Jonathan Pelto notes with alarm that Connecticut Governor Dannell Malloy will be the next chairman of the Democratic Governors Association.
The respected blog “Academe” reposted Jon ‘s excellent post entitled, The Malloy Administration’s stunning attack on unions, professors and the future of Connecticut State University.
Jon writes:
“While people across the nation may not know it, in a few months, Democratic Governor Dannel Malloy will be taking the helm of the Democratic Governors Association. In that position he will claim to be speaking for the nation’s Democratic governors and be responsible for electing more Democratic governors in the 2016 election cycle.
“Having already pushed through the deepest cuts in state history to Connecticut’s public institutions of higher education, the neoliberal, pro-Corporate Education Reform Industry governor is now engaged in an unprecedented attack on faculty at both Connecticut State University (now under the Connecticut Board of Regents) and the University of Connecticut.
“For the first time in UConn history, the Board of Trustees, which is made up of the governor’s political appointees and donors, have hired an outside, out-of-state, Chris Christie affiliated, anti-union law firm to lead the attack on the UConn AAUP. You can read more about the Malloy administration’s approach at UConn at: New Jersey lawyer known for privatization effort leads UConn bargaining effort against faculty. And UConn hires Gov. Chris Christie connected law firm to negotiate contract with faculty union.”
“And now, as yesterday’s post explains, the Malloy administration dropped a contract proposal on Connecticut State University – AAUP faculty that eliminates a requirement that the institution declare financial exigency before firing tenured and non-tenured faculty and eliminates the requirement that prior to taking that “nuclear option,’ the management first meet with the AAUP chapter to discuss and find alternative solutions to firing tenured faculty. In addition, Malloy’s contract proposal takes the unprecedented step of inserting “Agency Fee” language into the contract itself, even though the matter is well settled and does not appear in any of the other State Employee contracts that cover more than the 45,000 Connecticut unionized state employees.”
Is Dannell Malloy the Scott Walker of the Democratic Party?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Most Democrats and Republicans at this point are the right wing and hyper right wings of The Money Party, and nothing more.
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There are a lot of hedge funds headquartered in Connecticut
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And they fund charter schools, ConnCAN, and even funded the illegal takeover of the Bridgeport board of education.
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Yet people still elect these fellows. The problem with a two-party system.
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Recently there was an article somewhere asking whether our current form of government is past functioning. Congress has about a single digit approval rating which in itself is more than a bit disconcerting. It seems not functioning for the benefit of most citizens but merely for the top 1% etc.
Many democracies now use a parliamentary system which when the party in power loses credibility in the eyes of the electorate a vote is taken almost immediately to replace that government. The party in power is replaced then, not 2 or 4 years later. [How much time and money is spent before our elections take place?]
This probably would not go over in the U. S. given our Constitution and peoples views on that Constitution, it’s difficulty to be changed etc but with the deep divisions in our country and now in the Republican House itself
PERHAPS
it might be worthwhile to see if a better, more ;productive form of government which could be democratic might be formed.
Right now with incredible amounts of money being thrown at our elections and how that affects our government it MAY be time to look at alternatives..
It won’t happen of course but I can dream can’t i?
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Connecticut is the estate (Did I say ‘estate’? cuz that’s what I meant) where Democrats are more Republican than the Republicans are.
The “Democrats” in CT work directly for the bankers and hedge funders. It’s easier than having lobbyists.
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“easier than having lobbyists”… great point.
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Malloy and his crew have two objectives: reduce costs by replacing experienced faculty with part time adjuncts; and breaking the faculty union (AAUP). They probably have more surprises for the Uconn faculty union. As important as the cost savings are, I think the prime objective of these Democratic neo-cons is to destroy strong unions. Corporate American does not like unions; and the strong unions really stick in the craw of the million dollar CEOs. Anything that gives a voice and power to employees is now in their legal gun sights. So why is this offensive taking place at this time? Corporate America is attacking on the k-12 front and the college front. Corporate America is consolidating power over all aspects of life. Why? To be ready for the environmental and economic crises that will become more obvious in the Connecticut’s corporate Democrats have a particular problem, one they created: the heavy state debt, now taking 10% of state spending just to cover interest costs. It is clear that the Democrats dare not vote to raise takes on the upper middle class. So they are looking for ANY way they can cut the operating costs of state agencies. This is our Brave New World (a book that should be read by all high school students, but Common Core does not allow as much time for reading novels as the older curricula did).
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