Malloy To Lawmakers: #WeCantWait

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy penned a letter to lawmakers Wednesday urging them to pass — rather than study — his education reform package.

The governor’s letter comes two days after the Education Committee passed his reform bill but turned many of his more controversial proposals like the one that tied a new teacher evaluation system to tenure into a study. The committee also reduced the amount of money for charter school students and increased the number of preschool slots from 500 to 1,000.

In his letter, which he signed with the Twitter hashtag #WeCantWaitCT, Malloy told lawmakers there wasn’t time to wait a year to tackle the big issues addressed in the original bill.

“If I seem impatient, it’s because I am,” he wrote. “I see kids almost every day who I know we’re failing because we’re sending them into broken parts of our school system. It’s got to stop.”

The letter seemed to ask lawmakers to put aside alliances with the state’s two teachers unions to pass the bill. On Tuesday night the Malloy administration acknowledged negotiations with the unions scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday were cancelled.

“I am aware that change is hard, and I am aware that we all have relationships and alliances that make change even more difficult,” he wrote. “But when it comes to education reform, it’s time to put the needs of our children ahead of those relationships and alliances.”

Asked if he thought alliances would have to be broken for the bill to get passed, House Speaker Chris Donovan said “No.”

“I don’t believe so. I believe in all alliances . . .” he said. “You know we’re here, we have 151 people, we try to come to an agreement or something. There’s 36 up in the Senate. We work with the governor. Let’s work together. That’s my theme. Let’s work together.”

Rep. Andrew Fleischmann, co-chairman of the Education Committee, said what the governor put before the legislature on Feb. 8 “was draft 1.0. What the Education Committee voted out on Monday was draft 2.0 and I’m sure that there will be a version 3.0 and 4.0.”

Both the House and the Senate caucused the bill Wednesday behind closed doors, but Malloy was on the road and did not make an appearance at either meeting. Unlike his first year in office where a sighting of a governor was met with awe, Malloy’s presence in this case may not have had the same impact on lawmakers.

“To help a bill become a law I have to have the votes,” Fleischmann said. “Anything that goes to his desk will have to have enough support to go to his desk, so with that understood I’m sure there will be discussions and I’m sure things will change.”

Fleischmann said the general sentiment of the House Democratic lawmakers was “pretty positive.”

He also didn’t think the fact that the talks between the teacher unions and the administration were cancelled was significant.

“I’m optimistic that discussions between the administration, education stakeholders, and the legislative branch will be ongoing,” Fleischmann said. “That’s how you make sure you have everyone on board by continuing to talk.”

Sen. Andrea Stillman, the other co-chair of the Education Committee, said she had a conversation with the governor Tuesday and he told her they would work it out.

“It’s like any other major piece of legislation. There’s also more work to do once it gets out of committee,” Stillman said.

House Minority Leader Lawrence Cafero said he thought the tone of the governor’s letter had changed for the better. Malloy’s had a rough session where a number of his proposals have been altered by the legislature, he said.

“Overall, he’s learned it’s not just ‘What I want, I get,’” Cafero said. “He’s somewhat scaling back the rhetoric. He really needs people to work together.”

Cafero said the governor’s letter seems to indicate he recognized tactical errors he made when he rolled out his education initiative by giving the perception it was all about attacking teachers.

“That’s what threw this whole bill into a tailspin. I think he realizes that now,” Cafero said, adding that he didn’t blame the governor for wanting the reforms passed now, rather than studying them for a year.

Cafero said teacher tenure has to be tied to an evaluation system and putting off the issue for an entire year is also unacceptable to many House Republicans.

Rep. Gary Holder-Winfield, D-New Haven, said he understood the governor’s desire to see the reforms passed immediately.

“Every year that we wait, that’s at least one year where the kids who are being failed continue to be failed. That’s just a fact,” he said.

But there are certain realities to getting a bill through the legislature — mainly it has to have enough votes, he said. Though he would like to see a comprehensive education package passed this year and will work to make that happen, Holder-Winfield said it probably won’t. Lawmakers will likely settle on studying some elements of the proposal, he said.

“This is why I appreciate the governor for talking about the session of education, but it’s never going to be that. It’s going to be the sessions of education, no matter what you say.”

The Malloy administration respectfully disagreed.

“There are five weeks left in the session and I think it’s premature to say there aren’t the votes to pass it,” Malloy spokesman Andrew Doba said.