Too many people complain about the overall quality of teachers. The old saying that “those who can, do; those who can’t, teach,” has been less and less true as the economy creates fewer and fewer jobs. According to Connecticut State Department of Education, there are 43,805 public school teachers in Connecticut. As someone who will hopefully be joining the ranks soon, I feel our voice needs to be heard.
Connecticut needs to value its teachers more
Posted inEducation, Justice
Youth incarceration down; obstacles remain for some discharges
Changes in sentencing policies for young offenders mean fewer inmates than ever are living at the Connecticut Juvenile Training School, though several youths on any given day remain locked up because there is nowhere else for them to go.
Posted inHealth
State approves Johnson Memorial Hospital sale
State regulators have approved plans for the parent company of St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center in Hartford to acquire the financially struggling Johnson Memorial Medical Center.
Posted inMoney
Business lobby launches radio ad to press for more state budget cuts
The state’s chief business lobby, the Connecticut Business and Industry Association, took to the airwaves Monday to press for bold spending reforms to mitigate growing state budget deficits.
Posted inEducation, Justice
Court affirms teacher misconduct records are public
The state Supreme Court affirmed Monday that records of alleged misconduct by teachers at public schools and universities in Connecticut are public records subject to release under the Freedom of Information Act.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Helping smokers quit saves money for Connecticut
The Mirror’s recent article “The story in charts: Who still smokes?” effectively illustrates why the smoking crisis in Connecticut is far from being solved. While it is true that overall smoking rates have decreased in Connecticut and across the nation, those with lower levels of education and also those with lower incomes typically continue to smoke at rates that are higher than average. A well-funded tobacco control program would be able to target its resources to help Connecticut residents who need and want to quit their deadly addiction.
Posted inEducation
U.S. education bill may spell new clash between Malloy, teachers
WASHINGTON — Since the new federal education bill would end many requirements of No Child Left Behind and give states broad authority to fashion their own education policy, Connecticut’s teachers unions are pressing Gov. Dannel P. Malloy to take advantage of the new freedoms. But Malloy has not indicated whether he would do so.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Connecticut’s immigrant ‘crisis’ not its first
The good people of Connecticut are terrified that society will be overrun by the dangerous, ignorant foreigners and their strange religion. Politicians fan the flames of prejudice to increase their personal popularity with voters. Editorial cartoonists depict these immigrants as less than human, with animal-like features. Sometimes the caricatures show the foreigners with weapons, including bombs, primed for use against innocent civilians. This scenario sounds like today’s Muslim refugees from Syria, but it’s not. It was the life of the immigrant Irish of the 1850s.
Posted inNews
Once a Sikorsky-flying Marine, he now pilots the company
WASHINGTON – Dan Schultz doesn’t like to talk about it, but he flew a harrowing rescue mission to Mogadishu, Somalia, in 1991 in a Sikorsky Super Stallion chopper. Now at the company’s helm, he says he plans no big, immediate changes at Sikorsky.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Secret trials for CT 20-somethings would be unconstitutional
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and the General Assembly are to be commended for their 2015 “Second Chance Society” legislation, reversing racist laws that filled our jails with nonviolent drug users, most of them African-American and Latino. But it is ill-advised to pursue announced policies emanating from that corrective action; especially plans for secret trials of defendants in their early 20s.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Superintendents have a vision for Connecticut’s public schools
The Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents (CAPSS) is advancing its 2016 Public Policy Agenda for purposes of fostering equity, excellence and innovation in Connecticut’s public schools in alignment with a vision that articulates a schooling that is personalized so that all children learn what they need to know and be able to do.
Posted inMoney
Auditors again find costly problems with state pension program
For the second time in five months, state auditors have disclosed a host of problems with the state’s retirement benefits programs. Their report focuses on millions of dollars in “preventable” interest costs tied to a growing backlog in processing pension cases and on concerns about the state’s controversial disability pension program.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Connecticut’s early care budget cuts penny wise and pound foolish
If one wants to understand Connecticut’s budget woes, one need to look no further than its universal preschool strategy. And in reviewing the governor’s and legislators’ budget deficit mitigation plans, it was disappointing to see that they opted to further erode the state’s early care system and industry, rather than make smarter choices that preserve both.
Posted inMoney, Politics
State budget talks pick up steam; retirement incentives don’t
While state legislators were upbeat after a second round of budget talks Tuesday with Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, they conceded that a proposal to offer retirement incentives to state workers — though not dead — had been weakened considerably.
Posted inMoney, Politics, Transportation
Advocates hope CT’s transportation woes will spur spending
While transportation advocates offered further evidence Tuesday that Connecticut’s aging, congested transportation system is weakening the economy, they remained uncertain whether that would translate into greater state investment in the problem. A new report from a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group concluded congestion and aging infrastructure cost Connecticut residents in urban areas between $2,050 and $2,236 per year.