By CHRIS POWELL According to records obtained by the Connecticut Mirror and published last week, state government officials knew two years ago that state Sen. Doug McCrory, D-Hartford, was steering state anti-poverty and community development grants to his girlfriend. But those officials and their superiors apparently failed to recognize and act on the conflict of interest andContinue reading “State government endures three more scandals in a week”
Tag Archives: Connecticut Mirror
Connecticut Democrats divert more public money to patronage
By CHRIS POWELL Before complaining that state government doesn’t spend enough money on basics like medical care, education, transportation, environmental protection, and such, people should take note of recent reports from the Connecticut Mirror and the Yankee Institute’s Connecticut Inside Investigator. Yale has become too big for its property tax break Awful Trump is rightContinue reading “Connecticut Democrats divert more public money to patronage”
Why all the hungry children? And raises devour rehabilitation money
By Chris Powell Connecticut’s summer meals program for children is being treated by state government and news organizations as a sort of triumph. Necessary as it may be, the program is actually a sign of disaster. Will Connecticut keep fighting immigration law enforcement? Connecticut’s racial gap in education is actually a welfare problem Why wouldContinue reading “Why all the hungry children? And raises devour rehabilitation money”
Democrats aren’t against kings, they just want a new one
By Chris Powell Last weekend’s “No Kings” rallies in Connecticut and around the country, protesting what were said to be President Trump’s excesses, were as hyperbolic as the president himself, and, insofar as most of the protesters were Democrats and liberals, largely hypocritical. Illegal immigration’s backers in Connecticut never get critical questions Murphy sees Democrats’Continue reading “Democrats aren’t against kings, they just want a new one”
Public schooling’s danger exceeds home schooling’s
By Chris Powell At this week’s hearing at the state Capitol on false claims of home-schooling that conceal child abuse, state officials stressed that they weren’t accusing home-schoolers of doing anything wrong. They were only asserting the need to check periodically on children who have been removed from public schools — to make sure thatContinue reading “Public schooling’s danger exceeds home schooling’s”
Democrats are frantic to spend more as economizing is forbidden
By Chris Powell What’s most remarkable about the state budget being devised by the Democratic majority in the General Assembly isn’t the scrambling to dismantle or evade the constitutional spending cap — the “fiscal guardrails” that have kept state government more or less solvent in recent years — though there is plenty of desperation aboutContinue reading “Democrats are frantic to spend more as economizing is forbidden”
Connecticut tells students they needn’t go to school
By CHRIS POWELL According to the recent results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a test given to students in fourth and eighth grades throughout the country and styled “The Nation’s Report Card,” Connecticut’s students are performing worse in reading and math than in 2019, before the national virus epidemic, which disastrously interrupted schooling nearly everywhere.Continue reading “Connecticut tells students they needn’t go to school”
Connecticut’s social promotion makes public education a costly fraud
By Chris Powell Social promotion in Connecticut’s schools isn’t just informal policy and practice, implemented by winks and nods. This week Marc E. Fitch of the Yankee Institute’s Connecticut Inside Investigator reported that many school systems, including those in Hartford, New Haven, Waterbury, and Middletown, follow written policies virtually prohibiting giving students failing grades. Hartford schools obstructContinue reading “Connecticut’s social promotion makes public education a costly fraud”
Hartford schools obstruct investigation of graduate’s illiteracy
By Chris Powell Fifty years ago, during the bad old days of the state Department of Children and Families, when it was called the Department of Children and Youth Services, a clumsy mechanism of unaccountability was used by the political hacks who ran the agency. (For years the only qualification of the department’s commissioner wasContinue reading “Hartford schools obstruct investigation of graduate’s illiteracy”
If new oversight committee is serious, where should it begin?
By Chris Powell Because of the state government scandals uncovered recently by the state auditors, and maybe because of the ones uncovered recently by the Hearst Connecticut newspapers, the Connecticut Mirror, the Yankee Institute’s Connecticut Inside Investigator, and the New Haven Independent, leaders of the Democratic majority in the General Assembly are creating another legislativeContinue reading “If new oversight committee is serious, where should it begin?”
Chris Powell column 