By Ben Velderman
EAGnews.org

HARTFORD, Ct. – Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy is turning out to be a first-rate party crasher.
    
The Democratic governor is on a quest to rescue Connecticut’s students from failing schools. He’s characterizing his education reform plan as a modern-day civil rights issue, and is showing a willingness to stand up to the state’s powerful teacher unions.

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This is forcing leaders of the state’s teacher unions – the Connecticut Education Association and American Federation of Teachers Connecticut – to push back hard against Malloy.

In doing so, the teacher unions are acknowledging that all their public posturing about wanting what’s best for students has been nothing more than an elaborate masquerade ball – an opportunity for union leaders dress up as soft-hearted, responsible members of the community, instead of the bare-knuckled labor bosses they really are.

Whether he intended to or not, Malloy has done parents and taxpayers a tremendous service by unmasking CEA and AFT Connecticut leaders and their self-serving agenda.

A recent op-ed in CTPost.com offers more evidence that the unions’ costume party is finally over.

Patrick Riccards, CEO of the Connecticut Coalition for Achievement Now, writes that despite the unions’ public commitment “to advocate for what’s best for our students,” taxpayers “have spent the past two months hearing the Connecticut Education Association and its local union heads focus exclusively on what is owed the adults in the room.

“We have heard teachers shout down parents in public forums, hurling insults and indicating that families are to blame for the failures of our school system.

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“We have seen the CEA ads and publications spreading lies and misleading half-truths about the content and meaning behind proposed reforms, and personally attacking supporters of those reforms.

“No wonder the statewide conversation about reform has focused so much on fear and punishment and so little on what’s best for kids.”

While Riccards directs his ire against the CEA, the state’s other major teachers union – AFT Connecticut – has engaged in similar viciousness, as EAGnews has documented.

The Nutmeg State’s legislative session ends in early May, leaving reformers with precious little time to get their proposals across the finish line.

If this current group of lawmakers fails to close the deal, we believe the push for education reform will live on.

By then the teacher union leaders should be completely unmasked, so the public will finally understand that they are not fighting for the best interests of students, only the best interests of their members. We believe the students are more important, and we believe the people of Connecticut will eventually come to the same conclusion.