Conn. Governor Pushes Aggressive Schools Plan

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy delivers the State of State address at the state Capitol in Hartford, on Feb. 8. The governor is pressing an ambitious K-12 package that would seek to revamp the state’s teacher tenure system, pave the way for more charter schools, and make the state the trustee for some of Connecticut’s lowest performing schools.

—Jessica Hill/AP

By Christina A. Samuels

A confluence of circumstances in Connecticut is adding momentum to Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's multipronged effort to shake up the state's education system by the end of this legislative session.

Gov. Malloy, a first-term Democrat, proposed in his Feb. 8 State of the State address to revamp the teacher-tenure system and tie continued employment in part to teacher performance. He also would place the state's lowest-performing schools in a "Commissioner's Network" that would manage them at the state level, and wants to ease the way for more charter schools to open.

At the same time, leading state education groups, including ones representing district superintendents and teachers, have signaled their willingness to embrace, in principle, the changes supported by the governor. Each of those groups has put together its own...