Gov. Are you kidding me? When arrogance and lying become the norm…

Jan 18

jonpeltoEducation Reform, Malloy, Municipal Aid, State Budget, State Deficit, Teacher Evaluations Malloy, Municipal Aid, State Budget, Stefan Pryor, Teacher Evaluations 27 Comments

“Really? Really? They are going to argue about whether we should evaluate the effectiveness of people? Really?… That’s an argument I’m more than happy to have.” - Governor Malloy January 2013

According to recent CTMirror articles, that is the response Governor Malloy had when “Told that municipal leaders were expressing concerns about the timeline and costs for implementation of the evaluation system at their annual Council of Small Town’s conference this week.”

The CT mirror added, “Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and Education Commissioner Stefan Pryor said they have no intention of slowing down a statewide rollout for the upcoming school year.”

Governor, first off, no one is talking about whether “we should evaluate the effectiveness of people!” The question is which evaluation system is best and who is going to pay for the costs associated with developing and implementing a good evaluation system.

When Roy Occhiogrosso resigned as Malloy’s chief adviser there was some hope that the absurd, stupid and arrogant comments emanating from the Governor’s Office would come to an end – but Malloy’s response the other day proves that he is more than capable of filling the void left by his bullying former adviser and spokesman.

Second, let’s put the whole issue in context.

According to news reports;

This week;

“Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and House Speaker J. Brendan Sharkey, gave town leaders reason to believe Thursday that cuts in state funding are headed their way.”

“There will be some pain going around,” the Democratic governor told small town leaders at a conference in Cromwell Wednesday.

“It is probably unlikely that we are going to be able to hold cities and towns harmless,” Sharkey, D-Hamden, also told the crowd.”

The message was loud and clear. Faced with another $1 billion budget deficit next year, the Governor and top Democrat leaders are saying cities and towns will be on the list of things to be cut in Malloy’s upcoming state budget proposal.

So on one day Connecticut’s leaders are saying they we will require significantly more government duties for cities and towns, but on the next day they say they won’t be pay for those added costs.

That is called an “unfunded mandate.” An unfunded mandate is a legal obligation that the federal or state government requires municipalities to complete for which no funds are provided.

Republicans traditionally oppose mandates, but nearly all of them voted for Malloy’s “education reform” bill which contains tens of millions of dollars in unfunded mandates.

Furthermore, just two years ago, Governor Malloy jumped on the bandwagon pledging not to adopt any more unfunded mandates.

“Democratic Lt. Gov.-elect Nancy Wyman scored some major brownie points with members of the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities this week, telling a group of mayors and first selectmen that the new administration of running mate Dannel Malloy opposes shifting additional costs onto cities and towns.

“What I said was that Gov.-elect Malloy has said that under these financial conditions he does not see himself in the next year signing any new unfunded mandates on cities or towns,” Wyman said in interview. (See Greenwich Times article entitled Wyman swears off unfunded mandates).

So here is where we stand

(1) Governor, your snide and arrogant comment about evaluations is bull**it. No one is saying there shouldn’t be evaluations of teachers. The municipal leaders are saying YOUR PROGRAM will cost tens of millions of dollars. The state isn’t providing the necessary funds, local property taxes can’t afford the additional cost and there are far more effective and inexpensive ways to “evaluate” people. If you get your pay, property taxes will go up and scarce education funds will needed to be shifted from important instructional programs to an untested and wasteful evaluation system

And

(2) You said you wouldn’t support unfunded mandates. Your teacher evaluation program is a huge unfunded mandate. When municipal leaders ask that the implementation be delayed you say you won’t budge. So the message is clear. You are either going back on yet another key promise or you and your administration were lying when you made it clear that you wouldn’t be supporting more unfunded mandates.

Governor, your continued arrogance and lying is getting more than tiresome.

For more on this issue see CTMirror at: http://ctmirror.org/story/18811/pressure-mounts-delay-teacher-evaluations and CTNewsjunkie at: http://www.ctnewsjunkie.com/ctnj.php/archives/entry/speaker_says_cuts_to_cities_and_towns_are_likely/

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jschmidt2

Democrats love unfunded mandates. Shouldn’t be a surprise. And if Republicans disagreed it wouldn’t make any difference. Welcome to the one party state.
- jonpelto
  
  Yeah republicans and dems saying one thing doing another. But reps say they hate unfunded mandates – they didn’t even try to amend the bill to say no money – no program. They had their chance to show voters why they should be given the opportunity to lead and they blew it – again!
  
  Sent from my BlackBerry please excuss typos
  - jschmidt2
    
    no doubt we could use a stronger opposing party but if people keep voting in Democrats, that’s not going to happen.
  - jonpelto
    
    Could well be – but if the republicans gave un affiliated and disgruntled democrats a reason to vote FOR them they would do better. They keep playing to the 20% who are already voting for them. Issues like conservation and environmental protection once belonged to the republicans. And in the battle beyween big business and small business republicans sided with small business.
    And in the old days it was the republicans that wanted government out of people’s bedrooms and demanded a true separation of church and state.
    There was a reason the rockefeller republicans won in states where democrats now hold.
    
    Sent from my BlackBerry please excuss typos
  - JMC
    
    So now you’re basically saying, Jon, it’s just all the Republicans’ fault that the totally Blue Dem legislature got elected and has wrecked this State? Because the Repubs don’t put up electible enough candidates?
  - Linda174
    
    I am not following the back and forth so much, but I want you to know I would vote Republican if they put forth a moderate candidate (Roraback). I agree with Sarah…many, many would vote against Malloy if his opponent was NOT a Greenwich millionaire. Why don’t they realize this? Yes, it would be a landslide. Beating Malloy would be easy.
  - Magister
    
    I’m with Linda. I have no particular party loyalty. I am no longer able to easily distinguish between them anymore, since they seem largely bought and controlled by the plutocrats. The only thing to do is to try to keep an eye out for reasonable individuals regardless of affiliation.
  - JMC
    
    Yes, L., but that won’t be much of a help when the Blue legislature can override any gubernatorial veto. Meanwhile (and I know many will despise me for my opinion), the Dems, and Malloy above all, have gone into high gear to hasten the Blue welfare state, which will give them a permanent majority. If Malloy gives them this, the Blue legislators know they will have jobs for life and they will support Malloy, including, tragically, his education “initiatives”.
    
    And we already had a decent Repub gov, Jodie Rell, who got nothing but scorn from the legislature.
    
    CT Dems now play smash-mouth, no prisoners politics, just like Obama, Malloy’s god and First Privatizer. Deval Patrick just raised taxes in MA and was applauded by his legislature. Nineteen thousand welfare recipients’ addresses there have just been shown as unverifiable. Deval doesn’t care. The two states are joined at the hip.
  - Linda174
    
    I really don’t think many teachers will vote for him or state police officers or state workers, etc. he only won by 6,000 votes. A reasonable candidate needs to be put forward. I don’t think he can win by the “welfare state” alone. Many educated people do not trust either party if they stick to talking points. I don’t trust Dannel. I will never vote for him. I think he has been a disaster and I am a registered Democrat, but I will most likely change to independent for whatever it’s worth.
  - msavage
    
    Sadly, I don’t think there’ s much difference between the two parties anymore because the strings of both are being pulled by big business, big oil and the other oligarchs who have grabbed control of this country.
  - http://twitter.com/realsaramerica Sarah Littman
    
    If CT GOP had the sense to nominate a decent candidate, they’d win in a landslide. Dear CT GOP: Tom Foley is NOT that candidate.
  - jschmidt2
    
    So Blumy, Murphy, Malloy were all the best candidates? Doesn’t seem that way.
  - George
    
    I could pretty much guarantee you that none of the teachers I know will vote for Malloy. This was clearly an instance of the lesser of two evils. After Malloy pushed the education bill through, Tom Foley said he had not gone far enough. Think how much worse this situation would be if Foley had been elected
  - http://twitter.com/realsaramerica Sarah Littman
    
    Malloy was certainly NOT the best candidate, and all reservations those of us had about him before the election have been borne out in office.
http://twitter.com/KingCast Christopher King

Hi Jonathan,

Meanwhile what about the lies that the Guvnah’ is sponsoring in the ongoing Title XIX case where Defendant Bremby and his lawyers are using taxpayer dollars to lie about the timely submission of my mother’s application as noted:

http://christopher-king.blogspot.com/2013/01/kingcast-sees-judge-alvin-thompson-give.html
buygoldandprosper

Meanwhile,KingDan plans on bonding “investments” by the state,to the tune of $200M++ to continue his vision of Connecticut as the center of corporate welfare. We have a governor who has visions! Great. More debt.

CT Innovations will make John Rowlands misdeeds look like misdemeanors!!

Dan has been buying his way into his next election with state money from day one,and it continues this year.

As for his comments yesterday regarding teachers,go back and review Stamford’s tax bils. Dan,as mayor,enclosed a flyer in the twice yearly billings that HIGHLIGHTED how the schools were sucking up the bulk of spending.He would then tout his expense cutting as though he was managing the city well…prior to becoming mayor he was a big advocate of the schools,using teachers (like he did for his last election) to get into office. Only to wage war against them once elected. He left Stamford a shambles.

Wise up people. It might be too late,as Dan has bought a lot of votes over the last two years,but Malloy is as phony as they come! Don’t vote him out/on…vote him OUT and let him get a real job for once in his life! Like the one his wife got,perhaps?! Like the “internship” his son got? Get a clue!!
Apartheid First

You forgot to quote our non-licensed, non-certified, non-educator State Commissioner of Education on getting all the “stakeholders” together to demand teacher evals…
I’m sorry, I’m not and never will be a stakeholder. Stakeholders are vampire hunters. Pryor can continue to play to prejudice and invented-perceptions that teachers are the bad guys, meanwhile diverting education dollars to his bloated Office of Chief this and that and to the numerous consultants populating the halls of the State Department of Education.
I do wonder if Pryor could be tempted to bail out of Connecticut in order to grab some of the Hurricane Sandy Relief dollars. Pryor is a neo-lberal expert at getting waivers on federal disaster relief $$ and syphoning it off to bankers and developers. There’s plenty of information about Pryor’s past employment and stakeholding for those who wish to find it.
Maybe we have another candidate for Recovery School District, too (besides Windham, CT)–all those communities devastated by Hurricane Sandy. Don’t laugh. They are probably planning it now.
Dj60

All the more reason to keep an eye on what Madison is doing. If they can institute their plan more cost effectively, negating the effects of an unfunded state mandate, and it is accepted as an effective evaluation of teacher performance by their Bd of Ed, admins, and teachers, then where is the argument? As budget season begins in municipalites, everyone should be looking for a new line item, or increases in the current one, titled “teacher evaluation implementation”
Linda174

When WASN’T arrogance and lying the norm?

And in other reformy news today…..5 Ways Rhee’s report puts students last:

Here’s a list of 5 reasons why this State Report Card is a veritable wish list for privatization advocates and a recipe for failure for everyone else:

1. Ironically, It Ignores The Needs of Students:

Missing from this report card is any evaluation based on multiple success measures, including student graduation rates, a college ready curriculum, access to art and music classes, or learning benchmarks that will prepare students to be critical thinkers and leaders in their community. All that is presented is a simple ideological litmus test: do states adhere to StudentsFirst’s preferred policies, regardless of their effects?

Read more:

http://www.otlcampaign.org/blog/2013/01/09/5-ways-michelle-rhee’s-report-puts-students-last
George

We need to get teachers and parents to start promoting a boycott of these ridiculous policies as is happening in other parts of the country. Teachers at Garfield High School in Seattle have just voted to ignore the state’s mandated test, MAPS. Maybe it’s time to get civilly disobedient and defy these people.

Now add in the cost of implimenting that Common Core of Standards, which according to estimates by the Thomas Ford Institute (with grants from the Gates Foundation, the same folks who are funding much of the Common Core nonsense), will cost over $8 billion to impliment. According to the Pioneer Institute, another conservative organization, it will cost at least $16 billion. It’s only going to get worse and the “reformers” are driving that runaway train. Several states (most of them fairly conservative) are now taking action to reject the CC. Perhaps we ought to do the same.
- msavage
  
  Of course it is time for civil disobedience. It is way PAST time. Sadly, folks in CT remain immobilized by fear, laziness, ignorance, hope (that someone else will take the initiative, that things will start to turn around) or something else.
  - Apartheid First
    
    Let’s celebrate the legacy of Martin Luther King, jr. with some civil disobedience, especially that in favor of children.
    
    Say no to tests! To foolish policies such as teacher evals! No to the Masters, Chiefs, and Overlords, who operate in the extra-legal spaces of tyranny.
  - Linda174
    
    Occupy the US DOE:
    
    This week please share this brief update on Occupy DOE 2.0, The Battle for Public Schools, April 4-7, 2013. We return to DC this year and will occupy the Dept. of Ed. for four days. Our schedule is filling quickly. Here is a sneak peek of what we currently have confirmed, followed by information on hotels, free sleeping arrangements and a few additional details.
    
    http://unitedoptout.com/update-for-occupy-doe-2-0-the-battle-for-public-schools/
  - msavage
    
    That looks great! Unfortunately, as I am trying to support two kids on poverty-level pay (just opened my W-9 for this year and I was paid $5,000 LESS than I was paid my first year at this job, more than six years ago), I wouldn’t be able to make it. My parents are funding a trip down to DC for me and my kids next month for my birthday present. We plan to attend the environmental rally, which promises to be the largest in U.S. history. Here’s a link: http://action.sierraclub.org/site/MessageViewer?em_id=272645.3&dlv_id=229673
    
    In my view, the environmental issue trumps the testing stuff. If we don’t force action re the environment NOW (it might even be too late), all evidence points to the fact that mother nature will take revenge and make testing, teachers, schooling, politics, money, and everything else, irrelevant,
  - Linda174
    
    Enjoy your trip and the time with your kids. Yes, maybe the next Sandy will sweep the corruption away or even worse, breed a entirely new gang of opportunity deformers….political, educational, environmental…always a huckster waiting in the background. Off to read a book!
  - msavage
    
    “even worse, breed a entirely new gang of opportunity deformers”
    
    Unfortunately, this is probably the more likely scenario in the short term. There seems to be no shortage of despicable human beings in this country who are only too happy to profit off of the misery of others. Vallas and Pryor come immediately to mind. Bill Gates–mark my words he is far from the philanthropist that his carefully crafted media image seeks to portray. There are so, so many of them.
msavage

On an unrelated (but not really) note–New Orleans’ Katrina-era mayor was just indicted for 21 counts of corruption. See article here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/18/ray-nagin-charges_n_2505403.html If only the investigation could also shine a light on some of Vallas’ activities in New Orleans. Interesting comment under this article, claiming that Nagin was a Republican all his life and switched over to become a Dem. to run for mayor of NO. I haven’t checked it out, but it certainly wouldn’t surprise me. That’s another reason why it’s so stupid to obsess about party affiliation. It really means nothing anymore. In a society in decay like ours, where it has become a free-for-all, politicians have no qualms about adopting a title to get where they want–pretending to be a member of one party or another to get elected. Look at Dan–despite the constant claims of folks like JMC on this blog, there is very little about Dan Malloy that suggests a respect for “traditional” Democratic values. Big Dan is big business all the way. He has thrown unions under the bus. What has he done for the “welfare state” you are so fond of mentioning, JMC? Really, other than the EITC, what has Dan really done over the past couple of years for unions, the poor, or even the middle class, JMC? Do you even pay attention to a politician’s actions, or are you simply blinded by that “D” or “R” after someone’s name?

Wait, What?