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Saturday, September 18, 2010

Education -- the Foley Plan

The election for Governor of Connecticut is well underway, and Republican Tom Foley has just released his plan for education in this state. I am used to seeing these "plans" that get released by candidates that are nothing more than stylized stump speeches that are long on applause lines and short on substance. Foley's plan is refreshingly clear and detailed. Even a quick review of the plan reveals that it is well thought out. It discusses numerous measures that are designed to improve the quality of our schools, while holding the cost steady. For example, Foley points out that the state funding mechanisms are biased against charter schools which, as a group, perform extremely well. The state funding in those schools is only 70% of what it is in a regular public school, and when a student goes to a charter school, his public district still gets his funding. By shifting to the funding following the student, the charter schools will get more badly needed resources and pressure will be put on the public district to improve or lose that funding. Foley also has a provision in his plan for improving the quality of the teachers and administrators through monitoring, additional training, and -- if all else fails -- removal of underperformers.

The full plan can be reached by clicking on the title to this post. It is worth reading. Foley is to be commended for a thoughtful, insightful and detailed plan. The voters deserve no less.

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