Can you imagine a neighborhood in West Hartford in which two or three of the children on the cul-de-sac attend a charter school, funded with $11,000 per student per year of taxpayer money and promoted as a superior school, while all the other children in the neighborhood attend what is said to be an inferior school also funded by taxpayer money? Can you imagine New Canaan parents sending their children to an elementary school in which 23.78 percent of the children are suspended? The answer to these and many others regarding charter schools is: Of course not.
Schools/Child Welfare
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Pelto to parents: Connecticut’s assault on public education
Former gubernatorial hopeful Jonathan Pelto has spent a lot of time researching the Common Core curriculum and program of standardized testing that is being rolled out in Connecticut, and suffice it to say he doesn’t like or trust it. The former state legislator-turned blogger was invited to speak about this recently to parents at the Westport Library, and his hour-long presentation was recorded.
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Fewer homeless in Connecticut, but too many are young
The first-ever statewide count of homeless youth shows as many as 3,000 young people (age 24 or under) facing homelessness in Connecticut and in need of very basic services – including food and shelter. We know that homelessness early in life can set these young people on a trajectory for tragedy and poor life outcomes. We have seen success in coming together to tackle adult homelessness, now we need to do the same for vulnerable young people.
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In Connecticut, there is no ‘achievement gap’
Before students of all colors can succeed equally in Connecticut’s public schools, we must be bluntly honest about why disparities exist. An achievement gap would exist if we gave every student equal opportunities and some children still failed to achieve. In a myriad ways, we do not give all our children the same opportunities. Nowhere is this more apparent than in school discipline policies that exclude children from the classroom.
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Test data matters for Connecticut. Education is a science
Until recent developments, we haven’t had sufficient high-quality data about public education. Is it any surprise that our education system is less than optimal? In Connecticut, we have the widest achievement gap in the nation. The Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) test is an advanced, computer-based assessment that will provide us with the opportunity to collect the most refined student achievement data we’ve ever seen.
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Gov. Malloy’s ‘Smart Start’ picks winners … but we all lose
The Connecticut Office of Early Childhood and the Gov. Dannel Malloy recently announced the first round of winners in the Smart Start initiative. And while they acknowledged that many school districts opted not to apply, they fail to acknowledge the glaring truth about the reason, i.e. this is a bad initiative and a bad prescription for […]
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For this Connecticut parent, piano lessons raise questions of a different scale
A parent asks himself whether the pressures to achieve we put on children of privilege today — with piano lessons, soccer practice, and many many other pursuits — will produce the success and happiness we hope for, or something we would rather they not have to experience.
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Without Capital Prep Harbor, it’s a rock or a hard place
The state Appropriations Committee has proposed defunding Capital Prep Harbor, along with other charter schools across the state. They didn’t do it because we’re in a budget deficit; they did it because they don’t recognize the great work charter schools are doing for Connecticut children – including families that can’t afford other options, and kids of color, like my daughter. State legislators need to support Capital Prep Harbor. If the school isn’t funded in the state budget, it will be devastating to my daughter and hundreds of other families in Bridgeport.
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No time to waste in re-imagining Connecticut’s education funding
Each legislative session, we engage in the same political fights that yield only incremental progress towards the goal of providing quality education for all children. These unproductive debates, which pit traditional schools against public charter schools, underscore the need to solve our fundamentally broken funding model that currently plagues our education system.
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A tough, but correct, budget decision on Connecticut charter schools
In a harrowing budget season, the legislature’s Appropriations Committee decided to remove a $4 million budget allotment for two new charter schools in our state. What must have been a difficult decision is also a prudent one on our legislators’ part, as our precious resources this budget cycle should go to those schools and programs that serve all students and which serve those children in the greatest need of our support.
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Student: Would you eat this for lunch?
We, the students, feel as though the school lunches aren’t taken as seriously as they should be. The school lunches are only getting worse. Sometimes we are served uncooked meals. Sometimes the schools run out of lunch to serve the kids. It is unfair how all Hartford Public Schools get the same types of food.
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CT Legislators must deliver on charter school promises in Bridgeport, Stamford
Last week, the state’s Appropriations Committee proposed a budget that includes cuts of more than $20 million dollars to public charter schools — including funding for Capital Prep Harbor and Stamford Charter School for Excellence — two approved schools that families have been demanding and are counting on. This budget would stifle the progress we’ve made in the past few years and would hurt the future of children across our state.
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Respect children’s rights in Connecticut’s classrooms and courtrooms
Any parents who controlled or disciplined their children by tying them up could expect to be visited by child welfare authorities and police. Yet mechanical restraints have long been commonly employed in Connecticut’s public schools and its juvenile court. The legislature has an opportunity this session to protect our children’s safety and dignity through bills that would limit this practice in our educational and juvenile justice systems.
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Connecticut schools need comprehensive protection of student data privacy
The issue of student data privacy is one of national concern. In schools, on college campuses and elsewhere information that is collected on students and accessed by outside parties has grown substantially in recent years without the proper safeguards or penalties for misuse. It is time for Connecticut to pass a comprehensive student data privacy bill.
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Connecticut’s lawmakers must see through the ‘edu-profiteers’ and testing mania
I can’t begin to tell you how frustrating it is, as a public school employee and practicing school psychologist, to have federal legislation written that continues to allow our students to be assessed by an unproven and invalid standardized test process and also enables the charter school industry to take funds allocated for public school students and divert them to their own private business interests.