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Late last night, on the last day of the 2010 legislative session, the Connecticut General Assembly passed one of the most significant education reform bills in recent decades. The far-reaching bill which passed 31-4 will increase high school graduation requirements, ease enrollment restrictions on charter schools, create a fast track for teachers to become principals, tie teacher evaluations to student progress, give parents authority to help overhaul failing schools and allow the State Board of Education to disband locally elected school boards if a district consistently does not show progress.
All of Connecticuts children deserve top quality education, and we have a duty to do whatever it takes to make that a reality. Todays reforms are a huge step forward in ensuring that we do just that, said Rep. Andy Fleischmann (D-West Hartford), House chair of the Legislatures Education Committee. By updating our high school curriculum so that it has sufficient science, technology and math were helping to ensure that Connecticuts youth are ready for 21st century jobs.
State Commissioner Mark McQuillan has been pushing for these high school reforms passed by the legislature. The bill requires increased graduation requirements and making students take additional credits in mathematics, science and foreign language. Starting with the class of 2018, students would be required to complete a senior project and pass graduation exams in algebra, geometry, biology, American history and English.
The bill also aims to turnaround low performing schools and strengthen Connecticut's application for the Obama Administrations $4.35 billion Race to the Top Grant. Connecticut stands to win as much as $195 million in federal funds. However, the state's application was rejected in the first round of Race to the Top, placing 25 out of 40 states. The new laws, it's believed, will align the states next applications-- due in June--with Race to the Top goals of 1) improve teacher effectiveness, 2) create better assessments aligned to rigorous standards, 3) fix failing schools, or 4) use data systems to track student achievement.
Today is a breakthrough for the Connecticut education reform movement, said Alex Johnston, CEO of Connecticut Coalition for Achievement Now (ConnCAN), an education advocacy organization that has been instrumental is pushing through the bill. These policies would have been unimaginable just five years ago, but they are on their way to the Governors desk to be signed into law today.
Some legislators worry that if Connecticut does not win Race to the Top, the state will be saddled with the cost of extra teachers and training required to fulfill the new high school requirements. The bill could require the hiring as many as 380 additional teachers statewide at a cost of nearly $21 million, according to an estimate by the Legislature's Office of Fiscal Analysis.
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