Where CEA Really Stands

Connecticut Education Association is a teacher's union representing 43,000 teachers in Connecticut. I first blogged about CEA here, where I finished with:

Yeah, CEA is a union. And some people have problems with unions. And yeah, CEA is obviously doing some fluffing of its own feathers, especially with a commercial, in order to bolster their image and hold their influence this election year. But you know what? Albeit subtly, they are reaching out a hand to parents, even if just to ask us to join them in their fight against evaluations. But given their influence, and thus far parallel ideas regarding testing, I'll take it.

 As a parent I had been hoping that help, would eventually be coming from the inside.

But then I heard them speak at the legislative hearing on March 12th, and was surprised at what I heard. Perhaps I only just got to hear them unedited for the first time, but it became clear to me that they are single-minded in their anger that the state didn't roll out Common Core the way they said they would.

In fact, CEA is downright pleased that "the Governor, through his Executive Order has created a working group that supports our position as well." I can't help but wonder how many people on the Implementation Taskforce are actually members of the CEA?

The problem is that now that the state has apparently dropped the teacher evaluations as they had been put forth with acceptance of the Common Core "package", the lack of concern from CEA over the actual curriculum and testing is way more glaring.

I have heard from three teachers who have expressed disgust with how CEA is handling the whole Common Core issue.

And Malloy has recently announced that he is running for Governor again this year. Till now he had fallen out of favor with the teacher unions because of the excessive evaluations teachers had to endure, and historically that endorsement has been important to him, since it brings him votes from parents and teachers who are not paying attention; it makes sense that a if a teacher's union endorses a candidate then that candidate must really have our children's best interests at heart, right?

So I wonder if Governor Malloy has been successful in buying CEA's endorsement?

Let's pay attention.

And CEA?

What about all the excessive evaluations your students have to endure?