!
Sincerely, Queen Mary”
There you have it! I repeat, this was sent to all teachers. That’s right! All teachers! Stay tuned for more as soon as I get word from the Capitol!
LOL! That was entertaining!
Boy did this story change a lot since yesterday afternoon! It’s a good thing there’s no accountability for journalists or Rick would be out of a job!
As a parent, all I want is the ACADEMIC & LIFE SUCCESS OF Children to be the focus for a change when we discuss schools! As a person of color, we definitely need people in the class room with high expectations of ALL their students yet after reading these exchanges, with all due respect to the many great teachers and your union leaders…Its NOT ALL about you..Connecticut does not revolve all around you! You are NOT the only ones in the school. Your collective dues just give you a better seat at lawmakers tables for their upcoming elections. Parents get it your afraid of change, you have been able to get paid with benefits whether you perform or not…that is the current reality. Its not sustainable! Its not personal! Contrary to your beliefs, the Governor and lawmakers have to do what is BEST for ALL of their constituents and yes even the working poor, special needs and people of color! You think you have it bad!! Imagine being targeted and shot because you look suspicious! If you do not want to held accountable for high standards of teaching than maybe just maybe this is not the job for you!!! No disrespect intended welcome to 2012, in a time that we are facing serious financial constraints. We can not afford to pay for the friend of a friend of a friend we must pay for effectiveness! It must be nice, teachers get due process and parents and their child must get the “toss of the coin” justice.
Seriously, Gwen, how can you say you intend no disrespect when you just slammed an entire profession? Your anger is misplaced. Doesn’t it make sense that if our governors of the past and those law makers of the past were the slightest bit interested in helping change failing schools, they would have seen to it that they were not so seriously underfunded for almost 30 years? It’s criminal. And as far as this bill doing what is best for kids or parents for that matter, it falls far, far short of either. You have a very skewed opinion of teachers and our union, which unlike the Teamsters, isn’t run by out of touch elected officials. The CEA IS teachers. WE are the CEA. And by the way, it does not guarantee a seat at the table. In fact, how many teachers were actually consulted on ANY of this legislation? One more thing – please actually read the legislation instead of what Rick Green’s or the Hartford Courant’s slanted spin on it is. Then come back and we’ll talk. Not every teacher is in it “for the money”. Most care deeply for their students. If they didn’t they wouldn’t be in teaching.
Gwen, Thank you for posting all of this misinformation that makes no sense.
It’s hilarious that you mention how “we can not afford to pay for a friend of a friend of a friend” when this whole thing is about Malloy sneaking through provisions that will financially benefit his millionaire cronies while further widening the achievement gap.
I can send you the internal memo I told you about
I can send you the internal memo I told you about
From test to test date 12/12/2012
No idea why!
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If you like to see VPN or SSL traffic from my DMZ please make sure your VLAN is configured with that. If it doent work try with your firewall rules or SSH your server, maybe its just your IDS blocking that
If you like to see VPN or SSL traffic from my DMZ please make sure your VLAN is configured with that. If it doent work try with your firewall rules or SSH your server, maybe its just your IDS blocking that everything else is just.
If this does not work your LAN has issues.
If you like to see VPN or SSL traffic from my DMZ please make sure your VLAN is configured with that. If it doent work try with your firewall rules or SSH your server, maybe its just your IDS blocking that everything else is just.
If this does not work your LAN has issues.
If you like to see VPN or SSL traffic from my DMZ please make sure your VLAN is configured with that. If it doent work try with your firewall rules or SSH your server, maybe its just your IDS blocking that everything else is just.
If this does not work your LAN has issues.
If you like to see VPN or SSL traffic from my DMZ please make sure your VLAN is configured with that. If it doent work try with your firewall rules or SSH your server, maybe its just your IDS blocking that everything else is just.
If this does not work your LAN has issues.
If you like to see VPN or SSL traffic from my DMZ please make sure your VLAN is configured with that. If it doent work try with your firewall rules or SSH your server, maybe its just your IDS blocking that everything else is just.
If this does not work your LAN has issues.