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In the News
February 14, 2012
New Haven Register
Groups representing school boards, superintendents, business groups and education reform activists are joining to announce their shared priorities for the new Connecticut legislative session.
Representatives of the six groups will meet Tuesday to discuss their concerns about closing the achievement gap between wealthy and poor students.
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and state education officials have said reforming the state’s public schools will be their top priority in the legislative session, which runs through May.
February 9, 2012
WCBS New York
A day after delivering his State of the State address, Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy is hitting the road to promote his education reform ideas.
[...] Patrick Riccards of the reform group ConnCAN sees an effort to boost the quality of educators and greater accountability over dollars spent.
February 8, 2012
Danbury News-Times
"In too many places, Connecticut public schools are failing their two most basic missions: to provide children with an equal, world-class education, irrespective of race or income, and to ensure that their skills and knowledge match the needs of Connecticut's employers."
February 8, 2012
Connecticut Mirror
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy is calling on legislators to completely change how the state's 45,000 teachers earn tenure.
February 7, 2012
New Haven Register
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy will seek $10.3 million to raise the bar on who qualifies to be a teacher and to judge teacher preparation programs by how well their graduates perform in the classroom.
It's time to make better use of our precious education dollars.
There’s no sugarcoating it – this has been a tough year for Connecticut. The impact of our $3.5 billion deficit is being felt across the state as efforts to balance the budget continue. School districts are feeling the pinch, and leaders are making some tough decisions.
Some folks might feel that given these challenges, now is not the time to change the way we educate our students. We think they’re wrong. ConnCAN’s commitment to close Connecticut’s worst-in-the-nation achievement gap is stronger than ever, and that our state’s challenges give us even more of a reason to work toward that goal. That’s why in January, we launched the Get Smart Connecticut campaign.
The campaign called on our state leaders to staff smart (improve the way we evaluate and retain teachers) and spend smart (fix our broken school funding system). How did we do on our two legislative goals? Well, to put it plainly, we got bupkis. That’s right – the legislature did not pass any legislation to improve Connecticut’s teacher evaluation and layoff policies or to fix our broken school finance system.
We could look at that and say, wow, nothing happened, so let’s just pack it up and go home. But we have no desire to call it quits. In fact, we’re more motivated now than ever to push forward. Despite the fact that legislation on these two issues was not enacted, we’re proud that the statewide conversation about wholesale education reform has changed dramatically during this campaign. When we consider the public dialogue around fixing the education funding system and effectively evaluating teachers, we are incredibly hopeful.
The truth is, we have seen a sea change this year; it’s palpable and you can read our campaign report to find out why. Our campaign won’t come to an end just because the session is over. The goals we established in this campaign were huge, and the progress we made on them, in partnership with key legislative champions, allied organizations, and of course, advocates like you, is indeed quite significant. So we’re inspired to keep going, and your continued advocacy is more important than ever!
Teachers matter. It’s just that simple. We all know that a great teacher can make a huge difference in a child’s educational experience. Staffing smart is about changing the policies that determine how teachers are trained and supported. And it’s also about making sure that in those cases where we have to make tough decisions about who stays and who goes, only the best teachers remain.
We were focused on two elements of staffing smart this session: ending last-in, first-out teacher layoffs and improve teacher evaluation policies.
Learn more about Staff Smart:
- Voices from Connecticut and around the national call for an end to last-in, first-out layoffs
- A FAQ: Having a candid conversation about last-in, first-out layoffs
- Teacher layoff news from around Connecticut
As Governor Malloy said in his February 16 budget address, we all know Connecticut’s current school funding system is broken, and we need to fix it “once and for all.”
Under the current system, a child who lives in Hartford receives approximately $16,000 for her education. If she lived in Bridgeport, she’d receive $12,000, and in Ansonia, she would receive $10,000. At a vocational agricultural school, she’d get just under $10,000, and at a public charter school, only $9,400. What’s wrong with this picture? Same child, same educational needs, receiving vastly different amounts of funding for her education depending on where she lives and what kind of public school she attends.
It’s time for a new school funding system that funds every single public school student based on their learning needs at the schools they actually attend.
Learn more about Spend Smart:
From our blog
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