Governor Malloy's plan to reform tenure for Connecticut teachers is dead for now, but a new bill to increase funding for failing schools has passed.
Democratic leaders of the education committee met behind closed doors with the teachers unions and the Malloy administration over the weekend. The groups decided to put aside the plan to reform teacher tenure to be studied further.
"That evaluation system is not yet complete but what we've done is push things out by a year," said Rep. Andrew Fleischmann, the Co-Chair of the committee.
As part of his $128 million education reform plan, Gov. Malloy had proposed eliminating the current tenure system for teachers, and implementing a new system in which teachers are constantly re-evaluated to earn tenure.
Supporters of the governor's original bill are not pleased with the changes.
"What we're seeing here today is a step backward," said Patrick Riccards of CONNCan. "We're seeing a revision that reflects the interests of one particular stakeholder: the unions."
Republican leadership is upset because they say they were not included in the negotiations.
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"We're very troubled by the process," Sen. John McKinney said.
Republicans said they received a copy of the revised bill at 11:30 a.m., the same time the education committee convened. Lawmakers were meeting behind closed doors to discuss the changes to the bill for most of Monday afternoon.
The formula for funding charter schools would change as well.
"They have diminished their support of charter schools, not just monetarily, but by making it tougher for charter schools to start up," said Rep. Lawrence Cafero.
The new plan includes an increase in funding for failing schools and for early childhood education, according to Fleischmann.
The committee voted to pass the bill 28-5 on Monday.
