Malloy: Connecticut Economy Depends on Education Reform

While high performing Connecticut children continue to impress on a national level, the state’s minorities and low-income students are falling behind.

While Connecticut is proud of its best students continually being considered some of the nation’s highest performers, Governor Dannel Malloy says the state has “lost our edge” in education, writes Matt Zalaznick at the Daily West Port.

Malloy is referring to the fact that minorities and low-income students seem to be falling behind in district schools. Malloy wants this to change and has told education stakeholders that Connecticut’s economy depends on passing wide-ranging education reform in 2012.

Malloy wrote a public letter to lawmakers and education groups:

“Our state’s positioning has weakened to the point that we are not competitive in national grant competitions like the recent Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge.

“Worse, the recent release of the National Assessment of Educational Progress results demonstrated that in most cases, Connecticut’s poor and minority students are less prepared for success than their peers in the vast majority of other states — and that our state has the largest achievement gap in the nation.”

Malloy’s reform proposals include: student performance related evaluation rather than tenure, more assistance to low-performing schools, freedom for top schools to innovate and an expansion of access to high-quality early-childhood education.

“One of the most frustrating things I heard repeatedly from employers on my jobs tour was some version of ‘I have job openings at my company but I can’t find enough qualified people to fill them,’” said Malloy.

“We cannot prosper if we do not produce a workforce equal to the task of keeping Connecticut’s companies competitive.”

The Connecticut Coalition for Achievement Now (ConnCAN) commended Malloy’s plan on its website Tuesday, calling it “an audacious set of priorities.”

ConnCAN CEO Patrick Riccards said:

“We are particularly excited about the governor’s emphasis on excellent teachers and principals, fair funding for the students and districts that are most in need, expanding high-quality school options and transforming the lowest-performing schools and districts.”

Comments

Joe

January 3, 2012 at 10:01 am

Tenure is an iffy concept even in ideal circumstances, but tenure in non-universities is absolutely ridiculous. The tenure system is supposed to protect academics from being fired for their views and free them to conduct research. What important research is Ms. Reed of third grade algebra doing that her job needs to be protected in perpetuity even if she can’t actually teach?

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January 3, 2012 at 10:23 am

[...] the state has “lost our edge” in education, writes Matt Zalaznick at the Daily West Port.”(more) Comments (0) Go to main news [...]

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- MIkhail
  
  March 27, 2012 at 12:37 pm
  
  Kreeger Apparently Frustrated With AAR *** Exclusive To The Radio Equalizer ***Oh I do love an “exclusive.”Let’s take a look at this barn burner, stop the psseres story.Quote:Kreeger Apparently Frustrated With AARWow… I’m a little concerned already when he’s managed his first weasel word in the headline itself. Quote:A key board member of Air America Radio’s parent company has suddenly resigned, apparently out of frustration with the network’s missteps, the Radio Equalizer has learned exclusively.”Suddenly?” Where is your evidence that the decision was sudden. “Apparently” is a weasel word – your ASSUMPTION of why he has chosen to leave the board. Why has your unnamed “source” not shared with fellow readers the reasons for this “sudden” move? Dear readers, let’s be on the lookout for evidence in this investigative piece about how “suddenly” is defined and be careful, because Maloney has used “apparently” again in the first sentence of the article.Quote”Progressive” activist Doug Kreeger, who has been with the liberal talk radio outfit since its earliest days, exited Piquant LLC’s board several days ago, according to an internal source.Hmmm… progressive gets put in quotes. Fun challenge for fellow readers – does Brian also put conservative in quotes in his reports? More importantly, Brian claims to have another internal source at the network. Will he name him or her? Let’s find out.QuoteConsidered truly committed to the liberal causeGee, somehow I doubt we’d be reading a sentence starter like that in an actual news article….QuoteIn addition, he has been a major investor in the company and likely still holds at least two million common and preferred units, as well as warrants. In a much smaller quantity, his wife Wendy has also held company shares.There’s another weasel word in there… can you find it?QuoteAt this point, however, these units could at best be described as illiquid assets, with little or no realistic cash value.According to who? Apparently while busy with his “source” at AAR, he could not find someone with financial expertise in the industry to go on the record and explain to us the basis for this remark.QuoteIn addition, at key points where Air America saw a particularly urgent need for ready cash, Kreeger was there to help with further investment commitments.According to who?QuoteKreeger’s ideological compatibility with Air America’s leftist slant is certainly made clear in this 2005 opinion piece published by AlterNet.And this is relevant to the headline of this “exclusive” how?QuoteWhen a major investor jumps ship in this way, it’s a likely sign that the person has given up on the company. With so much invested in Air America Radio, that couldn’t have been an easy decision for Doug Kreeger to make.Jumps ship in what way? Likely=you don’t know, it’s a guess. And has your “source” told you that Kreeger is pulling his money out of Air America? Is he leaving the board because he wants to do something else? We don’t know because unlike Prego, it’s not in there.And that my friends… is the ENTIRE investigative report from Mr. Maloney. Not one shred of evidence (or even anything suggesting evidence) about the “apparent frustration” we were promised in the headline. In fact, there was more room for the Alternet piece the guy wrote a year ago than there was for actual facts in this “article.”Not one quote. Not one named source. Not one sentence you couldn’t have read anywhere else in the online world of speculation.Brian has every right to be obsessed with Air America (probably more so than most) on his blog. He’s even trying to make a career out of it. But let’s be honest about it. The track record of what “sources” have told him (and I am not convinced he actually has any) and what has turned out to be true has not meshed time and time again.Ask your doctor if this kind of obsession is right for you.
  
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