Wait What?:
Wait What? All Week
Steve Perry calls himself American’s most trusted educator. While Hartford and Connecticut taxpayers pay him a full-time salary and benefits to serve as the principal of the Hartford School System’s Capital Prep Magnet School, Perry skips about 20% of the school days so that he can travel the country giving speeches for hire. When Perry […]The post Steve Perry adds “therapist” to his title of “ed
Corporate Education Reform Industry targets kindergarteners
Of all the negative and bad public policies being pushed by Governor Malloy, Malloy’s Commissioner of Education Stefan Pryor and their corporate education reform allies, none are more offensive, inappropriate and disgusting than their on-going effort to force their “education reforms” on Connecticut’s youngest citizens. While everyone recognizes the vital importance of expanding early childhood […
YESTERDAY
Connecticut Pumps Millions into Google Books But….
Once again, Diane Ravitch, the nation’s leading public education advocate has honored me by re-posting one of my Wait, What? blog posts. This one about Governor Malloy’s decision to put $25 million more on the state credit card to buy computers for the absurd Common Core Smarter Balanced Assessment Testing extravaganza. Ravitch says; Jonathan Pelto […]The post Connecticut Pumps Millions into Goog
WNPR’s John Dankosky to host panel with real educators – Liz Natale and Ebony Murphy-Root
WNPR’s John Dankosky to host panel with hero teachers Liz Natale and Ebony Murphy-Root “Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.” – Buddha Stefan Pryor and the corporate education reform industry should be worried because teacher’s voices will finally be heard when WNPR’s Where We Live will record and then […]The post WNPR’s John Dankosky to host panel with real educat
FEB 20
Is the Education Committee’s Common Core Informational Forum a joke?
The Democratic controlled Education Committee has scheduled an Informational Forum on the Common Core on Friday, February 28, 2014 at 10:00 A.M. in Room 2C of the Legislative Office Building. As presently designed, only invited guests will be allowed to speak. A number of sources have confirmed that at this point the speakers will be Governor […]The post Is the Education Committee’s Common Core I
Wait, What? 2014 Gubernatorial Election Readers Survey
Wait, What? readers; It is time once again to conduct a Wait, What? 2014 Gubernatorial Election Readers Survey. Although the results are unscientific, since it does not survey a random sample of Connecticut voters, the results always prove interesting. You can take the survey via the following link: Wait, What? 2014 Gubernatorial Election Readers Survey The […]The post Wait, What? 2014 Gubernatori
No real financial support for public schools, but plenty more for charter schools (especially Bridgeport)
When Dan Malloy was running for governor he pledged to make adequate funding for Connecticut’s public schools a priority. Instead Malloy introduced the most anti-teacher, anti-union, anti-public education corporate education reform industry initiative of any Democratic governor in the country. Rather than use state education funds to support local schools and take some of the […]The post No real f
FEB 19
CT Democratic legislative leaders block a public hearing on Common Core and Common Core Test
Rather than hold a full, traditional public hearing in which any citizen could come and speak out about the implementation of the Common Core and its corresponding unfair and inappropriate Common Core Smarter Balanced Assessment testing scheme, it now appears that the Connecticut General Assembly’s Democratic leaders will do nothing more than hold a meeting […]The post CT Democratic legislative le
Is Stefan Pryor or the Connecticut Council for Education Reform breaking the law?
As Commissioner of Education, Stefan Pryor and his agency must adhere to the Connecticut ethics laws that apply to public officials and public agencies. The Connecticut Council for Education Reform (CCER) is a corporate funded lobbying and advocacy group that is working to support Governor Malloy’s education reform initiatives. As a lobbying group, CCER must […]The post Is Stefan Pryor or the Con
Connecticut Education Committee members hear from a CT educator
A number of Connecticut legislators have told constituents that Governor Malloy and Commissioner Stefan Pryor are implementing education policies that are very different from what they were told during the 2012 debate that lead up to the passage of Malloy’s “education reform” legislation. Here is a letter that James D. Trifone recently sent to the […]The post Connecticut Education Committee member
FEB 18
Malloy, Pryor, Superintendents – Stop lying about the Common Core Smarter Balanced Field!
Anger and frustration on the part of parents, teachers and supporters of public education is bubbling over. Rather than protect the rights of parents and local schools districts, elected and appointed officials are inappropriately using their positions to mislead, lie and scare parents and teachers into believing that parents DO NOT HAVE THE RIGHT to […]The post Malloy, Pryor, Superintendents – St
A parent speaks out about Teach For America
There is a lot in corporate education “reform” that astonishes, but perhaps nothing is so astonishing as the strategic deployment of TFA. It’s counter-intuitive that untrained recent graduates will fare better in the classroom than seasoned teachers. And the reason that this notion feels counter-intuitive is quite simple: its contrary to common sense and cool […]The post A parent speaks out about
The voice of a teacher/parent on the Common Core Smarter Balanced Field Test fiasco
In a recent letter to the members of the Connecticut Education Committee, a concerned parent who is also a teacher laid out the issues surrounding the Common Core Smarter Balanced Assessment Field Test (SBAC). Members of the Connecticut Education Committee When is it ever appropriate to lie? My answer would be never. “The bitterest of […]The post The voice of a teacher/parent on the Common Core Sm
FEB 17
With 136,500 unemployed in CT, Hartford Board of Ed may give TFA $650,940 to recruit out-of-state inexperienced teachers
In an extraordinary statement about the fundamental lack of commitment to Connecticut citizens, the Hartford Board of Education will be meeting tomorrow, Tuesday, February 18, 2014 at 5:30 p.m. to authorize Superintendent Christina Kishimoto to extend the Hartford Board of Education’s contract with Teach for America, costing Connecticut and Hartford taxpayers an additional $650,940. The […]The pos
Weekend Re-cap – The battle against the Common Core Smarter Balanced Assessment Test
More than 500 New York State principals slam Common Core testing frenzy While Stefan Pryor, Governor Malloy’s Commissioner of Education, and the Connecticut State Department of Education are instructing Connecticut superintendents and principals to mislead and lie to parents in an attempt to scare parents from opting their children out of the standardized testing frenzy, […]The post Weekend Re-cap
FEB 16
PBS/WNET took money for pension coverage, now check out the Gates Foundation and the Common Core.
David Sirota’s recent series of investigative articles about the extraordinary conflict of interest displayed by the Public Broadcasting Service and WNET has sent shock-waves through across the country. Sirota’s articles include; The Wolf of Sesame Street responds to Pando – much bark, no bite, still stonewalling The Wolf of Sesame Street: Revealing the secret corruption inside PBS’s […]The post P
The truth is that Capital Prep Steve Perry’s “school performance” comes up short
When it comes to the performance of Capital Prep Magnet School, Steve Perry is known for his rhetoric. Perry says “his” students do better than students at traditional public schools. However, by measure after measure, it turns out that his hyperbole is nothing but a lie. When Steve Perry is introduced at his lucrative fee-to-speak […]The post The truth is that Capital Prep Steve Perry’s “school
FEB 15
Are Governor Malloy’s new Google Chromebooks data mining our kids?
“Google explicitly admits for the first time that it scans the email of Google Apps for Education users for ad-serving purposes even when ad serving is turned off.” – Safegov.org 1/31/14 Late last year, Governor Dannel P. Malloy and Commissioner Stefan Pryor, like governors and education commissioner across the country, proudly announced that they were […]The post Are Governor Malloy’s new Google
PBS sells out to Corporate Education Reform Industry?
Say it ain’t so! Here is the latest from fellow blogger Jan Resseger, a vital pro-public education voice at the national level; Here is a quick weekend update on an important development about media coverage of issues connected to school reform. This time the topic is so-called news coverage of public pensions, the kind of […]The post PBS sells out to Corporate Education Reform Industry? appeared