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Ed Committee Passes Revised School Reform Bill

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The legislature’s Education Committee has passed a revised version of Governor Malloy’s proposed school reform bill.  

Speaking before last night’s vote, co-chair Andrew Fleischmann said members of the education committee respect the Governor’s broad vision on school reform and sought to fine tune and improve the measure.

"We’ve been talking for a long time about expanding preschool slots. This bill will increase by 1,000 the number of children who have access to preschool. We’ve been talking a lot about how we move forward on evaluation. This bill moves us forward on evaluation of teachers and administrators."

The modified bill, however, delays major changes to teacher tenure rules proposed by the Governor and calls for a study to validate the proposed teacher evaluation system. Again, Andrew Fleischmann.  

"As we see that roll out, we want to have the Commissioner give us a clear report on how to link that new evaluation system to tenure."

The revised bill also reduces proposed funding increases for charter schools, and narrows plans for a Commissioner’s Network to improve low-performing schools.

State Senator Toni Boucher was critical of the substitute bill.

"Today’s meeting on the Governor’s bill was to have been a ground-breaking and bold education reform.  Instead for some of us, it seems to be watered down, a weakened document."

The revised school reform bill passed by a 28 to 5 vote. 

In a statement released yesterday afternoon Senior Advisor Roy Occhiogrosso wrote that Governor Malloy has made it clear he’s determined to begin fixing what’s broken in the public schools, no matter how long it takes. 

Diane Orson is a special correspondent with Connecticut Public. She is a longtime reporter and contributor to National Public Radio. Her stories have been heard on Morning Edition, All Things Considered, Weekend Edition and Here And Now. Diane spent seven years as CT Public Radio's local host for Morning Edition.

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