Meaningful’ Education Reform Passed

The legislature has approved a compromise education reform package that Governor Malloy said will begin to fix Connecticut's “broken” public education system.

The governor said the revised legislation covers his “six principles” of education reform that ranges from turning around poorly performing schools to ensuring that all schools have the “very best teachers and principals.”

The Senate approved the proposal by a 28-7 vote and the House of Representatives followed with a unanimous vote in favor.

Said Gov. Malloy, “I am pleased to announce that we have reached an agreement on meaningful education reform.  I can say, with confidence, that this bill will allow us to begin fixing what is broken in our public schools.”

Among other things, the reform legislation:

• Creates 1,000 new pre-K school readiness seats, focused in high need, low performing communities.
• Launches a pilot Commissioner’s Network to target and turnaround the state’s lowest-performing schools
• Increases funding and support for charter and magnet schools
• Cuts red tape for high-performing schools and districts
• Requires annual performance evaluations for teachers and prinicipals; strengthens supports for educators
• Adds funding for state’s 30 lowest-performing school districts, called “Alliance Districts” and increases their accountability

In addition, the reforms call for the creation of common chart of accounts, so that policymakers gain a clearer sense of where schools and school districts are spending their resources. 

The governor acknowledged that “change is hard.” He added, “we will not fix what’s broken overnight – we can’t.  But we will begin to.”