Black & Puerto Rican Caucus Not Completely United On Education Reform
by Christine Stuart | May 3, 2012 5:38pm
(5) Comments | Commenting has expired
Posted to: Education
Members of the General Assembly’s Black and Puerto Rican Caucus held a press conference Thursday to outline what their members could support in an education reform bill.
Rep. Gary Holder-Winfield, D-New Haven, who chairs the caucus, said the caucus has reached consensus on several issues outlined in a one-page document that includes support for reconstituting low-achieving schools as state or local charter schools.
However, Rep. Toni Walker and Sen. Toni Harp, also of New Haven, told reporters that they’re not entirely on board, and that the document Holder-Winfield gave the media was never voted upon by the 19 members of the caucus. The two Toni’s said they agree with many of the concepts outlined in the document and believe most of it is included in the most recent draft of the bill. However, they pointed out that the Black and Puerto Rican Caucus were not working off the most recent draft of the bill.
As the co-chairs of the Appropriations Committee, Walker and Harp are members of legislative leadership and have been included in discussions with the Education Committee co-chairs who have been drafting, and re-drafting the bill.
“We really tried to ask them to wait until they could see the full bill,” Harp said, referring to the caucus.
But in the end, “We think they will be happy with some of what they see,” she said. Although “. . . there are some things they aren’t going to be happy with.”
There are a few sticking points which haven’t been settled yet, Harp and Walker said. What role charter schools will play and what changes will be made to collective bargaining are the two biggest sticking points still being negotiated behind closed doors.
“There’s been drafting going back and forth between the administration and leadership and the whole idea is compromise, so we’re trying to make the best compromise,” Walker said.
Holder-Winfield said he never expected lawmakers to stop working on various versions of the bill as the caucus went through the draft they had line-by-line.
“Obviously they’re continuing to work on the bill. That has nothing to do with what we were doing, which was looking at the two bills we had the latest copies of and responding and talking about what we want in the bill,” he said.
Holder-Winfield did not portray the Black and Puerto Rican Caucus position paper as supporting Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s version over the Education Committee’s version, but the caucus document would restore in the legislation language for the commissioner’s authority to reconstitute a low-achieving school as a state or local charter, which is more in line with what Malloy had proposed.
He said the caucus wasn’t saying it supports charter schools over public schools, but it’s saying charter schools shouldn’t be excluded as an option.
“We did not plan to produce a piece of information that lined up with the governor. We got in the room as representatives of urban communities and decided by consensus what we thought would be best moving forward on education reform,” Holder-Winfield said.
The caucus position paper also called for the commissioner’s network schools to engage in “impact bargaining,” which would allow teachers to bargain working conditions such as longer school days outside of their larger contract.
Holder-Winfield said there were no conversations with Malloy, or anyone else outside the caucus, over the document.
“It would not make a lot of sense if the Black and Puerto Rican Caucus didn’t have a voice on this,” he said. “It’s not a matter of strategically doing it at this point. It’s just the way it organically happened.”
The members of the Black and Puerto Rican Caucus represent schools that will be impacted the most by education reform efforts, and Holder-Winfield wanted to make sure their voices were heard.
The proposal was praised by Connecticut Charter School Association President Michael Sharpe, who also heads Jumoke Academy in Hartford.
“I think it’s a very fair sort of midpoint that still impacts kids getting a hand up,” Sharpe said, also urging the Black and Puerto Rican Caucus to take a stand on the issue.
Sharpe said 87 percent of the charter schools in Connecticut are outperforming the districts in which they sit.
“I want us to continue to allow charter schools to be a part of closing the achievement gap in Connecticut,” Sharpe said.
Immediately following the press conference, two Connecticut Education Association lobbyists approached Holder-Winfield to talk with him about the proposal. A CEA spokeswoman said the union wouldn’t be commenting on the proposal.
But AFT Connecticut offered a brief statement.
“AFT Connecticut represents teachers and other school personnel in many of the lowest performing districts and has worked with the Black and Puerto Rican Caucus over the last several years on a variety of education issues,” Sharon Palmer, president of AFT Connecticut, said. “We value their ideas and look forward to ongoing discussions with all legislators as we work toward education reform that improves education for every child in Connecticut.”
Tags: Black and Puerto Rican Caucus, Gary Holder-Winfield, Toni Walker, Toni Harp, education reform, dh
(5) Comments
posted by: CONconn | May 3, 2012 7:04pm
Google the NAACP’s national resolution on charter schools and you’ll see they can see right through the rhetoric. They have stated that they support improving the regular public school district because charters lead to resegregation and they take valuable resources away from sending districts. In CT, we see that charters regularly keep out ELL students,students who come from homes where English is not the first language, and students who qualify for free and reduced lunches.
posted by: THREEFIFTHS | May 3, 2012 9:18pm
Sharpe who also heads Jumoke Academy in Hartford said 87 percent of the charter schools in this state are outperforming the districts in which they sit.
This was take from the Ct.Mirror. Jumoke’s lack of diversity is not unique among the state’s 17 charter schools. An analysis of their enrollment by The Connecticut Mirror shows that students who speak limited English or have special education needs have been largely left out of most of the state’s charters.
Public schools serve twice the percentage of limited-English students in the districts where 12 of the 17 charter schools are located, the data show. No charter in the state has a higher percentage of ELL students than their local district, and only four enroll more special education students.
Michael Sharpe, the leader of Jumoke Academy, acknowledged after Malloy’s pep talk during the assembly that his school needs to work on attracting more students with limited English proficiency.
“That is something we need to do a much better job at,” he said.
So when are you going to start take them.
posted by: THREEFIFTHS | May 3, 2012 9:20pm
My Bad I forgot this bill from New York.Need a bill like this here.
The Charter Schools Act.
1. STUDENT RIGHTS – Charter schools MUST be required to retain Special Ed and ELL students. No longer push out, counsel out or expel them out of the school.
2. PARENT RIGHTS – Every charter school board MUST have a parent board member who is the President of the school’s independent parent association.
3. BILL OF RIGHTS – There MUST be a universal Parents Bill of Rights and Students Bill of Rights for charter schools.
4. INDEPENDENT PARENTS ASSOCIATION – Every charter school MUST be required to have an independent parents association.
5. CO-LOCATIONS – The state MUST develop a better process in determining co-locations in public school buildings in New York City because it is pitting parents against each other.
6. ACCOUNTABILITY & TRANSPARENCY – Charter school board members and employees MUST be held to rigorous financial disclosure requirements and conflict of interest prohibitions as all other organizations receiving public money. There MUST be more oversight of Founding Boards. Board members MUST NOT be allowed to be permanent trustees. All employees (principals, directors, staff) MUST not be allowed to serve on the board. All schools must be audited by the State Comptroller.
7. CHARTER CONTRACT & BY-LAWS – Every charter school MUST be required to post their charter and by-laws online to increase accountability and transparency in charter schools and their governing boards. Every board meeting MUST be held at the school.
8. STATE RECEIVERSHIP – The state MUST have the authority to take over a charter school and re-constitute the board of trustees.
9. MANAGEMENT ORGANIZATIONS – For Profit Management organizations MUST NOT be allowed to manage charters. Public money should be spent on public students.
10. COMPLAINT & GRIEVANCE PROCESS – The state MUST develop a formal complaint and grievance process that includes tracking and resolving issues within 30 days.
11. TEACHER RIGHTS & PROTECTIONS – Teachers in charter schools MUST be provided with whistleblower and job protections when exposing corruption, financial mismanagement and corporate chicanery in charters. No teacher should be fired for standing up for their students. E.g. East New York Prep Charter School.
12. CHARTER AUTHORIZATION – Authorization MUST only be granted by the Board of Regents.
posted by: brutus2011 | May 3, 2012 10:34pm
I am disappointed that the Black and Puerto Rican Caucus supports in any way the state taking over of low-performing urban schools.
What my esteemed brethren should have done was to insist that mayoral patronage and stooge-superintendents be required to disclose the depth and breadth of their spending—in other words, to end the corruption that impacts our inner-city schools and our future generations.
New Haven is a prime example—ironically the district that are often touted as being at the forefront of reform.
New Haven needs to be held accountable for the absolute use of schools to repay those who support the incumbent mayor in his campaigns.
And, I know for a fact that the Black and Puerto Rican Caucus knows exactly what I am writing about.
So, my brethren, lets stop playing politics with those who care nothing for our kids and propose and pass legislation to stop those who are and would profit off of our children.
posted by: ctperson13 | May 4, 2012 2:04pm
So what are these people going to gain for this “opinion?” Political clout? Money? Because this opinion will not benefit the children of their cities. I know these are not stupid people. I’m sure they’re aware of the overwhelming evidence AGAINST the policies that they’re supporting. So what is the motive? What could possibly be more important than the future of the very children they were elected to represent and protect?