Connecticut Governor Dannell Malloy is faithful to his state’s hedge fund managers, who supported his campaigns. But he is not faithful to the children, parents, and educators of his state.
Malloy is offering a nice increase for charter schools, but budget cuts for the public schools that educate the vast majority of students. Perhaps Malloy forgot that the charter sector was rocked by scandal less than two years ago.
Malloy broke his promise to legislators and the public.
“Charter schools have escaped Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s budget knife and are slated for a $9.3 million boost in his newly proposed state budget.
“But the Democratic governor also wants a $52.9 million cut in funding for special education, after-school programs, reading tutors and other services in low-performing public schools across the state.
“Malloy also wants to rescind an $11.5 million funding increase in the Education Cost Sharing grants for next school year. It is the state’s principal education grant to municipal schools, and the idea of a reduction is not sitting well with some of the lawmakers who helped approve the ECS money last year.
“In order to secure the votes needed to pass the two-year budget last June, lawmakers reached a deal to appease both the urban legislators upset that state aid for neighborhood schools was not increasing and the governor, insistent on increased state funding so two new charter schools could open. The budget agreement upped funding for both charters and traditional public schools in each of the following two years.
“Rep. Edwin Vargas, D-Hartford, one of the more than dozen concerned legislators last spring, is upset that the governor is now backing off the increase for neighborhood schools but keeping the increase for charter schools.
“This was bad-faith bargaining,” said Vargas, a former teacher and union leader. “We swallowed this bitter pill of spending millions to open new charters and the sweetener was the additional money for the local districts. That was the way many of us could bring ourselves to support the budget.”
“It was a very close vote,” he continued, “and had people known that they were going to renege on part of the deal, it might have affected some of the votes on the final budget.”
In Stamford, the governor’s proposal means the public schools will not get the $225,000 increase they would have received, but the new charter school in town will get about $3 million more so enrollment can increase. That charter school and another in Bridgeport are to expand by about 650 seats.
“Other towns in line not to receive previously scheduled increases include Danbury ($1 million), Rocky Hill ($450,000), Shelton ($500,000), Southbury ($600,000), West Hartford ($1.6 million) and Wethersfield ($530,000). These increases would have ensured that every district receives at least 55 percent of what the state’s education funding formula says they deserve when factoring in town wealth and student need.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Danny owes his donors and that is his concern, first and foremost.
Kids are props and teachers in CT are abused, and so goes the nation.
And read the comments on the CT Mirror piece too. Here’s one:
“In my ten year career as a special educator, I have taught in public schools and private, spending my last few years in a Connecticut charter school that was so disturbingly mismanaged, that I needed to get out, afraid of what terrible thing would happen next. The problems in Charter schools, (and there are many), is that only 50% of teachers in the school need to be certified as teachers. So, if 50% of your staff are certified, then you can hire the Dominoes pizza guy to teach math because he can run a cash register and cut a pizza into equally prportionate slices. These schools have no unions. They are not observed like other schools, held to the same accountabilty, and staff are threatened and demeaned by skillless administrators whom sit in their offices, buying lunch for themselves with the charter school credit card, requiring teachers to teach more, work more, get paid less, and not complain. Charter schools are private companies, people, not boards of education. Charter schools are run by business men and women whom have never taught, learned to be compassionate, understand the many adversities experienced by our youth, the very things which draw us educators to the profession. Malloy’s proposed budgets for these cuts both past, present and future are an atrocity and to say “a slap in the face” to educators, would be an understatement.”
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Well, of course he did.
As a retired special education teacher, what I would like to know is when are every parent of a child with disabilities and the special education advocacy groups going to start suing the pants off of all of these states, local districts, and publicly-funded charter schools for slashing special education funding and failing to provide the services for these students mandated by federal law?
When I was teaching, we got audited by the Feds a few times over the years, to make sure our state and district were providing the appropriate services. Do the Feds not do this any more? Because if they still do, they’re certainly botching the hell out of the job.
Not to mention the slashing of funding and essential services for children in “low performing” public schools, which tend to be filled with children from very poor families, and English Language Learners. Thanks to Diane and other education bloggers, we have seen how the charter schools are, by and large, failing these children, too, as well as the kids with disabilities. There are a few charters here and there which are doing a good job with some of these students, but that’s very far from the majority of the charters.
What is going to happen to all of these vulnerable children?
I despair. 😦
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Malloy, Cuomo, Booker, Emanuel, and even Obama are clear cases pointing to why Secretary Clinton is struggling. She responds to questions about her Wall Street ties with offense, but her branch of the Democratic Party is full of examples of the financial industry buying influence and favorable policy.
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It’s happening in Utah, too. The state Senate just passed a bill that would give additional funds to charter schools, while, at the same time, threatening that there may be a “shortfall” in this year’s budget (which means cuts to public schools, of course).
http://www.sltrib.com/news/3500114-155/senate-gives-early-approval-to-funding
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Look at the first two paragraphs of the posting, taken from the linked article. Charters aren’t getting their fair share? Public schools aren’t bearing a disproportionate share of the pain of austerity?
😱
Further down in the piece comes this troubling part:
[start]
Education Commissioner Dianna Wentzell says the increase in funding for the charter schools is necessary.
“Those are kids that we made promises to. If we made a promise that a fourth grader is going to have a fifth grade to go to in the same school, then we need to keep that promise,” said Wentzell.
[end]
So if you make a “promise” to the owners and operators of charters, then those are inviolate. But when it comes to public schools—the only promises that count are those prefaced by the modifier “broken.”
🙄
Corporate education reform: double talk; double think; double standards.
Bottom line: $tudent $ucce$$.
Or as a very dead and very old and very Roman guy put it:
“For greed all nature is too little.” [Lucius Annaeus Seneca]
😎
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Thanks to ESSA, Malloy and his friends in the legislature get to make MORE decisions about the fate of public schools… and so do Walker, Brownback, Rauner, Kasich, Cuomo, Christie, Abbot…. you get the picture…
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Wgersen, the governors already had that power. It is time for voters to throw the rascals out. There are more public school parents than charter school parents. Vote!
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Malloy is actually being supported by “leaders” in the CT Democrat party — people like Rep Rosa DeLauro (one of the richest members of Congress) who support him and yet call themselves “progressives”.
DeLauro actually had the gall to ask Jonathan Pelto to drop out of the race against Malloy because Pelto was bringing up too many inconvenient truths about charters and Malloy’s “friendly” deals.
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This is really sad, I took my son out of public school thinking Great charter oak would be a better school for him and I was wrong…the worst thing I did for my son. I think this school administration has no idea what they are doing and their main concern is not the kids but a paycheck…good luck if you need to communicate with the principal who is clueless, the further you get is to the receptionist….I hate how they administer the school and how teachers don’t communicate with parents who want to be involve and help their kids succeed….I think public schools should get the funds they need for the students and charters schools like this shouldn’t be misguiding parents….I wish I never removed my son from the public school where teachers and principals do communicate with parents if needed instead of giving the run around and bs parents…..my next step to complain about this school is the board of education…..our kids are our future and parents need to know what is going on….
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