It is difficult to believe as a life-long educator that the media has yet to ask any of the presidential candidates about their views on K-12 public education. It is a well known fact the public education in Connecticut and across the nation has suffered immensely as an outgrowth of the policies of the George W. Bush administration with its No Child Left Behind (NCLB) program. Likewise, public education continued its downward spiral as a result of President Barack Obama’s appointment of Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, who ushered in the disastrous Race to the Top along with the Common Core State Standards.
Opinion
Posted inCT Viewpoints, Talking Transportation
Stop cable TV’s big lie from derailing CT-N’s State Civic Network
CT-N has just proposed a new State Civic Network with up to ten channels of coverage via the web. The technology would allow viewers to do a key-word search of archives, wading through hours of coverage to find exactly what matters to them. Citizens (and media) could lift video clips at no charge. And all this would cost cable subscribers just 40 cents a month.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Saving jobs and protecting tourism is a winning combination for Connecticut
The recent groundbreaking for a casino just north of the Massachusetts border in Springfield promises to draw more customers from Connecticut than from their own region. Connecticut’s Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan Tribes are working to remain competitive in this new environment with a strategically located, jointly run facility that will directly compete with new gaming options on our border. Last session, the Connecticut General Assembly allowed the tribes to work together and accept proposals from towns interested in hosting this new facility. The tribes have been good neighbors and friends to the state for 13 generations, and business partners for the past two decades. They are asking the state to support a plan to protect jobs, business and revenue. Doing so is a win-win for all.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Connecticut not going back to the way things were
Connecticut is not going back to the way it was, and neither is our state budget and the high level of services from state and local government to which we have become accustomed. Connecticut continues to be a state of great strengths; our people are among the most productive and highly educated workers in the nation, and our geography between New York City and Boston is a singular advantage.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Connecticut patient privacy rights bill needs citizen support
The State of Connecticut is on track to collect all of your medical insurance claims information into a large data base called the All-Payers Claims Database- APCD. Senate Bill 130 has been raised to allow patients a mechanism to prevent their data from being included in the APCD by using either an opt-in or opt-out option. This bill would make the APCD directly accountable to consumers for its actions as they would be able to choose who sees this medical information. But right now many state agencies have expressed opposition to that choice because of the cost and the possible decrease to the data base. So unless citizens express their support of SB 130 to the members of the Public Health Committee now, the bill may never get out of committee to go to the legislature for a vote, and we will lose this control over our medical information.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Expediting childcare for homeless kids is right for all of us
Over 1,000 families and more than 2,000 children were homeless in Connecticut over the course of 2015. It is best for the health of these families — particularly for their children — and less costly for our communities to resolve family homelessness quickly by helping these families stabilize their lives. To do so requires streamlining access to quality childcare for these children to help them through a difficult period, while freeing their parents to find work or sign up for needed employment training, and secure permanent housing as quickly as possible.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Providing exceptional education to all students requires more accountability, not less
The release of Connecticut’s teacher evaluation results in a school-funding trial has revealed that only 1 percent of teachers were evaluated as either “below standard” or “developing.” Recently, a CT Mirror story covered a discussion among members of the Connecticut Performance Evaluation Advisory Council (PEAC) about whether and how to amend the teacher evaluation process. In that story, Connecticut unions represented that the inclusion of a state assessment in the evaluation process is unfair to teachers. But, as a former teacher, principal, and superintendent, and a father of six Connecticut children—it strikes me as somewhat obvious that, quite to the contrary, these results indicate a strong, existing bias in favor of protecting teachers from data.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
It’s time we stop bashing Connecticut’s 1 percent
From what I have briefly researched, the top 1 percent income earners in Connecticut — 14,000 households among 1.4 million statewide — earn above $677,000 per year. These are our fellow citizens targeted for punishment by our state workers and anybody else protecting their worthy cause, meaning something that only others should be paying for.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Connecticut divide between ‘haves,’ ‘have-nots’ apparent at hearing
Having attended nine hours of testimony at the State Legislature’s Education Committee public hearings in Hartford on Wednesday, Feb. 24, the divide between the “haves” and the “have-nots” in Connecticut has become even more apparent.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
The Connecticut Republican Party is one of inclusion
On Feb. 26, in light of revelations regarding GOP U.S. Senate candidate August Wolf, Connecticut Democrats issued a statement condemning my party. I adamantly disagree with the Connecticut Democrats and their characterization of the Connecticut Republican Party. This one individual is not representative of our party. I have been active in the state party for several years, and my sexuality has never been an issue.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Letting Sanders run as a Democrat was a big mistake by the DNC
Bernie Sanders. A Democrat. Really?
Sanders has run and been elected as Mayor of Burlington, Vermont; run for and been elected a Vermont Congressman; and run and been elected as a U.S. senator from Vermont. In none of those elections has he ever identified himself as a Democrat. He has run as either a socialist, or independent, but never as a Democrat.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Connecticut needs to support quality child care, better pay for child-care workers
In response to “Child care funding: A choice between the struggling and destitute,” I agree that our state shouldn’t be leaving its most vulnerable out in the cold. When the allocation of our tax dollars becomes so focused on numbers, we lose a critical understanding of what’s at stake: the well-being, health and future success of our children.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
A budget built on the bones of Connecticut’s youth
Rationality devoid of humanity often masks cruelty. “I was only following orders,” is a problematic justification. Which brings me to Gov. Dannel Malloy’s proposed budget and the disproportionate gutting of behavioral health services in Connecticut. This in the midst of an epidemic of heroin and opioid abuse and an unprecedented number of overdose deaths.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
CT Senate bill 175 stifles parents’ right to dissent on standardized testing
There is no rational explanation to support SB 175, a newly-proposed bill with the innocuous title “An Act Concerning Recommendations of the Department of Education”. There is no excuse for elected officials to take away a citizen’s right to peacefully protest and dissent. Vote NO on SB 175!
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Legislators, stop using the disabled as a fiscal punching bag!
There is no honor in how the state has disrespected persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities(IDD). Their plight is dire. With the last rescission, the IDD population since 2013 has lost nearly $100 million from its agency — the Department of Developmental Services(DDS).