Response from state rep.

Following is the transcript from a state rep.  Although most of it is a canned response, it is thorough.  This illustrates the areas where we have to push back and educate legislators.  Please respond to these concerns in an email to your state reps & then consider sending a copy of the email to trumbull.ed.association@gmail.com.  We will share your response (anonymous, of course) with others so we can build a pool of talking points of our own.  You can see other letters here.  Feel free to use one of these or adapt it to your own argument.

Thank you for taking the time to write to me about this issue. Education is one of the most important issues facing our state today and perhaps one of the greatest civil rights issues of our time. The fact that we have the largest achievement gap in the United States is not only alarming, it signals a grave concern to all those who have a stake in our children's education. As both a social worker who interfaces with the school system on a regular basis and a state legislator, I am disheartened by the system we currently have in place as it is failing to adequately educate our youth to ensure they are college and career ready. 

Your thoughts and experiences provide an important perspective for me, and all lawmakers, to consider when discussing and weighing the merits of these education reform proposals. Certainly, there are districts performing admirably and we should celebrate their efforts and recognize how certain practices can be transferred to other districts that aren't performing as well. With that said, even the highest performing school districts do not always employ adequate systems for teacher development and growth. We must change that. Having spoken with several teachers from a wide array of districts I have learned that this is perhaps one of the most important things we must address. A teacher in a Bridgeport Public School once told me that she invites a rigorous evaluation and support system because she is confident in the work she is doing but lacks the same confidence in some of her colleagues. The same message was sent to me from teachers in Newtown as well as teachers I have spoken with from Danbury, Brookfield, and Fairfield just to name a few. I believe that teachers have the capacity to be one of the single most influential factors in achieving student success and we need to promote effective teachers, guide those underperforming ones, and get rid of the teachers who prove themselves to be ineffective. 

I understand that one of the concerns that you have is the teacher tenure system. First, let me be very clear that the Governor's bill does not eliminate teacher tenure or teachers' bargaining rights. It does, however, put into place a requirement to use teacher and principal accountability and evaluations as part of the tenure process. In fact, both teachers' unions signed-off on this as they were members of the Performance Evaluation Advisory Council. This same council also just passed recommendations to evaluate principals and I believe those recommendations are heading to the State Board of Education later this month. In addition to the unions' support for the evaluation processes, both unions have also called for streamlined dismissal processes. The series of a teacher's evaluation should be tied to whether or not that teacher continues to serve in this critical role.  

Overall, the bill outlines efforts to recruit, prepare, develop, and advance teachers in their profession while also spelling out that teacher tenure can be earned as quickly as three years (faster than the current system) when meeting specific benchmarks. 

I have met with educators, spoken with parents, met with the teachers' unions (AFT and CEA) and have also spoken with other educational reform advocacy groups about this matter and the bill before us. I look forward to hearing more from the various stakeholders, both in support and opposition to the proposal. Certainly, the proposal needs to be scrutinized from all angles to ensure we put forth the most effective policies to support student achievement.
How well we educate our youth is a true measure of how well we are, or are not, investing in the future of our state and country. That is why we must not simply cry foul about the things that are wrong with our system, but instead look to what is not working and fix it.
No longer can we afford to wander aimlessly through what has seemed to be the perpetual halls of a failing education system. We need to do what we can to keep great teachers in the classroom and this comprehensive package seeks to achieve that. 

I will continue to sift through this proposal and welcome continued feedback from all stakeholders on this issue and will also look more directly at the issue you raised about licensure requirements. I will check to see if the Department of Higher Education has done any analysis on this.