The state's two largest teachers unions both endorsed Malloy, but some teachers have felt uneasy about it.
Tuesday is Election Day, and Connecticut’s gubernatorial battle is down to the wire, with the two major candidates locked in a dead heat.
The race between incumbent Democratic Governor Dannel Malloy and Republican challenger, businessman Tom Foley, has been fierce and negative. They’ve attacked each other’s views on the economy, taxes, jobs, and more. The third candidate in the race, Joe Visconti, has now thrown his support behind Foley.
But education may prove to be the most telling microcosm of the 2014 election.
Before the debate at the University of Connecticut turned personal and even nasty, Foley and Malloy had a chance to talk about education.
Foley explained his marketplace approach to improving schools: he proposes an “A Through F” grading system, and a plan called "Money Follows the Child" that would allow parents to move students out of low-performing schools into higher performing ones, and take state education dollars with them.
Tom Foley: "The marketplace works. We don't want to be spending taxpayer money supporting schools that aren't doing a good job educating our young people. There's no point in rewarding failure."
"Money Follows the Child, both in Florida and Massachusetts, worked," said Foley. "The marketplace works. We don’t want to be spending taxpayer money supporting schools that aren’t doing a good job educating our young people. There’s no point in rewarding failure."
Malloy countered, saying that as governor, he’s taken the opposite approach: targeting more state aid to the districts that need it the most. It's been showing positive results, he said. He also acknowledged an often tense relationship with teachers during the past four years, but said that’s improving.
Gov. Dannel Malloy: "Graduation rates are going up rapidly in Connecticut, particularly in our urban environments like Bridgeport, New Haven, and Hartford, that have seen an average increase in graduation of over ten percent in just the last few years."
"We’re working together for the first time in a long time," Malloy said. "Yes, the battle was tough, but we’re there now. That’s why graduation rates are going up rapidly in Connecticut, particularly in our urban environments like Bridgeport, New Haven, and Hartford, that have seen an average increase in graduation of over ten percent in just the last few years."
Early on as governor, Malloy’s comment that teachers needed only to show up to get tenure outraged many educators. He later apologized, but coupled with teacher concern over evaluations, and the rough rollout of the Common Core State Standards, there’s been a level of anxiety and mistrust.
Many teachers also felt at odds with Malloy’s Education Commissioner Stefan Pryor, a charter school supporter who announced he’ll leave the post later this year.
Speaking in his office at the State Department of Education, Pryor said he’s pleased by the accomplishments of Malloy’s first term. The governor made education reform the centerpiece of his second year in office.
"Almost all of the major programs that the Malloy administration set out to pass through the General Assembly and to implement," Pryor said, "are, in fact, passed, and being implemented. We’re very proud of the array of activities that are going on. Beyond that, they’ve been resourced. There’s been dollars put in front of them; dollars put behind them. We’re actually moving these programs forward."
The state’s two largest teachers unions -- the Connecticut Education Association, and the American Federation of Teachers Connecticut -- both endorsed Malloy, but some teachers have felt uneasy about it. In Waterbury, the local union began hearing from upset members.
Waterbury Teachers Association President Kevin Egan said they decided to poll their teachers. "Fifty-two percent of the teachers that participated in that poll said that they would have made no endorsement in this round of the gubernatorial election," he said.
Twenty-four percent of those polled supported Foley, and eleven percent backed Malloy.
Egan said things got confusing when a press release entitled, "Tom Foley Releases Statement on the Waterbury Teachers Association Endorsement" was released by the Foley campaign.
"The poll, if reported properly, clearly speaks about how deeply concerned our members were about this election, that they were very undecided and they felt that they just could not come to make an endorsement for any candidate."
The third candidate in the race, Visconti, who petitioned his way onto the ballot, has been an outspoken critic of the Common Core and Malloy's education strategy. If elected, Visconti said he'd install liberal blogger Jonathan Pelto as his Education Commissioner. The two men have little in common except for their criticism of Malloy's policies.
With Visconti out of the race, it's unclear where undecided voters who list education as a top priority will turn.
