Jonathan Pelto reports that Governor Dannel Malloy has let the legislature know that he will not accept a new state budget unless it includes money for two new charter schools. At the same time, many public schools will be flat funded or see budget cuts. According to a story in the Connecticut Mirror, Democratic legislators are balking at the governor’s plan to cut millions from some of the state’s neediest districts while setting aside $15.9 million to expand charter school enrollment by fewer than 1,500 students.
Pelto writes:
Democrat Malloy, along with Democrats New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel have become the poster boys for the anti-union, anti-teacher, anti-public school corporate education reform industry and their unprecedented effort to privatize public education in the United States.
In 2012 Malloy rolled out his “education reform” initiative becoming the first Democratic governor in history to call for eliminating teacher tenure for all public school teachers and unilaterally repealing collective bargaining rights for teachers in the state’s poorest schools.
Corporate Education Reform Industry advocacy groups have since pumped more than $7.5 million into their record breaking lobbying campaign in support of Malloy’s efforts to denigrate teachers, radically reduce local control of education and turn the state’s public schools into little more than Common Core testing factories.
When presenting his proposed state budget earlier this year, Malloy called for record cuts to Connecticut’s public schools while demanding that Connecticut’s legislators divert scarce public funds so that Malloy’s charter school allies could open two more charter schools in the state.
Under Malloy’s plan, Steve Perry, the infamous opponent of teacher unions, is slated to get funding for his privately owned but publicly funded charter school in Bridgeport.
The Governor’s plan also calls for funding a charter school company from the Bronx that says it will save Stamford, Connecticut by opening a sister school there.
In both cases, the local Boards of Education voted against the charter school proposals and testified in opposition to the charter schools before the State Board of Education and the General Assembly’s Education Committee.
Governor Malloy has quickly forgotten or put behind him the scandals surrounding Jumoke Academy, once his favorite charter chain in the state. His ties to the hedge fund managers of Greenwich, New Canaan, and Darien outweigh the facts on the ground.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Charters are all about money not education. The agenda of Charters is to completely transform education and destroy traditional public schools, eliminate elected school boards and replace traditional teachers with drones from TFA and The New Teacher Project. When they accomplish their goal parents will have NO CHOICE and NO VOICE. Just talk to some parents in New Orleans. Wake up. STARVE THE BEAST. Do not allow your child to attend a Charter School. Shut them down. The solution is to get the federal government out of education. As long as the US Dept. of Education exists all the Charter Schools and Common Core standards are not going to fix the problem. You see they don’t want to fix the problem they want to control all future generations of children and they are very close to accomplishing that and as long as we feed the beast our children they will continue until they succeed. GET YOUR KIDS OUT!!!
“. . . and as long as we feed the beast our children they will continue until they succeed. GET YOUR KIDS OUT!!!”
Get one’s kids out of where?? Who is the they??
“We” are not feeding the “beast” if by beast you mean the USDoE. If by “beast” you mean the public schools then you’re probably in the wrong place to argue that as the vast majority of folks here are pretty much die hard public school supporters, teachers, etc. . . .
It looks to me that this person is advocating getting kids out of charter schools. The “beast” is charter schools. Teachers aren’t feeding them, but this may be directed to parents who have their kids in charters.
Trying to maximize charter increase prior to Obama leaving office. Only then will we see the possibility of slowing or ending the increase in charters. Rahm and Malloy are allies of Obama and Obama is big supporter of charter schools.
I don’t see why they feel the need to rush. All of the viable candidates, except Bernie Sanders, are HUGE fans of charters and will continue these policies.
Hillary espoused ending NCLB when campaigning against Obama (2008). Bill Clinton recently stated that charters haven’t performed as expected. I assume (hope) Hillary might have similar thoughts.
The legislators need to represent the public, the people by whom they were elected, and stand up to this misguided bully. Too bad ours didn’t; guess their heavy hearts made that too difficult to do.
Living and teaching in Pennsylvania where Gov. Tom Wolf (D) is currently visiting school districts across the state promoting his program of support and more funding for public schools, respect for teachers and unions, and a plan to make secure our retirement pensions, I am constantly amazed at these other democrats, Melloy, Emannuel, Cuomo, etc. who are so tone deaf and just plain stupid when it comes to realizing what is right for children and what is, simply, politically a winning hand. I am dumbfounded. Is it just the money? Are they that corrupt?
Yes, it is just the money, Cuomo, Malloy and Emanuel are that corrupt. Too many Democrats have moved to the right, have embraced GOP/libertarian ideas and betrayed so many Democratic ideals and accomplishments. Clinton is the one who repealed Glass-Steagall and Obama formed that horrible Simpson-Bowles cat food committee to undermine and weaken Social Security. Obama’s educational “policies” are just as bad if not worse than Bush’s.
Clinton admitted repealing Glass-Steagel was a mistake. Obama in my opinion is the most duplicitous politician I can recall in my lifetime. I’m 71.
Obama is a private school snob.
Really good piece on the lack of oversight re: charters in Ohio:
“No sector — not local governments, school districts, court systems, public universities or hospitals — misspends tax dollars like charter schools in Ohio.
A Beacon Journal review of 4,263 audits released last year by State Auditor Dave Yost’s office indicates charter schools misspend public money nearly four times more often than any other type of taxpayer-funded agency.
Since 2001, state auditors have uncovered $27.3 million improperly spent by charter schools, many run by for-profit companies, enrolling thousands of children and producing academic results that rival the worst in the nation.
And the extent of the misspending could be far higher.
That’s because Yost and his predecessors, unable to audit all charter schools with limited staffing and overwhelmed by the dramatic growth in the schools, have farmed out most charter-school audits to private accounting firms.”
“Yost worked with Lehner and a group of mostly charter-school advocates to draft the law change.”
Would Ohio lawmakers have allowed “public school advocates” to draft reporting requirements for public schools ? Why are charter school lobbyists drafting their own regulations?
Incredibly, even with this track record, Kasich demanded more funding for charter schools in his last budget, and he cut funding for half of public school districts.
http://www.ohio.com/news/local/charter-schools-misspend-millions-of-ohio-tax-dollars-as-efforts-to-police-them-are-privatized-1.596318#.VWsVxbYu_Wc.twitter
I am tired of DINO politicians. Although I am registered as an independent, I have generally voted for Democrats over the past thirty-odd years. Obama is a great disappointment. Malloy showed his colors in his first term, so I can’t really say he disappointed me. My union’s endorsing him has made me very cynical about politics, however. Connecticut’s senators, Dick Blumenthal and Chris Murphy, when written to about my concerns regarding ESEA, replied with the “accountability for failing schools” mantra. We need a third party, or REAL Democrats to challenge these politicians.
My children attended Stamford public schools. The district superintendent Edmund Barbieri, was recognized on the national level as a principal of the year. He was the innovator behind the magnet schools that my children attended. My daughter attended from Kindergarten, she was selected in the lottery which also enabled her brother, five years older, to move over to the Westover school campus. Students were enriched with the talents unlimited curriculum. Students participated with 30 straight days in the special class of their choosing. My daughter took dance, drama, problem-solving, art, music, and physical education and actually had a skill set developed after the concentrated focus of arts-based instruction.
That’s what Stamford needs and the governor knows it. He was mayor of Stanford, Connecticut. At one time he was one of the regular people, but now he’s part of the reformer movement where Funds are held for particular outside agencies that make legislators pay for ideas, that teachers within the educational communities have had and utilized for decades.
The reforms are not happening in Darien, New Canaan or Westport.
My cousin’s wife teaches in Darien and parents in that community do not take it well when you mess with their public schools. So in effect, the segregation and lack of enriched opportunities that are being perpetuated on poor children of color in Connectucut is an example of Greed, not Justice, and it’s despicable.