Jonathan Pelto, a former legislator in Connecticut, warns about proposed legislation that would allow the state to take control of local schools, without regard to wishes of local school board.
He writes:
“A new piece of legislation before the Connecticut General Assembly (H.B. 5551) would be the most far-reaching power grab in state history – a direct attack local control of schools, our democracy and Connecticut’s students, parents, teachers, local school officials and public school.
“The legislation would enable Malloy’s political appointees on the State Board of Education to takeover individual schools in a district, remove the control of the elected board of education, “suspend laws” and eliminate the role of school governance councils which are the parent’s voice in school “turnaround plans.
“The bill is nothing short of an authoritarian maneuver by grossly expanding the Commissioner of Education’s powers under the Commissioner’s Network. The bill destroys the fundamental role of local control because it allows the state to indefinitely take over schools and even entire districts, without a vote of local citizens.
“The bill removes any time limit on Commissioner’s Network Schools. It removes the cap on how many Commissioner’s Network schools can be taken over by the state. It removes the right of the local community to appoint their own turnaround committee. It eliminates the requirement that local parents, through their school governance council are included in the process.”
Governor Dannell Malloy is chairman of the Democratic Governors’ Association, but the proposed legislation comes from the rightwing group ALEC.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Reblogged this on Crazy Normal – the Classroom Exposé and commented:
The American oligarchy starts with lower taxes for the rich and then the take over of US public education. See it in action in Connecticut.
“Governor Dannell Malloy is chairman of the Democratic Governors’ Association, but the proposed legislation comes from the rightwing group ALEC.”
Nothing like setting forth an example of undemocratic policies from a guy who is leading the Democratic governors and dissolving any difference between those officials and republicans.
Not surprising, but at least there is some forewarning of the intent, and who is flying under false colors. I hope this is stopped cold.
A version of this is happening locally. A candidate with no experience other than Teach for America management and fundraising, who wrote a paper against collective bargaining as a law student is one of two endorsed by the local Democratic party. Not just any paper, but one that made its way into federal deliberations. He claims to be pro-union.
Ah, I am so very tired of voting for the Democrats….(but who else is there in a stark choice between right and left?) So many socially-tolerant “liberal” voters simply hear the words Teach For America and they are sold. They don’t know what it means, they don’t know anything about the problems created by this organization — they simply see these three words as as some sort of magical attempt by do-gooders.
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education.
This happened in Ohio -called the Youngstown plan. Very shady legislative process. I guess America needs to step up and protect the democracy….
Thousands of students from Boston public schools are protesting budget cuts today:
https://twitter.com/EduShyster?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
All written by the awful people at ConnCan whose most experienced “educator” was a stint in TFA. These people are so hopeless not decent yet have lobbied their way into local education while exploiting poor kids and parents. The governor’s assistant even contacted them for names of people that should be on the state BOE.
Come on, Nutmeggers. Shut this legislation down.
What’s happened to the great state of CT?
This is a dream come true for the CEO of Netflix . . .
Those who voted for Dannel Malloy for a second term as governor have sadly brought this upon themselves. Early in his first term it became obvious he’s a big Charter advocate. He’s got major skin in the game. The NGA owns, yes owns, the CC standards. There are tens of $billions to be made by cronies. Let’s not blame the Republicans here. CT is a totally Blue state. The Dem legislature is on the brink of utterly betraying public education. Many of us here have been talking ourselves blue in the face for years now trying to sound the alarm. And yet the Teachers’ Unions still advocate voting these types in again and again because… well because anything is better than a Republican. There’s a reason for not giving all the branches of government to a single party. But that news has not reached some voters in CT.
I hate to say that “I told you so!” We had a chance to unseat Malloy during the last election, but people who regularly post on this site panicked and voted for Malloy. While I do understand their fear of Malloy’s principal opponent, Foley, we also had the chance to vote for Jonathan Pelto. During the ensuing arguments on Jon’s site, one of the featured writers in this posting admonished all of us to vote for Malloy in spite of the fact that we had a proven track-record of his destructive educational policies. Malloy was a known enemy whereas Foley was simply a potential enemy. Foley could not have been more of an enemy to us than Malloy; Jonathan would have been a friend.
It was this cowardice among our own that has forced me to withdraw from being a regular on this site. I despise hypocrisy.
Bill,
That is a bizarre comment. Do you know of anyone on this blog who voted for Malloy? I don’t. If the vote were taken on this blog, we would now have Governor Pelto.