NEWS FLASH: The Corporate State of Mind – Malloy Administration Ducks Connecticut’s Bidding Laws

Apr 20

jonpeltoEducation Reform, Malloy, Stefan Pryor , , 21 Comments

Now we know why Governor Malloy is demanding that the “Commissioner’s Network” schools be exempt from having to follow Connecticut’s laws requiring competitive bidding and the laws limiting the use of outside consultants.

And now we have a snap shot of how Malloy’s education reform bill was developed and of the way the Governor and his team intend to work as they seek to implement their definition of “education reform.”

The Connecticut Post’s Capitol Reporter, Ken Dixon, broke a story last night that highlights the wanton disregard these “education reformers” have for taxpayer resources.

Dixon discovered that Stefan Pryor and the Malloy Administration retained Leeds Global Partners to help develop Malloy’s “education reform” bill.  Leeds Global Partners is a New York-based consulting company that includes consultants with whom Pryor has worked with in the past.

How did the Malloy Administration get around Connecticut’s bidding laws to hire Leeds Global Partners for $195,000?  They ran the contract through SERC, the State Education Resource Center.

Wait, What? readers will recognize SERC as the organization that contracted with Steven Adamowski, Hartford’s former superintendent of schools, to serve as Malloy’s “Special Master” for the Windham School System.

In that case, the State Department of Education asked SERC to provide Adamowski with $225,000 plus benefits and included language in the contract that Adamowski apparently believes will allow him to add more years to his Teacher Retirement Fund pension by working as Windham’s “Special Master”.  [This is not the extra four years of pension time that Governor Malloy tried to give Adamowski by adding special language to his “Education Reform” bill.  That was for the year’s he served as Superintendent in Hartford even though he was not certified for the position].

In addition to the $195,000 for Leeds Global Partners, the CT Post’s Ken Dixon, also found that the Malloy Administration had the State Education Resource Center hire DSA Capital, for $60,000, to work with Education Commissioner Stefan Pryor.  According to the news story, Pryor was the one who asked that DSA Capital be retained and played the major role in getting them the contract.

When asked about these issues, Pryor’s spokesperson told Dixon that the whole situation was legal because SERC was a nonprofit organization and did not have to follow Connecticut’s bidding laws.

Dixon’s story is a MUST READ for those concerned about Governor Malloy’s approach to education reform and how they intend to use taxpayer funds as their “reform” effort goes forward.

Apparently, on their website, Leeds Global Partners advertises its “educational initiatives as money-making opportunities for potential investors.”

For Dixon’s Story go to: http://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Malloy-s-education-consultant-arouses-union-fears-3495641.php#ixzz1saBKYMT8

More Details to follow as they become available.

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  • Linda174

    You can’t even make this stuff up anymore. They could have hired four teachers to work directly with students with that money. Can Pryor do this?

    Check this out…..another pathetic attempt to manipulate the public.

    Some of the students didn’t even know why they were there. Maybe they should have earned their subway sandwich by memorizing and repeatIng Riccards/Conncan’s talking points first.

    While some students interviewed weren’t clear on why they were there, Daley and others said they came to support Gov.Dannel P. Malloy’s original education reform package, which the legislature’s Education Committee significantly revised last month.

    • Linda174
      • guest

        Unfortunately, the print version of the Courant edited out the $10,000 buses and Subway sandwiches.

    • sharewhut

       I can’t remember all the ’causes’ I marched/rallied for as a student. Mostly I was following the cute women (can’t politically correctly sa ‘chicks’ anymore)… good times, good camaraderie, good feelings of social awareness (and not inconsequentially  good buzz).

      • Linda174

        I need a goo buzz right now!

      • sharewhut

         Tried quite a few things, but never goo…. a mellow or an intense buzz? Been 30-odd years, don’t think I could handle intense- especially with these clowns to freak me out!

        tried and tried and tried but couldn’t hold it back! ; )

    • savage

      I know, right. I thought it was hilarious when I read that article. They lured the students, who are in the midst of spring weekend right now (at least at UConn) to the “rally” with the promise of Subway sandwiches. Sounds like many of them didn’t even have any idea why they were even there. My first reaction, actually, was that the reformers must be pretty desperate for “support” to resort to this kind of ridiculous stunt.

      • Linda174

        Their organization, most likely created and funded by ConnCan, SFER (students for education reform) were used as pawns and Malloy should be ashamed of himself.

        Would he let some use his three boys for propaganda purposes?

        Switch the letters around and you have serf:

        n.
        1. A member of the lowest feudal class, attached to the land owned by a lord and required to perform labor in return for certain legal or customary rights.
        2. An agricultural laborer under various similar systems, especially in 18th- and 19th-century Russia and eastern Europe.
        3. A person in bondage or servitude.

      • guest

        In the Courant article, it stated that most students could not articulate exactly why they were there!
        I guess they realized they could not tell a journalist that they came for the free food.
        Note that education majors were not present.

  • sharewhut

    Yep, yep, yep.

  • sharewhut

    I just want to know where I can get a ‘Special Waiver’

    • Linda174

      Make some “special” promises to Malloy. I heard from a SDE employee that Malloy and Pryor are BFF’s….very, very tight!

  • savage

    According to articles published when Malloy first appointed Pryor, the man has absolutely no experience in the classroom, period. He’s yet another grad of Yale law school. Wonder who teaches the “How to Fleece the Average Taxpayer” course down there at Yale?

  • Linda174

    I ran out to do a few errands and almost drove off the road.

    It will have to stay as a radio ad because they wouldn’t be able to show the faces of the fake teachers.

    The radio ad was “paid for by (sounds like) NESPA”…sound familiar GNESPA..a.k.a.Students First…a.k.a. Michelle Rhee.

    I suppose they were concerned about being phonetically correct and decided the G (Great New England…not greater) would remain silent, such as: gnat, gnarl, gnash, gnaw.

    There are 5 or 6 voices, male and female, and they say they are all teachers.

    The fake teachers state they are for Malloy’s reform; they are for higher standards; they are for a rigorous evaluation process and THIS IS THE KICKER, they helped write the bill. Who knew?

    It ends with a list of newspapers that support SB 24.

    Who will create a new ad for THE REAL TEACHERS OF CT (hey, maybe that could be a reality show)?

    Shouldn’t we reveal the deceptions in their ads? If these were real teachers wouldn’t they have stated: their names, their schools, their towns.

  • ConcernedTeacher

    This is just plain sad. I can’t believe what I’m reading. (BTW, I heard a radio ad asking Mass. teachers and others to support Malloy’s bill.)

    CEA and AFT have said they are willing to talk and craft reform. But Malloy has locked out the very people whose profession he wishes to change! When are people going to realize that if the METHODS he is using are so egregious, the end product will be none different?

    We (teachers) need to wake people up and show them that what Malloy is attempting to do is not only poor practice for our students, but a waste of money that could have been put into early childhood education (where it’s truly needed) and subversive of current state laws!

  • Linda174

    The latest: Education Reform: Malloy offers compromise

    CT Mirror – And who will get to choose the 10 sacrificial lambs?

    http://www.ctmirror.org/story/16083/malloy-brings-pilot-tenure-negotiating-table

    • guest

      That’s easy enough to answer–Special Master Steven Adamowski will be happy to volunteer Windham!  Thanks very much for all you do for Windham Schools, “Dr.” Adamowski, still uncertified after all these years.
      I like how some critics, like former president of Southern Conn. State Univ. Norton suggest that teacher prep. programs need to beef up their requirements–yet they don’t go so far as to say that under-certified, unprepared people, like TFA temps, should not be in front of classes at all.  Then again, SCSU is making some $$$ off the TFA alternative route to certification gig.
      While TFA claims that their recruits are from Ivy and elite schools (is Texas A & M elite, Nate Snow?), and that their temps graduate at the top of their classes, many TFAers do not even have a B+ average.

  • Jerseyjazzman

    Cox is spreading that reformy goodness all around: NJ and CT!

    http://jerseyjazzman.blogspot.com/2012/04/reformy-tentacles-everywhere.html

    Oh, my…

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