Below is the full response of a legislator to his constituant. It might give you an idea into what people at the Capitol find troubling about the bill. Remember, they are looking for political cover as much as education. If they are going to vote against the bill, they need to be able to say their constituency is calling for it.
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Thank you for taking the time to write to me regarding the education
reform proposal issued by the Governor's office. Though I don't sit on
the Education Committee, I spent a good deal amount of time this week
reviewing the bill itself and the associated summation report authored
by the non-partisan Office of Legislative Research:
http://www.cga.ct.gov/olr/Documents/year/gb/SB%2024%20-
%20AN%20ACT%20CONCERNING%20EDUCATIONAL%20COMPETITIVENESS.PDF
I do not support the bill as it is currently written. There are far too
many unanswered questions with this proposal to support it.
I'm married to a teacher (and married into a family of teachers) so I
have been following the basic premise of this proposal diligently over
the past few months. In many conversations with my wife, my
mother-in-law, family members, and personal friends that I have who are
teachers I've been able to find a level of understanding of how your
profession operates on a day to day basis. I have strong concerns
regarding the restructuring of the teacher evaluation process and what
some of the details involved will be. The bill as it's currently
written is far too ambiguous to truly grasp what the actual impact will
be and how it will be implemented by the State Department of Education
and the local Boards of Education.
This bill does seem to open the door to local school districts
eliminating higher paid teachers to solve budgetary problems. My
mother-in-law has been a teacher for more than 25 years and she shares
the exact concerns that you raise. I don't believe that would be in the
best interest of our students, and therefore I would not support such a
provision.
A bigger issue that I have with the bill is that it does seem to tie
certification to teacher evaluations, which is a ridiculous notion. In
any other professional industry you cannot have your certification
revoked simply because you are fired from your job. Lawyers who have
passed the bar do not lose the ability to practice law if they're fired
from a practice, and teachers should not either.
I do believe that some tenure reforms are warranted because I believe
that the current system goes too far in protecting some teachers that
probably should not be teaching our kids. An example that I was
provided by one of my local Superintendents was that of a teacher who
was not doing her job, who had repeated issues with the school
administration and her colleagues, issues with parents, etc. In this
instance, in spite of overwhelming evidence of an individual who should
not have been in the classroom, it took just under 3 years to remove her
from the classroom. Over those three years she did not make any changes
to her approach, and therefore the kids in her classroom were not
provided with the highest level of education that the district could
provide. Situations like that make me believe that some tenure changes
are needed, but I believe that the changes need not be as sweeping as
the Governor has proposed. A massive overhaul to that system will
inevitably have far reaching yet unintended consequences to the
profession and our education system as a whole.
Unfortunately there has been a great deal of misinformation provided by
the Governor's office to go along with some very questionable claims
being made by all of the special interest groups involved, including
groups representing local boards (CABE), superintendents (CAPSS), and
the CEA. Considering the stakes here, each group obviously has a
constituency and specific interests in either maintaining or changing
the status quo. As a legislator part of my job is to work with these
interest groups, but I must weigh the information provided by groups
such as these against what I'm hearing from my constituents. You
elected me to represent you in Hartford, not the interests of the CEA or
CABE, so I'd love to be able to discuss this with you in more detail if
you have an opportunity. I tend to believe that the only way to truly
gauge the impact of legislation is to speak with the real people who
work in the profession. The last thing I want to do is vote in favor of
legislation that will negatively impact my constituents, which is why I
value your opinion. Please feel free to contact me at any time.
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