Bristol Federation of Teachers

Where will you be on Tuesday, April 24? That is the day that Bristol teachers will rally at the state capital to keep the positive changes made to Senate Bill 24 by the Education Committee. Many special interests that are opposed to public education and who believe that teacher quality is the reason for Connecticut’s education gap are engaged in a media blitz to return the bill closer to Governor Malloy’s original language. As the end of the legislative session is rapidly approaching on May 9, we only have a few days to let our voices be heard before back room political deals are cut in Hartford and we are shut out of the process.

A bill will pass by May 9. We can have a role in shaping what it looks like, but it depends upon all our members stepping up and participating. If you can’t make it to the rally, please take the time to contact your state reps and tell them to support the bill recommended by the Education Committee.

All those who participate in the rally will be invited to the annual Renaissance Dinner in November!

AFT Rally

Where: Buses leave BEHS at 4:30 PM and return at 7:30 PM

When: April 24 from 4:30 PM to 7:30 PM

How to participate: Give a steward your name and cell number, or call the BFT office at (860) 582 6732

Sandwiches and drinks will be provided on the bus by the BFT.

The CEA and AFT are joining forces to make sure Senate Bill 24 results in true education reform!

The number of tenured teachers facing a layoff has been reduced from nine to four. This number may change depending upon a number of factors, including the school budget passed by the city, program changes, and the four teachers gaining additional certification.

Teachers facing layoffs are encouraged to contact the United Labor Agency.

After Senate Bill 24 was heavily modified by the Education Committee, many teachers may have thought the battle was over. Unfortunately, organizations that are well funded have begun a media blitz to turn back our gains and restore Governor Malloy’s original language. Today, the AFT CT sent the following alert to union leadership.

We need at least several hundred emails to be delivered [to legislators] this week if we are to compete with the grassroots efforts of Students First, ConnCAN and other organizations that do not share our objectives.  Today, Governor Malloy was quoted in the Hartford Courant:  ”"I’ll settle for teaching to the test,” he said, if it means raising scores.” (Full story: http://www.courant.com/community/hartford/hc-hartford-malloy-0410-20120409,0,2734084.story) That is not the kind of education reform we have been working so hard to enact.  Most legislators understand that, but they need to hear directly from you.

Here is the alert:  http://action.aft.org/c/340/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=4106

Please follow the above link to send a quick email to your legislators. Education reform is on the horizon, and what that reform looks like will be decided by May 9, when the legislative session ends. We can’t afford to be complacent.

AFT CT President Sharon Palmer and CEA Executive Director Mary Loftus-Levine appeared on Fox 61 this Sunday, April 1, 2012. Follow this link to the video:

http://www.ctnow.com/news/therealstory/

Click on the video “Teachers Union Defend Position on Reform 4/1.” The video lasts 12 minutes.

Here is an OP-ED rejected by the Hartford Courant by Matthew Valenti, President of the Torrington Education Association. It succinctly states why teachers and their unions opposed the original bill.

OP ED I WROTE REJECTED BY HARTFORD COURANT YESTERDAY.
“Teachers Unions Had Insider Access On Education Bill”, “Lawmakers Cave to Unions on School Reform.” These are recent titles appearing from the editorial staff of the Hartford Courant the past week. Excuse me, editors of the Courant; the unions are comprised of teachers and former teachers, don’t you realize that? Don’t you think that the teachers who are in the trenches every day have the best ideas for what ails the state educationally? Certainly a governor who is insulated from the schools and an education commissioner who never taught couldn’t have solid ideas for improvement. The governor’s ideas in SB 24 were voodoo, smoke and mirrors, sleight of hand, deception and trickery. 

Voodoo: They wanted to get rid of teacher tenure to get rid of ineffective teachers. The factis we don’t have a plethora of ineffective teachers in the state. Why punish 99 percent of effective teachers to get rid of the 1% of ineffective ones? I can think of at least one ineffective doctor, lawyer, and even governor in this state. Their real goal was to get veteran teachers out and bring in cheaper labor.. 

Sleight of Hand: Section 18 gave the commissioner power to take over 25 underperforming districts, fire all of the teachers and administrators and bring in new teachers and administrators. Their real goal is privatization; which is being fueled by big business in this state. Some of what was written in section 18 was probably illegal anyway.

Smoke and Mirrors: Malloy and his cronies wanted tougher certification for teachers, while superintendents would have less certification. Right now, if a superintendent does not have proper Connecticut certification, they cannot be hired by a board of education. Furthermore, the bill says that the commissioner can waive this requirement for any person deemed “exceptionally qualified”. My translation and opinion to that is if you are a buddy of the governor or commissioner and a superintendent without certification, you’re in.

Deception: SB 24 would have given Charter Schools 2600 dollars extra per student, and about 150 dollars extra per student for urban public schools. The fact is that the public schools need the money more. This would make the achievement gap even greater!

Trickery: In one section, 28 words were added which would have changed the law to benefit one-person big time. The former Hartford superintendent, Steven Adamowski, was uncertified when he was leading the Hartford School System. This bill would have changed the law so he could have collected 100,000 dollars a year for life from the teacher’s retirement fund, a fund he never could qualify for under present law. This fund is 9 billion dollars in the red and has been called “unsustainable” by Malloy. In addition, Malloy has put forward a bill recently that would raise retired teacher’s health contributions by 350 dollars a year, teachers who are on a fixed income. 

What intelligent person would think that any of the above would help close the achievement gap? That’s easy to answer. Not one intelligent person would. For this bill was not about closing the achievement gap. This bill was about big business getting millions of dollars. That is why the billionaires and millionaires are so interested in seeing it pass. When the public really understands this, they will stop bashing the teachers who are making a financial killing with starting pay at 39,000 dollars. 

My suggestion to the governor would be to go to the schools, not for photo ops and town meetings, but to really see what is going on. And a hearty “thank you” to the legislators for listening to those who serve the public school children every day. We all want reform, but not at the expense of the students and their teachers who positively impact them every day.

Teacher voices from the BFT and all over Connecticut have been heard as Senate BIll 24 exited the Education Committee this evening. The new bill delays any tenure changes and discards other anti-union measures. Excerpt from the Hartford Courant…

In a 28-5 bipartisan vote, the state Education Committee approved a substitute education reform bill Monday evening that significantly changes Gov. Dannel P. Malloy‘s proposal — delaying any tenure reform until next year, decreasing funding for charter schools and curtailing implementation of a commissioner’s network to turn around low-performing schools.

Rae Ann Knopf, executive director of the Council for Education Reform, said the bill in its revised form is “significantly watered-down… I think we have concerns about whether … what’s in there now would actually have an effect on education for children.”

The substitute bill alters or delays aspects of Malloy’s bill that were most opposed by the teachers’ unions, including a provision that would have linked a new teacher evaluation system to tenure, certification and dismissal. The new bill calls for a study of the evaluation system and asks the commissioner of education to report back on how it’s working in January 2013.

For the full story, click here.

A 55 page draft of the revised bill is here.

How did members of the Education Committee vote? Find out here. Those who voted “yea” were in favor of altering the bill to its new language which took teacher concerns into consideration.