There’s an ugly deadlock over education reform, with legislative and teacher union leaders unable to find agreement with Gov. Dannel Malloy, so the decision by the General Assembly’s Black and Puerto Rican Caucus to speak up matters a great deal.
Significantly, the urgent message was compromise — some schools need to be run differently, but teachers must be respected and part of the process. Both points have been lost in the storm of rhetoric this spring in Hartford.
So the caucus’ plan avoids devisive arguments about linking teacher tenure to evaluations and concentrates on improving schools that have failed. That’s a message Gov. Malloy ought to pay attention to if he wants a deal. The fight over tenure isn’t worth it.
But for the unions, these minority legislators had an even more clear message: promising charter schools must be part of the solution. The Connecticut Education Association has fought inclusion of nonprofit charter schools as a “turnaround” option for failing schools.
Successful charter school models — such as Jamoke Jumoke Academy in Hartford or the Achievement First schools in New Haven and Hartford — should be a part of Connecticut’s reform plan. To exclude these Connecticut-grown schools – as a current version of the school reform legislation would now do – throws out proven strategies merely because of unfounded union fears that they will lead to “privatized” public education.
“We got in the room as representatives of urban communities and decided on a consensus of what we thought would be best,” said New Haven state Rep. Gary Holder-Winfield.
Sadly, it’s a perspective that’s been lost as the debate in Hartford education reform has drifted far from this.
The proposal released Thursday also calls for the education commissioner to the have power to re-make failing schools. Teachers working there, caucus members said, deserve the right to negotiate issues that directly affect them — or have the option of working in a different school altogether.
The caucus – as other legislators know – represents the families who have the most at stake in a debate that lately seems to revolve more around benefits for adults than the needs of poor children.
”We wanted to let them know where we stood,” state Rep. Douglas McCrory of Hartford. “We are at a stalement. The leadership is in a stalement with the governor’s office.”
State Rep. Patricia Billie Miller, from Stamford, told me “all sides” need to rethink their positions, and this includes both teachers and the governor.
“I advocate for what works,” she said, referring to the importance of including charter schools as the state looks for replacements for failing schools. ”Why whould you throw out methods that you know work?”
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16 Responses to Malloy, Unions: Listen To The Black & Puerto Rican Caucus
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Charter schools will likely lead to the acceleration of deprofessionlaizing teaching, increase racial insulation of students,and a loss of transparency and accountability. The “reformers” are interested in such schools as investment opportunities to enrich themselves financially, not to enrich students intellectually.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/ravitch-why-states-should-say-no-thanks-to-charter-schools/2012/02/12/gIQAdA3b9Q_blog.html
Charter Schools?…they will regret it in the long run. The actual schools may have positive aspects, but the ‘higher uppers’ in these organizations shouldn’t get their paws on any schools.
Charter schools provide the best option for some children to get a better education. That’s why some charter districts have to hold lotteries for the available positions. (http://thelotteryfilm.com/) Charter schools allow parents to vote in the school debate.
“The Lottery” is a propoganda film by Madelaine Sackler, daughter of Jonathan Sackler who funds and runs ConnCAN and charter school conglomerate Acheivement First. The Sackler family owns Oxycontin producer Purdue-Pharma based in Stamford.
it is JUMOKE Academy…look up the word JAMOKE…definitly not the name you want for a school.
Today’s May 4…not April 1 right? Who in the heck thought it was a good idea to call this charter school Jamoke Academy?
Jamoke Academy!?
The next time so bleeding heart liberal tries to tell you that they are the smartest guy/girl in the room-tell them about the liberal who signed off on the naming of this school.
It is spelled “Jumoke,” not Jamoke, and it means “where the child is loved” in a West African dialect called Yoruba. Named by the late great Thelma Ellis Dickerson, civil rights activist, Jumoke founder, former Hartford educator and Board of Ed President. You still don’t have to like the name, just sayin… Personally I think pronouncability is an issue too (FYI: “joo-MO-key”).
Someone has already suggested it, but why not automatically put EVERY student in New Haven or Hartford into the charter school lottery? Than they could opt out if they don’t want to go to that particular school. I wonder how the reformers feel about that.
“The Lottery” is a propaganda film by Madelaine Sackler, daughter of Jonathan Sackler, who funds and runs charter school advocate,ConnCAN and charter school conglomerate Achievement First. The Sackler family fortune comes from their ownership of Oxycontin producer Purdue-Pharma. The real research on charters paints a more clear picture of their lackluster performance.
Notice how the responses went after the parenthetical mention of the movie, not the real issue: letting parents have a say in their children’s education.
CT Democrats represent the new racism.
Union Fascism is the new cause. The new obfuscation. Racism in disguise of public sector workers rights.
Sheff? Are the Democrats in compliance with the Court order? Or instead, are they in compliance with the unions racist wishes?
No Child Left Behind? CT has a history going back to 2005 of filing lawsuit and appeal after appeal under Dick Blumenthal to escape from accountability mandates for failing union schools. Gotta keep them minority kiddoes where they belong.
Race to the Top? The Democrats lost $300 million worth of federal funding letting states like Tennessee and Rhode Island scoop up the Obama administration’s money.
The reasons CT fails to comply with any of these accountability mandates? It’s the Democrats corruption as the political arm of the union/public sector workers fascist and racist party.
Raise the minimum wage? No. But unionize Home Care workers for SEIU? Of course!
How long before CT is in front of the SCOTUS again demanding relief from NCLB mandates? CT should enter penalty phases for Sheff and NCLB in 2013.
http://tinyurl.com/ct3on83
If people don’t see the mockery the Democrats are becoming then they need a sense of humor. The structural racism behind union fascism is appalling. Don’t let the Democrats tell you otherwise: they are the new structural racists.
How can the parents be a part of the debate when the charter schools close in a few years. They are another fad and smoke screen to make it look like a positive change for the public. If we support them, we are opening the door wide open for uninvited guests (e.g. – Riccards et al.)
Perhaps we should listen to the NAACP, who has been keeping people of color from exploiters like Malloy, Riccards, and people with Green for a number of years.
They so NO to Charters:
http://naacp.3cdn.net/ec6459eda5247ea257_d1m6bxsf6.pdf
Rick Blue, maybe you ought to check with the CT chapter before you count the NAACP as part of the anti reform brigade.
The NCAACP had resistance over the issue in several cities and states when writing the platform resolution because it didn’t allow for each community to make a decision based on local results.
Same with Vouchers.
The NCAA prefers wrap around social services as a solution–in other words money to the parents as a panacea.
The wrap around social services thing can get a coalition. It doesn’t blame the teachers or expect accountability. In the 90s teacher unions were fractured over the social promotion thing and internal blame on whow as kicking the can.
Wrap around social services blames society for the problem and unifies the teachers unions. Of course, many local non-profits buy into the social services funding mantra for non-profits and public sector worker services programs.
It’s the usual political mess. The sausage-makers coalition has their shiny, new Edsel representing the status quo.
An excellent summation from the Economist on the aging and increasingly irrelevant old Black leadership.
http://www.economist.com/node/526704
Key sentence: “The NAACP increasingly represent a reactionary and ageing fringe”
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The Black Alliance for Educational Options is far more open-minded on what works and what doesn’t.
http://www.baeo.org/