The recent election in Bridgeport, Connecticut, was a major setback for corporate-style “reform” in that city.

The mayor launched a well-funded campaign to persuade voters to give up their democratic right to elect their school board and to give him control of the public schools.

Miraculously, despite his huge advantage in money and power, the mayor lost. The voters said no. Democracy won.

As Stamford attorney and civil rights advocate Wendy Lecker explains here, the state government has disregarded the message. Governor Dannell Malloy continues with his regime of high-stakes testing, school closings, nullification of local democracy, and privatization, carried out by State Commissioner of Education (and charter advocate) Stefan Pryor.