The independent candidate for governor spoke with the CT Mirror recently to talk about education. Oz Griebel shared where he stands on regionalization, magnet schools, the length of time students spend in school, and teacher pension payments.
Jacqueline Rabe Thomas
Jacqueline was CT Mirror’s Education and Housing Reporter, and an original member of the CT Mirror staff, joining shortly before our January 2010 launch. Her awards include the best-of-show Theodore A. Driscoll Investigative Award from the Connecticut Society of Professional Journalists in 2019 for reporting on inadequate inmate health care, first-place for investigative reporting from the New England Newspaper and Press Association in 2020 for reporting on housing segregation, and two first-place awards from the National Education Writers Association in 2012. She was selected for a prestigious, year-long Propublica Local Reporting Network grant in 2019, exploring a range of affordable and low-income housing issues. Before joining CT Mirror, Jacqueline was a reporter, online editor and website developer for The Washington Post Co.’s Maryland newspaper chains. Jacqueline received an undergraduate degree in journalism from Bowling Green State University and a master’s in public policy from Trinity College.
Posted inPolitics
An ‘army of young people’ propels and inspires Jahana Hayes
It was a wave of young voters that propelled Democrat Jahana Hayes into the Fifth Congressional District candidacy, and Sunday she told a crowd of young voters that they continue to be her inspiration as she attempts to become the district’s first black female representative.
Posted inEducation
Five things to know about Stefanowski’s plans for public schools, if elected governor
The Republican candidate for governor spoke with the CT Mirror recently to talk about education. Bob Stefanowski shared where he stands on school funding, the teaching profession, desegregating schools, and how he would shore up the state’s troubled teachers’ pension fund.
Posted inEducation
Five things to know about Lamont’s plans for public schools, if elected governor
The Democratic candidate for governor sat down with the CT Mirror recently to talk about education. Ned Lamont shared where he stands on school funding, the teaching profession, desegregating schools, and how he would shore up the state’s troubled teachers’ pension fund.
Posted inEducation
Still no state child care rating system, parents left guessing
Children enrolled at Rhonda Strycharz’s home day care program. When Rhonda Strycharz first opened a day care 18 years ago in her New Hartford home, only a few states had a rating system to help parents choose a child care provider. Connecticut was not among them. By last year, 41 states had a county or state-wide Quality […]
Posted inNews
Newtown school officials defend handling of shooter’s education, refute state findings
The gunman who killed 20 elementary students and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School a few years after he graduated from the school district showed “remarkable progress” thanks to the special education services he received while in school, according to two former officials from the school system.
Posted inEducation, Justice
Fate of state’s school integration efforts rests with federal judge
BRIDGEPORT — A federal judge will soon determine whether his court should get involved in how the state awards enrollment to students in high-performing magnet schools located throughout Connecticut. At issue is whether the lottery’s algorithm – which is designed to limit enrollment of black and Hispanic students in a school to 75 percent – is discriminatory, and therefore a violation of the U.S. Constitution.
Posted inEducation
Do magnet schools need white students to be great?
In the Hartford region, a difference in philosophies about whether segregation contributes to poor educational outcomes divides parents, educators and lawmakers. Most magnet schools have no problem attracting enough white students from the suburbs to go to school with city kids, but some struggle. This means seats in some schools are left open to maintain diversity – a reality that is causing a rift among neighbors about what should happen next. On Tuesday, a federal judge will consider whether the state must stop considering race when awarding seats.
Posted inNews
This teacher of the year, now congressional candidate, has found the solution to getting more minority teachers
Jahana Hayes knows what it is like to be one of the few minority teachers in a school where the overwhelming majority of the students are black or Hispanic. Now – in-between running for Congress – she’s working to make the path to a teaching career easier for others who have backgrounds similar to the students who attend inner-city districts.
Posted inNews
Is state headed for another charter school showdown?
The last time the State Board of Education approved the education plan for a batch of charter schools vying to open in Connecticut, the schools quickly started enrolling students. But there was a problem: the state had not committed to spending the $4.6 million needed to open the new schools in the upcoming year.
Posted inEducation
Creating the Board of Regents? Brilliant or a blunder, depending who you ask
The previous offices of the state universes on Woodland Street in Hartford Seven years have passed since Gov. Dannel P. Malloy forced a merger of the state’s community colleges, regional Connecticut State Universities, online college and Office of Higher Education. Many promises were made by the freshman governor: tens of millions would be saved, more professors […]
Posted inEducation
A pregnant teen dies, and DCF debates value of more transparency
Testifying at the state Capitol complex Wednesday about a spate of suicide attempts at the state’s psychiatric facility for children, the commissioner of the Department of Children and Families held up her right hand and promised to start publicly disclosing when outside inspectors deem the facility unsafe.
Posted inEducation
Independent reviews describe state’s failure to protect children at Middletown psychiatric facility
Two independent reviews of Connecticut’s residential psychiatric hospital for children in Middletown describe a staggering failure by multiple state agencies to protect children, and provide details about an environment so unsafe that seven other children attempted to kill themselves in the months surrounding the suicide of an 8-months pregnant teenager in June.
Posted inEducation
When the call comes, and there’s no foster home available
On any given day, there are 107 high-needs children in the state waiting for a spot to open at a therapeutic foster home, where the family has been trained to accommodate children with more complex needs. Now that system is headed for a shake-up.
Posted inEducation
Lamont wants to make college free for vets. Here’s how much that would cost.
Ned Lamont promised this week to make college free for veterans attending the state’s public colleges by subsidizing the school fees they must pay. He just didn’t say who, exactly, would foot the bill.