CT Governor Malloy, kids and parents urge state legislators to continue education reforms

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

DATE: May 2, 2013

CONTACT: Brett Broesder, Communications Director at ConnCAN

PHONE: (203) 772-4017 ext. 19; MOBILE: (406) 565-0083

EMAIL: brett.broesder@conncan.org

CT Governor Malloy, kids and parents urge state legislators to continue education reforms

“We need to keep working to improve student achievement in our schools because a strong education system means a stronger Connecticut.” – Governor Dannel P. Malloy

Hartford, CT – Less than two weeks after the Connecticut General Assembly’s Appropriations Committee gutted $47.1 from education reforms in their budget proposal, Governor Dannel P. Malloy joined families from across the state at the Capitol today, urging lawmakers not to back down from investments in our kids.

“A stronger commitment to educating our children for tomorrow’s jobs will make Connecticut a place where companies want to invest and hire people, and where our strong communities help to create an even stronger economy,” said Gov. Malloy. “That’s why we need to keep working to improve student achievement in our schools because a strong education system means a stronger Connecticut.”

The education reform bill, which passed last year with overwhelming support by the state legislature and was signed into law by the governor (Public Act 12-116), takes essential steps to close Connecticut's worst-in-the-nation achievement gap, raises standards for educators, allows immediate action to improve failing schools, and increases access to high-quality public school choices.

“For students like me, access to a great public charter school can make a huge difference,” said William Langley, a student at Amistad High School in New Haven. “That’s why lawmakers need to keep the promises made my classmates and me because charter schools are public schools, and we deserve to be treated just like every other public school student across the state."

In February, Gov. Malloy submitted a budget that protects last year’s education reforms. Unfortunately, the General Assembly’s Appropriations Committee recently decided to break their promise to kids across Connecticut by gutting $47.1 million from key education reform measures (click here for a side-by-side comparison of the governor’s budget proposal and that of the Appropriations Committee).

"While we cannot guarantee that every child will succeed, we have a responsibility to ensure that every child has the opportunity to work hard and achieve their goals," said Representative Douglas McCrory, vice-chairman of the Education Committee (D – Hartford). "We know times are tough, but it would be wrong to back down from education reform efforts that help ensure every child have access to a good public school, regardless of race, wealth or zip code."

Families across Connecticut want state legislators and the governor to continue investing in education reforms. A recent Global Strategy Group survey of more than 600 Connecticut voters found that 73 percent – 79 percent of Democrats and 64 percent of Republicans – support continuing the education reforms included in last year’s landmark law.

“Right now, state leaders have a choice: dial back education reforms for our kids, or make the right investments so that every child gets access to the great teachers, principals, and public schools they deserve," said Jennifer Alexander, chief executive officer for the Connecticut Coalition for Achievement Now. “We’re urging state legislators to protect education reforms that ensure all students have an equal opportunity to succeed. We cannot allow success to be limited only to families who can afford it.”

About Connecticut Coalition for Achievement Now (ConnCAN)

The Connecticut Coalition for Achievement Now (ConnCAN) is an advocacy organization building a movement of concerned Connecticut citizens working to create fundamental change in our education system. To learn more, visit: www.conncan.org.

Charters are high-performing public schools for kids

For too long, thousands of Connecticut’s children suffered from low performing schools.

Thankfully, the legislature and governor last year went a long way toward fixing the problem by passing an education reform law (Public Act 12-116) that helps ensure every child has a good public school they can go to – whether it’s a charter school, magnet school or a district school.

Last year’s education reform law is good because it allows for more high-performing charter schools and starts to treat charter students more like their district school friends when it comes to funding.

When they passed the education reform law, lawmakers basically promised our children that every one of them will have a chance to go to a good school no matter where they live or how much money their family has.

But then in December, state legislators turned around and cut education funding by $11.4 million. Nearly half of this came from programs started just last year in the education reform law. That included $2 million that was set aside for charter school students, or about $300 per child.

It’s wrong for lawmakers to break a promise, especially a promise made to the children of our state.

Fortunately, in his biennial budget proposal, Governor Dannel P. Malloy protected the promises made to our students with last year’s education reform law by restoring most of the funds to charter school students.

As a way to increase awareness about high-performing charters, ConnCAN has put together a list of quick facts about our state’s charter public schools, including:

• Nearly 80 percent of Connecticut's charter public schools out-perform other schools in their host districts, according to the School Performance Index data from the State Department of Education.
• Charter public schools are providing a high-quality public education for kids despite receiving considerably less money than other public schools.
• Parents are waiting in line to get their kids into charters with almost as many kids stuck on wait lists than currently enrolled.
• To meet this demand, 27 letters of interest have been received by the State Department of Education from folks interested in launching charters in Connecticut. The state didn’t accept applications for new charters at all in either 2006 or 2009.
• Charters are helping students who need it the most, with more than 90 percent of existing and proposed charters located in the lowest-performing districts in Connecticut.

Now lawmakers are putting together the new state budget. We know times are tough but we’re telling them it would be wrong to dial back steps they took just last year that would provide great teachers, principals and public schools for all of our children.

Lawmakers have a responsibility to keep these promises to our children and our future.

Great Teachers and Principals for Every Child

Great teachers and school leaders can change everything for their students. Last year, our state legislature moved forward with a statewide educator evaluation system—a fundamental step towards ensuring that all students have access to great teachers and principals.

Educator evaluations will help schools and districts identify and support Connecticut’s best teachers, provide professional development to those educators who need it, and swiftly remove those educators who consistently fail to improve.

Unfortunately, our state legislature is now considering a bill that would put this progress at risk.

Connecticut’s General Assembly’s Education Committee heard testimony recently on Senate Bill 1097, which would stall educator evaluations by a full year. This bill is an unnecessary and potentially detrimental delay in implementation of a comprehensive, meaningful and deliberate evaluation process.

If we expect teachers and principals to perform at their highest levels, they deserve consistent feedback and support, based in part on student outcomes. Providing this feedback is a core responsibility of our schools and districts.

It is also a goal that is widely supported by Connecticut voters. In a recent Global Strategy Group poll of more than 600 Connecticut voters, 73 percent of respondents said that “evaluating teachers based on class performance” should be a priority this year.

Delaying implementation of statewide educator evaluations goes against the opinion of the state’s strongest education stakeholders, including many educators and school district superintendents.

But S.B. 1097 would delay the implementation timeline of the new system by one year, even though the Performance Evaluation Advisory Council (PEAC) and the State Board of Education’s (SBE) have already reached a decision to phase-in the model gradually starting next year. This bill would override that agreement, which was reached with consensus of all participating groups.

The bill would also remove implementation authority from boards of education. Ultimately, school boards are held accountable for and are responsible for implementation of this program and its results. In order to do this effectively, they must retain final decision-making authority.

We cannot dial back our efforts aimed at ensuring all kids have access to great teachers and principals. Research is clear on the long-term positive impacts of effective teachers for kids, as well as the long-term negative impact on kids of ineffective teachers.

We owe it to our kids to keep moving forward.

Every child deserves the best teachers

Right now, lawmakers are considering a short-sighted and unnecessary delay in implementation of statewide educator evaluations. Before any action is taken, we should look at the progress in New Haven.

New Haven’s successful educator evaluation program is a model for Connecticut’s System for Educator Evaluation and Development (SEED), developed by a group of stakeholders from teachers to principals to superintendents and school boards and the State Department of Education.

In the first two years of implementing the Teacher Evaluation and Development System in New Haven, the number of teachers identified as “exemplary” increased 5 percent, while the number of teachers labeled as “needs improvement” decreased over the same time period. Furthermore, while no teachers have been fired as a result of low ratings, 28 teachers—both tenured and non-tenured—voluntarily left in good standing in 2012.

New Haven’s educator evaluation model provides feedback and support to further empower high-performing teachers and principals, makes certain that low-performing teachers are getting the help they need, and allows for the swift dismissal of those who consistently fail to improve.

This program’s success is possible statewide. That’s why the State Board of Education and the state’s Performance Evaluation Advisory Council resoundingly agreed to phase-in implementation of the SEED model across Connecticut, beginning next year.

But, now, new legislation is being considered that aims to delay implementation by one year, and creates more hoops for districts to jump through before evaluations can begin. That is unacceptable, especially considering Connecticut’s worst-in-the-nation achievement gap.

If we expect teachers and principals to perform at their highest levels, they deserve consistent feedback and support, based in part on student outcomes. Providing this feedback is a core responsibility of our schools and districts.

We cannot back away from moving forward with the evaluation system. Every town and city in Connecticut can and should be able to offer their students the highest-quality educators, and that begins with evaluations. It’s what our children deserve.

Keeping the Promise of Quality Public Charter School Support

When the Connecticut General Assembly last year overwhelmingly approved some of the most sweeping education reform legislation our state has ever seen, they made a promise to our students, which includes support for public charter schools students.

It’s a promise that must now be kept.

Quality charter schools set children up on a path for success and give them hope for the future—a fact that was clear in an exchange at a recent Education Committee public hearing.

Members of the General Assembly’s Education Committee recently gathered to hear testimony on the education portion of Governor Dannel P. Malloy’s biennial budget recommendations.  Among the crowd of folks who waited up to eight hours to speak out in favor of those recommendations was a contingent of students from Achievement First in Hartford.

State Representative Andrew Fleischmann, co-chairman of the Education Committee, asked students in attendance if they had a message to share. “You're here for some reason, I'm sure,” Rep. Fleischmann said.

One student told committee members, he wants legislators to support his school.

“And your school is a charter school, right?” Fleischmann asked at the public hearing.

“Yes,” the student proudly stated.

Another young charter school student replied: “I'm here because I was thinking that I could work here some day.”

State Rep. Fleischmann responded, “I'm sure that you can. In fact, I would guess you'd probably beat us in an election tomorrow if it were permissible for you to run.”

Those charter school students demonstrated the confidence that comes with a quality public education. Her school will ensure she gains the knowledge and skills to match her ambition. It’s a reminder of the simple truth: a high-quality public education can make all the difference for our children.

Malloy’s budget recommendations included a slight increase in the per-pupil funding for Connecticut charter schools — an increase that begins to close the inequity between the funding for public charter school students.

The state legislature and the governor have a responsibility to follow through on the promises they made by approving education reform measures, and cutting funding now would break those promises. We all owe it to our state's children to ensure they have access to the world-class public education they deserve— regardless of wealth, race, or zip code.

If not, students like those who so bravely spoke to the Education Committee may not have the chance to one day be legislators themselves. 

Turning Around Our Lowest-Performing Schools

The governor’s budget proposal on education is at its core a sincere, meaningful effort to change the lives of underprivileged children. The budget provides the resources necessary to help provide a high-quality public education for all students in Connecticut, regardless of race, wealth or zip code.

The Commissioner’s Network and Alliance Districts initiatives have created the opportunity to make a real difference for students, offering additional funds for schools and communities that need it most, in exchange for holding these schools and school districts accountable for making changes that will improve outcomes for kids.

The Alliance Districts and Commissioner’s Network, both core pieces of last year’s landmark education reform law (Public Act 12-116), will each receive significant boosts if the legislature approves Governor Dannel P. Malloy’s education budget proposal.

Contained in the governor’s biennial budget proposal, Alliance Districts would see an increase of $47.9 million in 2014 and an additional $95.9 million in 2015. The governor’s budget also proposed adding 17 schools to the groundbreaking Commissioner’s Network, designed to turn around our lowest-performing schools.

Recently, the legislature’s Appropriations Committee held a public hearing on Malloy’s budget. At that hearing advocates and leaders from across our state testified in support of the proposed funding for the Alliance Districts and the Commissioner’s Network. 

Here are some highlights from that testimony:

• Rev. Carl McCluster, Bridgeport (Shiloh Baptist Church senior pastor): “The governor’s proposed budget would fund 17 additional schools in the Commissioner’s Network. That’s throwing a lifeline to 17 more schools, their communities and their cities that are desperately in need of a new educational lease on life.”
• Erika Haynes, Windham (Former Town Council member): “In Windham, we have already seen the concrete results that this network will provide to other schools and other districts. Test scores have improved and students are directly benefitting from this.”
• Doreen Richardson, Windsor (Board of Education chairwoman): “I urge you to maintain the proposed funding increase for education including the allocations to Alliance Districts. The reality as you know is that continued investment in public education is critical to the economic development and general health of our communities.”

We hope state lawmakers were listening carefully to this testimony. Public support for increased support for the Alliance Districts and the Commissioner’s Network is strong. State leaders must follow through on the promises they made to Connecticut’s school children. We owe it to our state’s children to ensure they have access to the world-class education they deserve.

Our Kids Deserve Great Teachers and Principals

Great teachers and principals are one of the most important factors in ensuring that every student receives a great public education.  As part of last year’s landmark education reform law (Public Act 12-116), our state leaders recognized how important educator quality is for Connecticut’s students, and took the critical step of creating a new educator evaluation system.

The new state System for Educator Evaluation and Development (SEED) can help ensure every child has access to an effective teacher and principal by: identifying and supporting our best educators; offering feedback, professional development and training for all educators who need it; and establishing a swift removal process for educators who consistently fail to improve.

This vital program is currently being piloted in 10 sites throughout Connecticut, and was recently given the go-ahead for statewide implementation, phased in gradually over the next year, by the State Board of Education. For this new system to move forward, it needs state funding and support.

However, SEED’s funding was cut in December as part of the General Assembly’s deficit mitigation plan. Rather than further reduce the financial support districts need to ensure great teachers and school leaders for every student, Governor Dannel P. Malloy protected SEED by allocating funding for district implementation in his biennial budget proposal.

Now, as the General Assembly prepares to make tough choices on our state budget – on key programs like SEED – we urge lawmakers to remember their responsibility to follow through on the promises they made last year to our students. Including allocating state funds and support for full implementation of the statewide educator evaluator program.

We can’t back down from doing what’s right for our kids.