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A very bad day for public education in Connecticut... Connecticut expands charters and recommits to Common Core

Jonathan Pelto - April 03, 2014

Yesterday was a dark day for public education in Connecticut. Before voting to give away $80 to $100 million in taxpayer funds over the next five years to private companies that want to open four new charter schools in Connecticut, Governor Malloy�s State Board of Education voted unanimously to re-commit our state, our public schools and our students and teachers to the Common Core.

Connecticut Governor Daniel Malloy continued his drive to privatize as many public schools through charterization and to push forward with Common Core.The State Board of Education�s resolution reads;

Resolved, That the State Board of Education stands firm in its belief that full and immediate implementation of the Common Core State Standards is necessary, and pledges its commitment to provide the necessary leadership, supports and resources for educators, students, and families, to ensure its success.

��.full and immediate implementation of the Common Core�� is not only inappropriate for our schools, teachers, student and parents, but it will cost Connecticut taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars in the next few years.

Since most communities don�t have these extra funds, the Malloy Administration�s out-of-control drive to immediately implement the Common Core will mean scarce public dollars are diverted away from subjects like art, music, physical education, social studies, and other key courses and programs as districts are forced to focus even more exclusively on teaching to the new and absurd Common Core testing program.

Meanwhile, the Common Core Task Force that Governor Malloy so proudly set up last month held its first meeting and members were told that they COULD NOT DISCUSS whether Connecticut should implement the Common Core Standards. According to Malloy�s rules, the Task Force can only provide advice about how to fully implement the developmentally inappropriate, standardized test driven education and privatization system that was begun by George Bush and expanded by Barak Obama.

After re-endorsing the rush to implement the Common Core, Malloy�s political appointees on the State Board of Education then engaged in a duplicitous maneuver to approve four new charter schools; another one for New Haven, two more for Bridgeport and one for Stamford. Their approval came despite the fact that the local boards of education in Bridgeport and Stamford OPPOSED have these new schools forced upon their communities.

This development comes at a time when the State Board of Education is well aware of the fact that many public schools in Connecticut don�t have the resources that they need to provide students with the quality education that is mandated by the Connecticut Constitution.

The failure to provide sufficient funds for our existing public schools means that Malloy and the State Board of Education are already facing a major school funding lawsuit called the CCEJF case.

But instead of fulfilling its legal and moral responsibility to Connecticut�s students, teachers, parents and society, the State Board of Education continued the Malloy administration�s program of privatizing Connecticut�s public schools.

As noted, the four new charter schools will cost taxpayers $80 to $100 million over the next five years. This new charter school funding commitment comes despite a projected $1 billion state budget deficit in EACH OF THE THREE YEARS following this year�s gubernatorial election.

The message to Connecticut students, teacher and parents could not have been clearer.

The message to Connecticut cities, towns and taxpayers could not have been more direct.

In this time of unprecedented fiscal problems and despite Malloy�s failure to provide adequate funding for our existing public schools, Malloy and his administration are 100% committed to forcing the Common Core on our state along with his anti-public school privatization agenda.

Perhaps �Dan� Malloy truly believes in the corporate education reform industry�s political agenda or perhaps he has sold out to these corporations in return for the massive amount of campaign funds that they are distributing nationally.

But whatever his reasoning, it is worth repeating again and again� Dannel �Dan� Malloy has become the most anti-teacher, anti-public education Democratic governor in the country.

Yesterday Malloy reiterated that key point yet again.

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