By Joe Williams, DFER Executive Director
For all the frothing about micromanagement and overreaching at the federal level right now when it comes to education issues, Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy adds his name to the growing list of governors who are making education reform a prominent part of their 2012 legislative agendas.
The point is underscored by the fact that this is happening in Connecticut, the poster-child for states that didn’t like being told what to do under No Child Left Behind.
It was Governors like Bill Clinton, Tommy Thompson, and John Engler who gave credibility and political fuel to the standards and accountability movements in the 1990’s, but the mojo shifted in the 2000’s to urban mayors, who were mad as hell and seemingly weren’t going to take bad public schools any more.
Federal carrots and sticks, like the Race To The Top contest, have helped shift the mojo back to Governors’ Mansions, and have made “I’m a State Education Chief and I am here to help” one of the hottest and sure-thing pickup lines at capitol watering holes nationwide.
And we’re talking about bi-partisan mojo this year: Malloy, Cuomo, Christie, Jindal, etc.