What School Programs Will Be Cut To pay for CCSS? What Else Are The Supt. Doing For The State's Benefit and Not The Local Communities?
Dr. Feser, Milford School Superintendent - President, The Connecticut Association of School Superintendents (CAPSS)
What would parents and taxpayers say if they found out that while their property taxes were going up and their local Board of Education was being forced to lay-off teachers and reduce school programs, scarce local public funds were being sent to a state-wide organization that was working against the interests of students, parents, teachers and local public schools?
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Well if you are living in one of Connecticut’s 169 towns that is probably what has been happening in your school district.
The Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents (CAPSS) was once one of the most important voices in Connecticut on behalf of local school districts but more recently it has become a leading proponent of Governor Malloy’s absurd corporate education reform industry initiatives.
Find out what's happening in Milfordwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Rather than fight the expansion of standardized testing, the unfair teacher evaluation program and the Malloy administration’ illogical and unwarranted attack on Connecticut’s historic commitment to local control of education, the Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents (CAPSS), led by its executive director Joe Cirasuolo, has been supporting Malloy and his Commissioner of Education, Stefan Pryor, even though their policies are hurting Connecticut students, parents, teachers and local public school systems.
Since Governor Malloy took office, the Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents has spent nearly $170,000 lobbying on behalf of the “education reforms” that Malloy has been pushing.
But Malloy’s initiatives will cost Connecticut School Districts tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars to implement…and most towns will receive little to no financial help from the state to deal with these costs. These new costs come on top of the fact that Connecticut’s already underfunds local school districts.
The Malloy/Pryor education reforms require Connecticut school districts to implement a massive new standardized testing scheme, the Common Core Standards, the Common Core Curriculum and the Common Core Tests. As a result, local school districts will be forced to purchase new textbooks, as well as new computers, and expand Internet capabilities simply to be able to conduct all the new computer-based standardized tests. (A Wall Street Journal article entitled, Slow Broadband Internet Speeds Vex Nation’s Schools, highlighted just the Internet portion of this problem)
In addition, as a result of insufficient resources, although many Connecticut school districts aren’t even able to retain existing instructional programs, the new mandated teacher evaluation program will require school districts to divert existing staff and hire new evaluation staff.
Rather than demand that any new initiatives be tied to adequate funding, CAPSS and its executive director, Joe Cirasuolo, are proudly known as part of Malloy’s “Big Six,” education reform supporters. The cheerleading club includes the charter school advocacy group ConnCAN, the Connecticut Council on Education Reform, the Connecticut Business and Industry Association, the Connecticut Association of Schools, the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education and the Connecticut Association of Public School Principals.
But despite their statewide organization’s public stance in support of Malloy’s initiatives, a growing number of Connecticut public school superintendents understand that these reforms will not only cost school districts millions but are bad public policy.
Even Joe Cirasuolo, CAPSS’ executive director, knows the truth. In a moment of blatant honesty about the new teacher evaluation system, Cirasuolo was quoted in the media last summer saying, “We don’t have enough administrative personnel to carry this out [statewide]. We are going to be laying off teachers to carry out these evaluations.”
But soon enough, Cirasuolo and CAPSS were back in line.
As Wait, What? readers will remember, Cirasuolo and the CAPSS Executive Committee successfully derailed an attempt last month to send a letter of protest to Education Commissioner Stefan Pryor outlining some of the most serious concerns that many superintendents have about Malloy’s policies and the way Pryor is implementing them.
Rather than ensure that the concerns of local communities were heard, CAPSS effectively ripped up the letter and replaced it with a statement that would make any sycophant proud.
Meanwhile, the Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents is spending about a quarter of a million dollars a year, the vast majority of that money coming in the form of dues paid by local boards of education.
One would imagine that the local Boards of Education aren’t fully aware that the money they are sending to CAPSS (and to the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education) is being used to promote policies that actually undermine those local boards
