The General Assembly's Education Committee approved with a 28-5 vote Monday night, but with revisions and a delay of any changes to Connecticut's teacher tenure system, according to the Hartford Courant.
Under the amended bill, any would be delayed for at least a year. Malloy's proposal to link the state's new with tenure will also be delayed with the committee requesting that the commissioner of education further study the link and report on the system's overall progress in January 2013. The bill will also decrease the amount of time it takes schools to fire a tenured teacher from 155 to 115 days.
The revised bill also decreases the amount of by $500 and eliminates the requirement for public school districts to provide $1,000 to each charter school student. In addition, the bill will increase the amount of spots available for and decrease the amount of underperforming schools included in the commissioner of education's "turnaround plan" network from 25 to 10 schools. Additional changes to the bill are expected in the upcoming weeks.
“The bill the Education Committee appears set to approve represents just one step in the legislative process," Roy Occhiogrosso, Malloy's senior advisor said in a statement released by the governor's office. "Governor Malloy has made it clear that he’s determined to begin fixing what’s broken in our public schools, no matter how long it takes. In the coming weeks, members of this Administration will continue to work with legislators and other key stakeholders until there is a bill that represents meaningful education reform.”
