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Senate Republican leader John McKinney called Tuesday for the resignation of state Commissioner of Education Stefan Pryor, citing chronic problems with implementing Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's education reform strategy.
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McKinney said Pryor should step down because of widespread complaints about the introduction of the Common Core of State Standards and the controversial teacher evaluation system. The Common Core is a set of comprehensive educational guidelines that have been adopted by most states.
During a press conference at the state Capitol, McKinney said he made his decision after considering the complaints of administrators, teachers, and parents.
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"It's clear to me they've lost faith and trust with our current commissioner,'' McKinney said of Pryor. "I like him. I think he's a good gentleman, but at the end of the day, the rollout and implementation of our education reforms and Common Core has thus far been a failure, and I don't believe it can go forward successfully under his leadership.''
McKinney, who is running for the Republican nomination for governor, said teachers have been largely ignored by the department that Pryor heads.
"By choosing to implement these new programs with limited input from teachers and on an overly ambitious schedule, both the governor and the commissioner have lost the confidence of parents and educators across our state,'' McKinney said. Two years ago, when the General Assembly adopted the new evaluation plan, McKinney voted for Malloy's education reform bill.
"Time and again, Senator McKinney has proven that there is literally nothing he won't say if he thinks it will bring him press attention,'' said Malloy's chief of staff, Mark Ojakian. "While the administration is working with teachers and parents to improve public education, John McKinney is working to further his political ambitions by scoring political points at the expense of Connecticut's children. It's beneath his office and, frankly shameless, even for him."
A spokeswoman for the state Department of Education said Ojakian would speak for Pryor and the department.
Allan Taylor, chairman of the State Board of Education, said it is not surprising that the education reform strategy "will need frequent recalibrating and I don't think that's a sign that things have been done wrong. I think it's evidence that the department, the commissioner, the board are always looking for ways to do things better."
In a statement, Taylor said he is confident that the State Board of Education "rejects the call for Commissioner Pryor's resignation. Commissioner Pryor is helping to bring Connecticut education to where it needs and ought to be. He has tackled all challenges with great skill and extraordinary energy."
McKinney said, "As we take a step back and reassess the implementation of education reform in Connecticut, I feel it is imperative to do so with new leadership. This time, the department must listen to parents, teachers, administrators and students, and learn from the examples, both good and bad, of state's that began the implementation of Common Core before us.
"There is a national debate on the effectiveness of the new common core curriculum, the smarter balance tests that accompany the new curriculum, and their eventual effect on the evaluation of teachers. No matter where one stands on these issues, it is clear to me that successful education reform needs be accomplished through new leadership that earns the respect of those most affected by such major changes – parents, teachers, and administrators."
Mark Waxenberg, executive director for the Connecticut Education Association, which has criticized the pace of the reforms in the state, said he had no comment on McKinney's call for Pryor's resignation.
State Rep. Andy Fleischmann, a West Hartford Democrat who co-chairs the legislature's education committee, defended Pryor. "A commissioner serves at the pleasure of the governor and is supposed to do his or her level best to carry out the governor's policies,'' Fleischmann said. "I believe that Commissioner Pryor has been doing that."
Fleischmann said that if McKinney wants a new commissioner, then he should win his party's nomination, get elected governor, "and then he'll have that power. But until that time, I don't think it's his place to be calling for this hardworking commissioner's resignation."
Fleischmann said it's unfair to "act as if the challenges facing teachers and administrators in school districts right now reflect exclusively on Commissioner Pryor. The common core curriculum is being rolled out in [45] states right now. Most of those states are also in the process of rolling out new assessments. … It's a challenging time in education, and it's a moment of great change and change brings stress."
It's not fair, Fleischman said, to blame all of that stress "on one hardworking commissioner."
Jennifer Alexander, chief executive officer for ConnCAN, anew Haven based reform group, said that Pryor is "listening to the concerns of teachers and principals and trying to strike a balance between sensible implementation of these reforms and the need to keep moving forward with them.'
"We support Commissioner Pryor and hope that election year politics don't prevent us from making progress necessary to ensure that our kids will be prepared for college and ready to compete for jobs in an increasingly competitive world."
Alexander said Pryor has been "a special kind of leader" who was able to bring all of the parties together in 2012, resulting in the General Assembly's almost unanimous passage of education reforms..
