I am repeating this post because I left out the crucial word NOT in the original post. Malloy’s SB 24 thrilled “reformers” like ConnCAN, but not teachers. He also made the insulting comment that teachers get tenure just for showing up for four years.
Some people in Connecticut want to keep Jon Pelto off the ballot. That is not democratic. Let the people decide.
Governor Malloy has NOT been a faithful friend to teachers. He has been a faithful friend to charters and plutocrats. Let them vote for him.
Pelto has been a faithful friend to public schools, to teachers, and to kids. Let him run.
Kevin Rennie of the Hartford Courant doesn’t think it is right to limit democratic choices at the ballot box.
He writes:
“Malloy, in the meantime, wants to erase signs of his ardent romance with state plutocrats — including his plan to have the state’s working people hand over more than $100 million in incentives to one of the nation’s largest and most prosperous hedge funds, Bridgewater Associates, to move a few miles from Westport to Stamford. The deal fell apart last week when Bridgewater opted to stay in tony Westport.
“A defiant Malloy declared that he will continue to fight to bring jobs to the state. The Bridgewater jobs, however, are already here. The governor’s scheme required taxpayers to foot the bill for a new waterfront office with a helipad. Luckily, Malloy’s misbegotten deal failed, but it’s not likely to discourage him from handing hundreds of millions of public dollars to his stable of the favored rich.
“The most unambiguous moment of the campaign so far came in these pages a week ago when left-wing lobbyist and Malloy ally Betty Gallo denounced the efforts of former state Rep. Jonathan Pelto, D-Mansfield, to petition his way onto the ballot for governor. She urged readers to join her in not signing his petitions.
“Those petitions include Pelto’s running mate, Ebony Murphy of Hartford. I don’t know what Gallo’s beef is with Murphy, an African American Stamford native, teacher and daughter of a Teamster. I know that if a Republican tried to limit candidates’ access to the ballot there would be a Democratic outcry. It doesn’t seem much different when it’s a Democrat.
Kevin Rennie is a lawyer and a former Republican state legislator. He can be reached at kfrennie@yahoo.com.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Don’t know if you all saw this:
“If I showed you the headline “Weak Charter School Laws Enable Scams, Insider Dealing,” you’d probably assume it’s the latest shoe to drop in the unfurling scandal of FUSE, the punch-drunk charter school group attempting to run schools in Hartford, New Haven, Bridgeport and — coming this fall! — Baton Rouge, where folks are getting nervous reading all those Connecticut stories.
But relax. It’s not FUSE. That headline is from the Detroit Free Press, and it chronicles patterns of double-dealing by Michigan charter school companies, like the one where two insiders from one charter company bought a parcel of land and sold it to their own school for $50,000 more, pocketing the difference.
Or Minnesota, where a charter school executive embezzled $1.3 million over five years to pay for a lavish lifestyle while the school canceled field trips and ran out of supplies.
Or California, Ohio, Arizona. This stuff is happening everywhere.”
http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/op_ed/hc-op-mcenroe-0706-20140703,0,301120.column
The Free Press deserves credit for (finally!) reporting on MI charters, but I’m just sorry the CT paper missed the Akron Beacon Journal series on OH charter schools because that one was a collaborative effort:
“TheNewsOutlet.org is a collaborative effort among the Youngstown State University journalism program, the University of Akron, Cuyahoga Community College and professional media outlets including WYSU-FM Radio and the Vindicator (Youngstown), the Akron Beacon Journal and Rubber City Radio (Akron).”
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The more information that comes out, the more I believe Jonathan Pelto can win. It CAN be done–read through Diane’s post & see all of those who were up against big money & power who DID win (Ras Baraka, Bill diBlasio, Will Guzzardi, and a host of others in school board elections). Also–don’t forget the big loss suffered by the Koch Bros. in Wake County, N.C. some years ago, when the attempted to disrupt/dismantle the school board (pouring, of course, mucho dollars into their candidate{s}, which would have resulted in re-segregation of the Wake County Schools.) Also, even though she occasionally is mentioned (just on this blog, recently), we haven’t heard much about Michelle Rhee. In fact, she never DID debate Diane, did she? Pushback DOES have its rewards!
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Jonathan Pelto needs to emphasize the link between Malloy’s schools cronies and the infamous Rupert Murdoch. In November, 2010, after staring his education technology company, Murdoch declared: “When it comes to K-12 education, we see a $500 billion sector in the U.S. alone that is waiting desperately to be transformed…” Fast forward to April 1, 2014 [ironic date], “Murdoch firm snags $94K for principal training.” A scandal-plagued multi-millionaire continues his goal to “snag” some of that tempting $500 billion. Earlier, New York City had to end contracts with Murdoch, but he has found a shiny welcome met here in Connecticut. This is shameful.
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