Gov. Dannel Malloy’s controversial education reform initiative took a leap forward Tuesday when the state Senate passed the 185-page bill.
Malloy held a 10 p.m. press conference Monday announcing the bill was ready to be considered by lawmakers.
“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,” Malloy said in a prepared statement.
The state Senate began to debate the bill at 1:30 a.m. Tuesday and approved it two hours later in a 28 – 7 vote, according to CT News Junkie.
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State Sen. Michael McLachlan, R‑Danbury, was furious at the fact lawmakers didn’t have a chance to carefully consider the bill before voting. He called the process a “nightmare” in a blog post Tuesday morning.
“The Democratic majority leadership and Governor Malloy should be ashamed of themselves. Claiming victory by crafting such important legislation in a back-room vacuum is disgraceful!,” McLachlan wrote.
“I will listen intently to the debate and study the bill. Unfortunately, I can’t get feedback from my constituents at 2am. The only opinions I can enlist at this time are the lobbyists and special interest advocates.”
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The document below from the governor’s office spell out the six “principles” of the education bill. Article continues after the document:
Malloy’s bill had been hotly contested by unions representing public school teachers in Connecticut.
On Tuesday, the CT Mirror reported “the governor downplayed concessions made to dampen opposition by the state’s two major teachers’ unions, instead saying that the compromise still addresses six principles of education reform that he laid out in December.”
In his press conference Monday, Malloy “never used the word “tenure,” a central focus of his State of the State speech in February,” the Mirror reported.
“When Malloy announced plans to improve education in the state late last year, he proposed requiring that teachers receive numerous “exemplary evaluations” to earn and keep their tenure. The deal outlined Monday night requires that they be graded as “effective” to earn tenure and will have to be graded as “ineffective” to lose their tenure.”
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The document below, released by Malloy’s office, outlines the changes the education bill introduces:
