Jonathan Pelto reports that the Connecticut House approved the nomination of a charter school executive to the State Board of Education.
According to his account, Governor Dannell Malloy promised that if she was confirmed, the next two appointments to the state board would be individuals who support public schools, where the vast majority of the state’s students are enrolled.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I’m a skeptic. Promises made by politicians are usually broken. I can think of one fellow currently residing at 1600 who has broken many. Why would Malloy be any different? Why would he make that offer? Hum….
According to this brief note in the Hartford Courant, Ms. Comer also has
* Been on the local Hartford (district) school board, served as a reporter & copy editor for the newspaper, been a grants manager for the health & human services dept of the City Government.
http://articles.courant.com/2011-11-21/community/hc-hartford-andrea-comer-1122-20111121_1_legislative-aide-achievement-first-public-information-officer
According to this article, she also has served on the boards of Habitat for Humanity, a women’s shelter, the board of a local community college foundation.
http://www.hartfordbusiness.com/article/20121024/MOVERSSHAKERS/121029901/comer-named-hartford-fuses-coo
Yes, she also has worked with some local charter public schools.
Sounds like she brings extensive experience to the state board.
And this too…do as I say, not as I do:
Since the original Wait, What? article was posted, additional information has become available.
When Ms. Comer wrote, “…I also felt it was unfair that a child’s case-by-case circumstance was not being considered in this situation, so I fought the tuition. I ultimately made payment…”
What she failed to explain was that in February 2002, ten months before the Hartford Courant wrote that story about Windsor’s move to get payment, the Windsor Board of Education held a special meeting to deal with Residency Case No. 02-02. (Also known as the Comer case).
At that February 27, 2002 meeting, a motion was made and seconded “that the Board of Education move to deny the appeal for Case No. 02-02.”
However, as the official minutes go on to explain, the same board member who moved to deny Ms. Comer’s appeal, “further moved that the Board of Education allow the student to attend Sage Park Middle School for the remainder of the school year at a reduced rate of tuition in recognition of the family’s circumstances. The motion was approved by a 4-0-0 vote.”
The minutes also reflect that, “Assistant Superintendent Leo Salvatore clarified the Board’s decision saying that the Board wanted to accommodate the parent’s wish for the student to stay the remainder of the year, but also had to maintain the town’s residency regulations. The conclusion was that in order for the student to finish the school year in Windsor, tuition would have to be paid for the months of March and April and the tuition for May and June would be waived.”
So the truth is that Andrea Comer did receive a bill for $5,120 after she moved to Hartford to become a spokeswoman for Hartford Mayor Eddie A. Perez, but kept her daughter enrolled in Sage Park Middle School.
However, to say “I also felt it was unfair that a child’s case-by-case circumstance was not being considered in this situation,” is totally and completely false and unfair. The Windsor Board of Education went above and beyond the call of duty to provide the child with options, but Malloy’s nominee refused to take those options and ten months later was still saying she had no intention of paying the tuition bill.
As it turns out, paying $100 a month, Ms. Comer did eventually pay the bill but to write, as she did, that “I ultimately made payment” is more than a bit disingenuous.
Comer knew she could not keep her child in the local school when she didn’t live in the district.
The district even made special provisions to address Comer’s situation.
And still she failed to fulfill her legal and moral obligation.
Put simply, considering how profound the residency issue is, it would inappropriate to put Comer on the State Board of Education.
As importantly, Comer’s position as the COO of a major charter school management company surrounds her with what can only be called a perceived conflict of interest.
In this day and age, the students, parents, teachers and taxpayers are facing enough challenges without having to deal with elected or appointed officials whose judgement is potentially contaminated by a real or perceived conflict.
http://jonathanpelto.com/2013/04/01/ops-malloys-nominee-to-the-state-board-of-education-didnt-quite-tell-the-whole-story/
Wow, Joe. Based on Linda’s account below, “she also has worked with some local charter public schools” seems like you soft-pedaled it a little.
What the heck? The charter school bullies are constantly telling us that charter schools are “public schools”–so how can the next 2 state BoE candidates be those who “support public schools”? Are they saying that Comer doesn’t (of course we know that she doesn’t!) As a lobbyist for Achievement First, the charter school company co-founded by CT commissioner Stefan Pryor, and as an employee of Jumoke/FUSE, Comer has very vigorously helped undermine the funding structures of public education–not to mention standards for teachers (charters can maintain a certain percentage of non-certified and non-unionized teachers) and the quality of education children receive in charters like Achievement First and Jumoke/FUSE, which is centered on standardized tests.
Charter school supporter or not, her Jumoke/FUSE connections are an obvious conflict of interest.
That sums it up.
It is all about percentages. That is why Roy Romer had Dick Sheehan as Chief Outside Counsel at LAUSD. Sheehan for 7 years was chief counsel for Kaufman-Broad. Before that he was chief counsel for 20 years at Cesar’s Palace International. Can you think of any person who would know more about percentages and games to play than someone with that background? Is it any wonder construction at LAUSD with $27 billion in bonds was at 2-3 time the average in L.A. County? That is a lot of free money and a lot of projects not being built so just pass more bonds. I call this “Permadebt.”
Malloy’s ploy reminds me of a technique my own children used to try with me on a regular basis. Please, Mom! I promise I’ll do my job, clean my room, finish my homework after I beat the next ten levels of my new favorite video game!” I’m sure we are all familiar with variations of this technique.
Well here goes Connecticut. Wonder what a charter would do if there was a shooting. Probably hide and wring their hands. This appointment is about as valid as when Bobby Jindal appointed a parochial school administrator to BESE and helped Chas Roemer, whose kids are in parochial schools beat Donald Songy who was the recently retired superintendent of one of the most successful districts in the Louisiana, Ascension Parish.
We don’t stand a chance with DINO Dan at the helm.
Leaders over public schools should have a stake in the public schools. They should be required by law to either have any children over whom they have custody in the public schools (unless there is an extreme circumstance such as an autistic child needing a special school) or else they should be teachers or retired public school teachers. This would solve the problem of the charters.