Check out this Channel 8 piece. Nice work on the interview Tim!
Archive for the ‘Accountability’ Category
Budget Panel Gets WTNH Coverage
Wednesday, July 1st, 2009
Blue Ribbon Budget Panel Reports to BOA
Tuesday, June 30th, 2009The final recommendations to the New Haven Board of Aldermen from the Blue Ribbon Citizen’s Panel on the Budget is ready. Its a worthwhile read. Thanks to all the panelists and city staff that contributed to its construction.
Is the official Drop Out Rate sanitized?
Thursday, June 11th, 2009Support Youth Rights Media’s documentary on the Drop Out Rate in New Haven. New Haven was recently labeled a “drop out factory.”
Youth Rights Media Premiere
Pushed
In this new documentary, youth pose urgent questions about the local impact of the nation’s largely invisible “dropout crisis.” Along the way they ask how many of our city’s students really graduate from high school, and do we really understand why others
fall short of completing? Their search for answers yields inspiring, puzzling, and often troubling results.
Friday, June 19, 2009 at 7pm
Yale University Art Gallery
1111 Chapel St
New Haven, CT
Please RSVP to: lmc@youthrightsmedia.org or 203.776.4034
Directions:
Direct access to the Gallery Auditorium from High Street.
Parking is available on the street or in the lot on York Street
between Chapel and Crown.
Urgent Action
Wednesday, June 10th, 2009Contact the Police and Fire Pension Fund Commissioners to let them know you are outraged by people trying to game the system. Tell them they cannot afford to squander the pension fund when it is underfunded by 100s of Millions of dollars!
Read this article from the New Haven Register.
Background about the story from the New Haven Independent here, here, and here.
If someone is innocent, then they should continue in their job. The possibility of false accusations is a terrible reality for any police officer. That is why we have a judicial system, of which the police are an integral part. If this person is guilty, he should be fired and not given special treatment — which is all too common in New Haven (CJ Cuticello and Billy White). Check out this outrageous practice in Long Isand.
Contact the Board and tell them we want this to stop!
RETIREMENT BOARD – POLICE AND FIRE FUND
| Name | Address | Phone |
|---|
- Bishop Theodore L. Brooks, 271 Stevenson Road, New Haven, CT 06515 203-387-3899
- Wendy Mongillo, 12 Oliver Road, New Haven, CT 06515 (203) 387-7948
- Richard Epstein, 59 McKinley Avenue, New Haven, CT 06515 Home Phone: 203-397-2299, Cell Phone: 203-982-4838, email
- John DeStefano, Jr., Ex-Officio Representative, 150 Judwin Ave, New Haven, CT 06515 203-946-7660, email
Former Mayor Disapproves Rubberstamping
Friday, May 22nd, 2009Read Mayor Daniels’ OP-ED piece in the New Haven Register. I believe he is right about the reason the citizenry does not show up at meetings. It is not because people don’t care, they believe the process has already been decided before hand. It is the citizen’s responsibility to speak up and to be better organized. There are small ways for busy people to be heard and the people are beginning to do so on a fairly wide scale.
Citizens Budget Commission – NYC
Saturday, May 16th, 2009The NYC Citizens Budget Commission provides an interesting website reviewing NYC finances. Their mission: “The Citizens Budget Commission is a nonpartisan, nonprofit civic organization devoted to influencing constructive change in the finances and services of New York City and New York State government.” Check out their Myth of Uncontrollables, which directly confronts the notion of “its all fixed costs,” the mantra of the New Haven BOA and Administration.
Freedom of Information Commission Hearing – Part 1
Friday, May 1st, 2009There was a hearing at the State Freedom of Information Commission today. You can read the background in the New Haven Independent and The New Haven Advocate. Here is the sanitized version of the city’s projections. The attached version is different then the one Jeffrey saw in July 2008 and the one he requested under the FOIA. Notice that the City’s projections keeps taxes completely unchanged for five years. I don’t think anyone believes that taxes will remain completely flat for five years. Things inherently cost more each year. More updates forthcoming.
One Thing You Can Do Right Now To Improve Education
Saturday, April 25th, 2009Write an email to our state delegation. With one click, you can email them all. The link is just on our right hand side of this page. Here is the letter Jeffrey sent:
Help make Education actually educate our children!
Dear New Haven Delegation:
I am writing you from New Haven. As a progressive democrat, I am outraged by a system that continues to provide barriers to reforming education. For too long, we have accepted failing schools over special interests and have made excuses for non-performance. For instance, why on earth would we turn away some of the most talented young people in the world from teaching in our classrooms? Although not the first source for progressives, read this maddening WSJ article that is spot on: Teach for (Some of) America, Too talented for public schools: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124061253951954349.html#articleTabs=article.
Right now, you are in a position to start eliminating some of these barriers through your powers on the CGA. You can promote data transparency (S.B. 1014) which would allow a better understanding of which schools work and which fail. For too long, we allow people to manipulate fungible numbers. The second opportunity to be a true progressive for transformative education lies in letting smart people teach, no matter what undergraduate education they have pursued. S.B. 939 allows a friend of mine, someone who got a full scholarship to Yale Business School (SOM) due to academic achievement, and who has worked as some of the top companies in the world, to work in the classroom. He loves math and would enjoy teaching in New Haven schools but has not been able to do so despite several unsuccessful attempts to navigate the process. This is shear madness!
Here is a summary of each bill:
The first bill (S.B. 1014) promotes data transparency in schools by requiring that the Connecticut State Department of Education allow nonprofits and universities to use education data the state already collects to improve instruction and help parents make smart choices.
The second bill (S.B. 939) helps improve teacher quality. It removes roadblocks keeping excellent math and science candidates from teaching without a specific college major, instead giving them the option to prove their subject knowledge through a rigorous exam. This bill also establishes a teacher certification pathway so that Teach for America can continue to provide its teachers the long-term professional development and support that has proven so effective. The bill also aids interstate reciprocity for experienced teachers.
Thanks,
Jeffrey Kerekes
With A Shortage of Quality Teachers, Why?
Saturday, April 25th, 2009Read this interesting article from the WSJ, Teach for (Some of) America, which describes the barriers keeping out high energy, smart college students, from teaching in the poorest schools. Does this make sense to you? Is our school system itself the barrier to a quality education? Are these sorts of barriers happening here in New Haven? Believe it.
ConnCAN Rally & Legislative Initiatives
Thursday, March 26th, 2009See letter below from ConnCAN on their efforts with the State.
Dear Friend,
I’ve been asking a lot of you these past weeks. Since launching our ‘Mind the Gaps’ campaign almost two months ago, I’ve been asking you to write your legislators, attend legislative hearings, visit our campaign website and spread the word among friends and family.
You responded – and because of that, we’ve made real progress. As we head into the latter part of the legislative session, I wanted to take a moment to update you on the state of our campaign and thank you for your work.
Over 1,000 Connecticut citizens have written their elected officials to ask them to ‘Mind the Gaps’ in student achievement by enacting three fiscally responsible, commonsense, results-oriented education reforms in the 2009 legislative session.
In late February, over 400 advocates attended the appropriations hearing in Hartford, wearing bright blue Mind the Gaps t-shirts and asking our legislators to avoid the tragedy of half-completed, high-performing public charter schools.
In March, advocates from across the state testified at two hearings on three important bills that were raised by the General Assembly’s Education Committee for data transparency in schools and teacher quality.
1) An Act Concerning Longitudinal Studies Of Student Achievement (H.B. 6491) would require that the Connecticut State Department of Education allow nonprofits and universities to use education data the state collects to improve instruction and help parents make smart choices.
2) An Act Concerning Teacher Certification (H.B. 6666) would remove the roadblocks keeping excellent teachers out of Connecticut classrooms by changing the law that prevents great candidates from teaching without a specific college major. Instead, this bill would give them the option to prove their subject knowledge by passing a rigorous exam.
3) An Act Establishing A Resident Teacher Certificate (H.B. 6654) would establish a one-year resident teacher certificate so that Teach for America can continue to provide its teachers the long-term professional development and support that has proven so effective in helping raise student achievement.
Next week, on April 2, charter school advocates will converge on the steps of the State Capitol for one last push to ensure our voices are heard as legislators make their final funding choices. And on April 6th, the Education Committee will reach its final deadline to pass these three bills on to the General Assembly as a whole.
If you haven’t done so yet, please take two minutes right now to send a letter to your legislator about these critical issues so that we can ensure that every child in Connecticut has access to a great public school.
Thank you for being an advocate for Connecticut kids.
My Best,
Alex Johnston
Chief Executive Officer
ConnCAN
P.S. Don’t forget to visit our campaign website – www.pleasemindthegaps.org – for more information, videos, and to keep track of our progress.
About ConnCAN — The Connecticut Coalition for Achievement Now (ConnCAN) is an advocacy organization building a new movement of concerned Connecticut citizens working to create fundamental change in our education system. To learn more visit: www.conncan.org.
