Archives for category: Connecticut
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Lawsuit Filed in Connecticut, Claims Vallas Contract Illegal

By dianeravitch
April 2, 2013 //
16

Jonathan Pelto reports that Connecticut State Commissioner Stefan Pryor, Paul Vallas, and the Bridgeport Board of Education are being sued for illegally hiring Superintendent Paul Vallas.

Pelto writes:

“The CTMirror story goes on to report, “State law requires all superintendents in Connecticut to be certified by the State Department of Education, which requires a candidate have a master’s degree plus 30 credits in courses relating to becoming a superintendent and eight years of teaching or administrative experience. These requirements can be waived for up to one year by the state’s education commissioner while the candidate completes an “educational leadership program” approved by the 11-person State Board of Education.”

“However, as Wait, What? readers know, when the five members of the Bridgeport Board of Education loyal to Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch voted to make Vallas the permanent superintendent and give him a three-year contract, Vallas had NOT completed his probationary period AND had NOT completed the mandated training program. In fact, he hadn’t even started the training program. Making matters worse, it appears the State Board of Education hasn’t even approved a training program that Vallas could take.”

Vallas, of course, served as superintendent in Chicago, Philadelphia, and New Orleans. But he does not have the credentials required by state law in Connecticut. He is in his 15th month as Bridgeport’s superintendent. The board voted 5-4 last month too extend his contract at $234,000 a year.

The law says that a board may hire a superintendent for one year who lacks the required credentials but no longer. One if the dissident board members warned that what they were doing was illegal.

Pelto followed up here with additional detail.

Bridgeport has a problem.
Stay tuned.

Categories Connecticut, Vallas, Paul

A Wise Connecticut Journalist Figures It Out

By dianeravitch
March 30, 2013 //
20

Those who understand the dangers of privatization and the fraud perpetrated when charters claim they do a better job with “the same kids” can take heart whenever someone in the mainstream media sees what is happening.

Here is a journalist in the Connecticut Post who has figured out what is going on. The charters are skimming the kids in poor communities who are least expensive to educate, then crying that they don’t get enough money. Hugh Bailey has a commonsense idea: Send the money where the needs are greatest. Not to the charter schools, but to the struggling inner-city public schools, which have the kids the charters don’t want.

Categories Charter Schools, Connecticut, Privatization

Governor Malloy Abandons Equitable Funding Plan in Connecticut

By dianeravitch
March 23, 2013 //
16

In this important article, civil rights attorney explains how Governor Malloy switched sides on the funding formula for Connecticut public schools.

What hypocrisy! As mayor of Stamford, he was a plaintiff in the lawsuit. As governor, he now opposes the views he once espoused.

Lecker writes:

“As Stamford’s mayor, Dannel Malloy was an original plaintiff in the pending school funding case, The Connecticut Coalition for Justice in Education Funding v. Rell, and led the charge to win just and equitable funding for Connecticut schools. Now, Governor Malloy is trying aggressively to get the case dismissed. In doing so, he has exposed his 2012 education reforms as empty promises compared to what Connecticut’s children really need.

“The plaintiffs in CCJEF v. Rell charge that the state is violating the constitutional right of Connecticut’s children to an adequate education by depriving school districts of billions of dollars. Consequently, schools, especially in Connecticut’s neediest districts, cannot afford basic educational tools such as a sufficient number of teachers, reasonable class size, adequate school facilities, services for at-risk children, electives, AP classes, even books, computers and paper.”

Now Governor Malloy claims, with no evidence whatever, that his corporate reform plan focused on testing, accountability, rewards, and punishments, will do the job instead of equitable funding.

What hypocrisy!

Categories Connecticut, Corporate Reformers, Teacher Evaluations

Bruce Baker: Where There Is a Con, Look for a CAN

By dianeravitch
March 8, 2013 //
4

In his inimitable style, combining wit and solid analysis, Bruce Baker dissects the latest “data-free drivel” from ConnCAN.

Baker responds to a report claiming that the state was helping low-performing, high-needs districts. Not true, says Baker.

And he has the evidence to back up his response.

The question: Why do the news media report “studies” by advocacy groups with an agenda without recognizing that they are not disinterested research? They are kind of like the research and studies on nicotine and smoking by tobacco companies.

Caveat emptor.

Categories Connecticut, Corporate Reformers

Newtown Students Will Not Take State Tests

By dianeravitch
March 6, 2013 //
25

In January, the Newtown Board of Education asked the state education department of Connecticut to exempt students in the district from the state tests, due to the trauma of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in December.

The state education department agreed, but needed to get permission from the U.S. Department of Education.

The U.S. Department of Education agreed, and now the Connecticut General Asembly must give its consent.

So much for local control.

Categories Connecticut

Bridgeport Parents Call for Vallas’s Ouster

By dianeravitch
February 24, 2013 //
19

A report from Bridgeport, Connecticut:

Connecticut Working Families Party
30 Arbor Street, Suite 210, Hartford, CT 06106
(860) 523-1699 http://www.connecticutworkingfamilies.org

For an event occurring on
February 25th, 2013, 4 pm

Advisory – Parents Call on Bridgeport Board of Education not to renew Paul Vallas’ Contract as Superintendent

For more information contact Taylor Leake at (860) 670-1408 or tleake@workingfamilies.org.

Parents of students at schools run by corporate reformer Paul Vallas – including Bridgeport, Connecticut, where he is the current Interim Superintendent, and Chicago, where he was CEO of Public Schools from 1995 to 2001 – will speak out about the negative impact he has had on their children’s education. They will urge the Bridgeport Board of Education not to renew Vallas’ contract, which the Board is scheduled to vote on at the March 11th meeting.

Paul Vallas is paid a quarter-million dollars a year in a city where the average household income is barely an eighth of that – as a part time job. He is also paid exorbitant fees for consulting. He has a $1 million contract with the Illinois state department of Education, and a $18 million contract with the City of Indianapolis. He has awarded $13 million in no-bid contracts to his friends and former coworkers while demanding cuts to the schools. He has cut supply budgets in half, and run up huge legal bills.

** Press Conference to highlight Paul Vallas’ broken promises in Bridgeport **

What: ​
Parents of students at schools run by corporate reformer Paul Vallas speak out about his failings, and call on the Bridgeport Board of Education not to renew his contract as Interim Superintendent.

Who:
Gloria Warner, parent of Chicago public school student
JoAnn Kenedy, parent of 2 Bridgeport public school students
Former State Senator Ed Gomes
Sauda Baraka, Member of the Board of Education

Where:
Warren Harding High School
1734 Central Ave.
Bridgeport, CT 06610

When:
4 pm, February 25, 2013
###

Categories Connecticut, Vallas, Paul

Why Send Teachers with Least Preparation to Neediest Districts?

By dianeravitch
February 22, 2013 //
20

Sarah Darer Littman writes regularly about education for Connecticut media.

She recently took her daughter on a tour to select a college where she could get a strong bachelor’s degree and prepare for a career in teaching. Yes, there are still idealistic young people who see teaching as their vocation, their calling.

Imagine her surprise when one young college guide said he planned to try TFA before embarking on his real career.

This got Sarah thinking about why Governor Malloy is so eager to deploy these ill-trained young people for the districts where students have the highest needs. Shouldn’t these students get experienced, highly qualified expert teachers?

Categories Connecticut, Teach for America TFA

Charter Hype and Double Standards in Connecticut

By dianeravitch
January 27, 2013 //
8

Wendy Lecker here describes how public schools and charters are judged by different standards in Connecticut.

Part of the hype and spin comes from Connecticut’s State Commissioner of Education, who founded a charter school that is now a “failing” school. (New York State also has a state commissioner who was a co-founder of a “no excuses” charter school, which should be known not for its high test scores but for its high suspension rate.)

At some point, the public will get wise to the games that charter advocates play. Hopefully, that will happen before the charter promoters have managed to wreck public education.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Connecticut, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Privatization

Snopes Deconstructs the Sandy Hook Truther Hoax

By dianeravitch
January 24, 2013 //
38

Soon after the tragedy at the Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14, conspiracy theorists began to claim that the events of that morning were an elaborate hoax.

The conspiracy story was debunked here by Snopes.

We are expected to believe that hundreds of people–parents, townspeople, police, and media, as well as the President–collaborated to stage this “hoax.” Everyone you saw on television, say the conspiracy theorists, was a “crisis actor,” paid to play a part. The media didn’t notice. Allegedly the entire town of Newtown, Connecticut, is akin to “The Truman Show,” where everyone is a paid actor.

This blog received letters that asked questions like “Did you see Adam Lanza’s body? Did you see the bodies of the children?” That was supposedly “evidence” that the massacre was staged as a way to take away the rights of gun owners. Just yesterday, I deleted comments that made the same assertions. Let me be clear: I will not post any letters claiming that the Sandy Hook massacre was a staged event. I will delete them because they are conspiracy trash.

What accounts for this paranoia?

Categories Connecticut, Guns in Schools

Charter School Math in Connecticut

By dianeravitch
January 17, 2013 //
12

Connecticut has the misfortune to have a bad combination: a significant group of very rich hedge fund managers devoted to charter schools and a state commissioner of education who wants to open more charter schools. The charter schools in the state serve disproportionately small numbers of English language learners. So is it a good idea to open more of them?

Here’s a shocking outbreak of common sense from the Stamford Advocate.

Categories Budget Cuts, Charter Schools, Connecticut, Corporate Reformers, Privatization
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