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”
Tag Archives: Connecticut Mirror
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”
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”
Chris Powell column 