Connecticut Education Reformers Brace for ‘Winner-Take-All’ Battle with Teacher Unions
by Education Action GroupHARTFORD, Ct. – Since 2010, Connecticut has had the dreary distinction of having the largest student achievement gap in the nation.
Students in Connecticut’s well-to-do school districts significantly outperform students in poor, urban districts, which is a major economic and moral dilemma. But it appears that state lawmakers are finally ready to get serious about addressing the problem.
Gov. Dannel Malloy, a Democrat, is promising education reforms that will be “the most far-reaching in our state’s history,” and has targeted six areas for improvement – including increasing the number of charter schools, revising teacher tenure and seniority, and authorizing “intensive interventions” for the lowest-performing districts.
Education reform groups such as the Connecticut Coalition for Achievement Now and the Connecticut Parents Union are expected to bend lawmakers’ ears about the need to link teacher evaluations to student achievement.
Former teacher and State Rep. Douglas McCrory, a Democrat, put the upcoming education reform fight into perspective.
“This is winner-take-all, folks,” McCrory said in a recent speech. “I don’t think we’re going to have another opportunity like this in the state of Connecticut any time soon. We need to get it done now, or you know what the future looks like.”
Reformers are expecting strong resistance from the state’s teacher unions.
Last year, the American Federation of Teachers Connecticut disgraced itself when it was revealed that the union used subterfuge to water down a 2010 “parent trigger” law, which would have empowered parents to make sweeping changes to failing schools. A union document infamously referred to concerned parents as “the opposition.”
The Connecticut Education Association, the state’s other major teachers union, is taking a softer, gentler approach to undercutting school reforms. The CEA unveiled an expensive TV-ad campaign during last weekend’s NFL playoffs that claims the union favors “bold ideas” such as “more accountability,” “smaller class sizes,” and “even replacing teacher tenure.”
RiShawn Biddle, editor of Dropout Nation, calls the union’s proposals “mild” and says its tenure reform plan would “reduce the time required for firing laggard teachers by 35 days.”
How underwhelming.
For school reformers, Biddle writes, “(the CEA ad) is both a preview of the political battle that will come in the next few months within the nation’s statehouses – and a reminder that they will have to step up their political game to advance reform.”
Let’s hope Connecticut parents and lawmakers are ready to respond, “Game on.”
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24 Comments
And after they get done with this, they are going to re-arrange the deck chairs on the Titanic.
"Students in Connecticut’s well-to-do school districts significantly outperform students in poor, urban districts, which is a major economic and moral dilemma."
Democrats: Giving lip service to the plight of the poor since…. well, forever!
The only way to help the students get a decent education from the public school system and not bankrupt the state any more is to eliminate the teachers union. End of story!
That would be helpful. The state could simply say that no government organization in the state could engage in collective bargaining or enter contracts with groups of people regarding compensation or working conditions.
A more important element, however, is competition and the choices it provides to parents. Monopolies cannot be successful over the long term, so competition is key. Charter schools help, but we need wider competition that includes for-profit organizations.
The real problem is that a lot of parents are too lazy to get involved. Obviously most parents are busy with work and trying to make ends meet. But they need to wake up and realize that the unions are ruining there children's future. They need to hold the unions, school boards and teachers accountable.
"Students in Connecticut’s well-to-do school districts significantly outperform students in poor, urban districts, which is a major economic and moral dilemma."
What, pray tell, is the moral dilemma? The students from poor, urban come from districts families with high proportions of single parents, high levels of government assistance, and extraordinarily bad work habits. They also live in high crime areas.
The only moral dilemma I see is that both the urban poor and the hedge fund liberals elect Democrats to office.
I seriously doubt that Malloy or any other Democrat in a position of power will enact meaningful union reform.
They know it's their last shot because they know there is a growning movement to end all public unions. Get the damn government out of our schools. They have NO business telling anyone how to educate their kids. Just look at the records, since the federal government formed the department of Education there has been NO improvement in our education system. The only improvements in the system have come from private run charter schools.
Good News: Dems in the North are slowly waking up and truely seeing what the Unions are doing to the schools
Bad News: The Unions are still protected by Vacationer of the United States and judges.
"Students in Connecticut’s well-to-do school districts significantly outperform students in poor, urban districts, which is a major economic and moral dilemma."
There is more to it than just the school budget.
Believe it or not…..part of the problem is at HOME.
I know, I know….progressivism dictates that the government and not the parent is responsible….but, you know…..I'm just saying…..
They're going to do some serious reforming here? Cool! So they're going to outlaw government unions?
Bueller?
Bueller?
Boy, thost crickets are loud….
The greatest correlations to poverty are IQ and single-motherhood.
It's utterly amazing that a dim governor is going after the teachers' unions to improve both education and teacher responsibility in the education arena. Good for him. That, however, is a battle that will be overshadowed by the upcoming elections.
This is the stage when Dr. Frankenstein realizes he's created a monster (teachers unions) and he needs to figure out a way to get the situation under control; he is only driven to act by the guys with pitchforks and torches outside his laboratory. But Dr. Frankenstein doesn't reform his opionion of his abilities to create something with a will of its own. We can expect more monsters until the good Dr. gives up his practice.
Not to defend teachers' unions or anything, but is it really all that surprising that schools in poorer districts would not perform as well as those in more affluent districts? Putting aside the material advantages enjoyed by the affluent (it is nice to have money isn't it?) it seems self-evident that those with less intellectual ability will not earn as much as those with more and, consequently, will live in poorer neighborhoods. And intelligence is an inherited characteristic.
I know it's not a nice thing to say but some people are just smarter than others.
Althougth IQ is an indicator the best ones are:
HS graduate, yes or no?
Married before having kids yes or no?
Work full time yes or no?
Pretty simple forumula.
As a CT resident I can tell you all right now that Malloy will not enact any of these reforms. He will bow to the unions like an intern in the oval office.
The unions spent alot of money getting Malloy elected, they will simply strong arm him and these "ideas" will go away.
I'm from Connecticut, how exactly are these people to be held accountable. Most people in the State of Connecticut are employed by either the Government, Schools and/or hold union jobs, they are the majority and nothing will ever get done. Dannel Malloy will get his butt handed to him if he tries bucking his money train.
Connecticut was a goner when it offered the best welfare payout to recepients in the country. They flock here to get the great benefits and our schools have been crap ever since.
Of course the rich Fairfield County residents don't have to concern themselves with this because they work in the city and their kids go to private schools and the cops in those towns keep the riff raff out of Fairfield. It makes the rich liberals in Fairfield feel good about themselves to give more money to the welfare recepients as long as they don't have to look at them everyday. Everybody else in the State does though. Thanks so much limo liberals.
I think the point is that the disparity between the two is larger in CT than anywhere else. Which is weird because CT spends a *hitpot full of money on educating the inner city kids and gets nowhere. I wonder who's pocket the money is going into, or are all the teachers just incompetent in the inner city schools?
Thanks to pro-Right to Work Americans like you, the National Right to Work Act (S. 504/H.R. 2040) now has 21 cosponsors in the U.S. Senate and 72 in the U.S. House. With the help of Right to Work champion Senator Rand Paul, your Committee has collected petitions from over 1.1 million Americans and counting, but there's still so much more work to do in this critical battle. Please, help us keep up the pressure. National Right To Work Act (H.R. 2040) No one will be forced to pay tribute to a union in order to get or keep a job. http://www.capwiz.com/nrtwc/issues/alert/?alertid...
It will be interesting to see what kind of traction Malloy can make here. He has tried to play hardball with the unions in the past, but teachers unions are a different kind of breed. Taken together, the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association have been the nation's leading political donors in federal elections over the past two decades, and teachers' unions are either number one or number two in terms of political giving in 60% of US states (http://bit.ly/pdU7XL).
You can be sure that they will fight Governor Malloy on any type of reform and threaten to pull lobbying support, but hopefully some progress can be made so money for education can be better spent serving students not unions.
PART I –
Bravo to this brave Governor who is fighting the unions to save the children! Same thing happening in Detroit…
DETROITERS CANNOT READ FOR THEMSELVES
http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2011/05/04/report-nea...
The Governor of Michigan has now moved in to control the next door neighbor of Detroit…Highland Park…and is going to move into Detroit to help them get their acts together! But the city leaders are fighting this takeover…you wonder why?
PART II –
The unions in Detroit…are slave owners of the inner city plantation slaves…and they like them uneducated…but the Republican Governor is moving to change that for the good of the children who are NOT getting the education they deserve!
MICHIGAN SEIU STEALING MEDICAID PAYMENTS FOR UNION DUES!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4g9ILNUr_8&fe...
GET YOUR UNION DUES REFUNDED IF THEY ARE NOT USING THEM PROPERLY…Republican Saul Anuzis (a former member of the Teamsters) announced the launch of a new website specifically designed to give union members assistance in getting refunds for the portion of their dues used on politics. It is not “anti-union,” it is a site with one purpose—to help union members who do NOT want their dues money used on politics, regardless of party.
http://www.unionrefund.org/
BANISH THE UNION ‘GOONS’ – BOTH PUBLIC & PRIVATE
IS YOUR STATE “RIGHT TO WORK”? – http://www.nrtw.org/rtws.htm
Very simple:
1) Right to work/dump the union
2) Dump the Co-Ed system
3) Uniforms
4) Put shop & vocational back in
These are all no brainers.
Indiana just signed into law…to be a 'right to work'…state!
BRAVO TO INDIANA AND ALL STATES THAT FOLLOW!
If your state is not a 'right to work'…get a movement going to make it one…Indiana did!
BANISH THE UNION ‘GOONS’ – BOTH PUBLIC & PRIVATE
IS YOUR STATE “RIGHT TO WORK”? – http://www.nrtw.org/rtws.htm
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