By CHRIS POWELL According to the state Education Department, people in Connecticut should rejoice that the state’s four-year high school graduation rate has just exceeded 90% for the first time since the 2010-11 school year. But the data is nonsense, just as it was in 2011. New Haven piously presumes it should expropriate property Tax-shiftingContinue reading “Graduation rate is meaningless in a system of social promotion”
Tag Archives: Connecticut Mirror
Another expensive paid leave, another sham student protest
By CHRIS POWELL Connecticut state government is a big place and there will always be problems in large workforces. The state’s executive department has around 50,000 employees, with more than 90% of them unionized and covered by contracts and state law that make them nearly impossible to discipline seriously, especially since their unions constitute theContinue reading “Another expensive paid leave, another sham student protest”
Connecticut shouldn’t punish former offenders so much
By CHRIS POWELL Connecticut coddles many criminals. Someone may be convicted of a half-dozen or more offenses in separate incidents over a period of years and still not be locked up at all, much less be deemed incorrigible and locked up for good. Lamont buries college scandal, says spending equals learning Trump’s not alone inContinue reading “Connecticut shouldn’t punish former offenders so much”
Connecticut doesn’t yet realize good careers start with literacy
By CHRIS POWELL Governor Lamont’s creation of a $250,000 political patronage job for former U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona as a consultant to the Connecticut Career Pathways Commission, which the governor created by executive order in April, isn’t the silliest thing about the commission. Blumenthal sees no justification for immigration law enforcement ‘Diversity, equity, andContinue reading “Connecticut doesn’t yet realize good careers start with literacy”
Exposing the poverty business; and will property taxes shift?
By CHRIS POWELL Poverty is a big and profitable business in Connecticut and throughout the country and yet poverty keeps worsening. Part of that is caused by high inflation, whereby government grows without the formal taxation needed to pay for it, inflation being informal taxation and poorly understood. But part of it is also causedContinue reading “Exposing the poverty business; and will property taxes shift?”
Most in poll disapprove Lamont; could election be competitive?
By CHRIS POWELL Maybe Connecticut isn’t yet in the mood for competitive politics, but the most recent Nutmeg State Poll from the University of New Hampshire’s Survey Center reports enough political dissatisfaction that, if it continues, might be the precursor of change. Outrage about Danbury arrests shows Democrats want open borders State scorns addiction business while operatingContinue reading “Most in poll disapprove Lamont; could election be competitive?”
Falling student population means higher teacher pay
By CHRIS POWELL What does it mean that, as the Connecticut Mirror reported last week, Connecticut’s birth rate is the ninth lowest in the country and that the state’s public school student population has fallen steadily since 2006, from 578,000 to 498,000, down nearly 14% in 20 years? Counterintuitively, it means bigger paydays for teachersContinue reading “Falling student population means higher teacher pay”
A great candidate in theory but a disaster in practice
By CHRIS POWELL In theory Erin Stewart was a great idea for the Republican nomination for governor: not just a woman but a Republican who was elected six times consecutively as mayor of a heavily Democratic city, New Britain. She must have had something going for her. Connecticut’s age of majority is muddled by politicallyContinue reading “A great candidate in theory but a disaster in practice”
So where are the fathers? And town farms aren’t cruel
By CHRIS POWELL Much of the social disintegration riddling Connecticut ends up on the doorstep of the state Department of Children Families, on which is thrust responsibility for the children of irresponsible parents. The department sometimes makes mistakes, but while nearly all its mistakes are secondary to the mistakes of people who failed to takeContinue reading “So where are the fathers? And town farms aren’t cruel”
State government endures three more scandals in a week
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”
