Category: Anthony Rotunno
GOP Moderates Make Strides Despite Party’s Minority Status
MODERATES
The Hour
Anthony Rotunno
Boston University Washington News Service
4/20/2007
WASHINGTON, April 20 – Although the curtain fell on their party’s majority last November, many Republican centrists now say they are more integral to Congress than during the 12 years their party played the lead, despite their early fears of being shoved off stage by the new Democratic-led cast on Capitol Hill.
After only four months since the Democratic majority took control in January, Republican moderates already say they’ve been able to vote in favor of issues they could not support under their own party’s control.
“A lot of the legislation we passed early on – ethics reform, strengthening the civil liberties board, expanding stem cell research, increasing the minimum wage – these were all things championed by moderates,” said Rep. Chris Shays of Connecticut’s 4th Congressional District, now New England’s lone Republican House member. “And some of the bills were actually our bills.”
“They’re in the minority of the minority but they’re closer to the majority,” added former Rep. Nancy Johnson, who lost Connecticut’s 5th District seat in November to Democrat Christopher Murphy. “They give the majority the power to go down a centrist route, despite their extremists.”
Many points on the Democratic leadership’s agenda during Congress’s first 100 days focused on issues that moderate Republicans tried to address in previous years, Shays said.
Implementing the remaining security recommendations of the 9/11 commission was one area, he said, where moderate Republican members could not succeed under their own party’s control. In 2006, Shays co-sponsored a bill to implement the remaining recommendations almost identical to the one passed by the House earlier this year, but it was never voted on.
“The Republicans didn’t understand the importance of dealing with an issue like that and so they didn’t do it,” said Sherwood Boehlert, a New York Republican who retired in 2006 after 13 terms in the House. Like Shays, Boehlert proposed legislation in the last Congress similar to the bill passed this year to raise the minimum wage, but the then Republican majority did not approve it.
“It looked like the Democrats were taking the moderate Republican agenda and making it [their own],” Boehlert said of the first 100 days legislation.
Traditionally defined as fiscal conservatives who can lean to the left on social issues, most Republican members of Congress who are considered moderate belong to the Republican Main Street Partnership, a Washington-based organization comprised of 48 members of Congress, two governors and several former members of Congress that promotes “centrist values” and the “Republican ideals of fiscal responsibility and limited government.”
“We’re not moderate in our passion,” Shays, a member of the partnership, said of his faction of Republican centrists. “We’re simply not at one edge of the political ideology. Moderates tend to be people who bring others together. We tend to work with both ends of the political spectrum and say, you know, ‘Can we meet in the middle?’”
Among the 35 congressional seats lost by the Republican Party last November, seven or eight belonged to moderate members, according to former Rep. Charlie Bass of New Hampshire, a six-term incumbent who lost his seat last fall and is now the president and CEO of the Republican Main Street Partnership. Although the challenges are greater representing “the minority within a minority caucus,” Bass said, the role moderate GOP members play in congressional processes is “just as significant as it was before.”
Although the partnership lost some key members following last year’s midterm elections, Bass said, some new moderate members who were elected helped to fill their vacancies. “There’s a very incremental loss, but it’s not significant,” he said. “Moderates are more united in terms of interpersonal relationships than they ever have been.”
Despite Bass’s optimistic assessment, the Republican Party suffered some significant blows last fall. The traditionally liberal bastion of New England moved even further to the left, with Democrats taking 21 of the region’s 22 House seats and also picking up a Senate seat in Rhode Island.
Connecticut, with three of the region’s hottest House races, emerged from the midterms as the only New England state not awash in a sea of blue. Reps. Johnson and Rob Simmons, both moderates, were ousted in very close races, making Shays the only New England Republican who returned to the House..
“The state lost two extraordinarily good legislators,” Shays said of the midterm election results. “I lost two of my best friends. It has given me leverage in my own party to point out we need to be a party that is listening to people, looking to solve their problems and we need more people like Rob and Nancy, not less.”
“A lot of good Republicans were caught up in that firestorm,” added Chris Healy, chairman of the Connecticut Republican Party. “I’m very confident that Chris [Shays] will be there as long as he wants to be. He’s doing everything he needs to do.”
After being targeted last fall by Democrats and constituents who disapproved of the Republicans’ handling of the war in Iraq and the general corruption in Washington, Boehlert said, the moderate members who survived the election could return to a much less stressful environment on the Hill.
“I think the moderate Republicans have a much more enjoyable experience,” he said. “Although they don’t like being in the minority, a lot of the pressure is off of being charged with all the sins of a majority. And there were a number of sins.”
The legislative leeway many moderate members encountered following their party’s fall to minority status is “far more a liberation than anything else,” according to Norm Ornstein, congressional scholar and co-author of “The Broken Branch,” an in-depth analysis of Congress’s evolution over the past several decades.
“The moderate Republicans were really in a series of difficult boxes,” Ornstein added. “They had to walk the plank frequently on votes; frankly none were rank and file conservatives. [Now] they have more freedom when it comes to casting votes, and more freedom to be engaged in the policy process.”
The new Democratic majority in Congress is by no means overwhelming, and with such narrow margins, the Democrats need to be conscious of moderates across the aisle, according to Paul Weinstein, chief operating officer of the Democratic Leadership Council and a former member of the Clinton administration
The Democrats hold a 31 seat advantage in the House and a two seat advantage in the Senate, because independents Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and Bernard Sanders of Vermont caucus with the Democratic Party. “There’s going to be some tight votes they will need them on,” Weinstein added.
“Right now this is a very partisan place,” Shays said of the House. “The speaker is as partisan to the left as Tom DeLay was to the right, and because she is focused on how to increase her majority, she’s not reaching out to anybody right now on the Republican side of the aisle. But eventually I think she will have to.”
Bills to raise the minimum wage and relegate federal funding to expand stem cell research were two that already drew support from centrist Republicans in this Congress. Defecting Republican moderates were critical in giving House and Senate Democrats the majorities they needed to pass the controversial war spending bills that include timelines for troop withdrawal from Iraq as well.
“Some votes you will need those Republican moderates,” Weinstein said. “You’ve got to govern from the center out. You’ve got to start in the center and move left.”
“You do need to be able to build coalitions across party lines,” added Johnson. “If they are smart enough to work with the moderate Republicans, they can free themselves.”
For many centrist members in the minority who represent evenly divided districts like Shays, voting in favor of certain Democratic bills shows their constituents they’re listening to the concerns of their districts, Boehlert said.
“They actually get to work on and vote on issues that they favor,” added Thomas Mann, congressional scholar and co-author of “The Broken Branch.” “Matters that were often time kept from the floor while their own party was in power. That’s the most satisfying part.”
Despite the changes brought by the new Democratic leadership, Shays said, the remaining Republican moderate members will still continue to endorse legislation they believe will strengthen the center.
“We get it done in the majority or minority, but some things are easier for me now than they were under my own party,” he said. “Moderates are always going to be relevant, and we’re always going to be in the thick of the battle because we’re basically dealing with the issues the constituents are concerned about.”
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Cherry Blossoml Festival Lacks Connecticut Representative
CHERRY
The Hour
Anthony Rotunno
Boston University Washington News Service
4/5/07
WASHINGTON, April 5 – When the 47 princesses of this year’s National Cherry Blossom Festival gathered in the nation’s capital Sunday to begin their week of luncheons, congressional receptions and meetings with foreign embassy officials, a representative from the Nutmeg State was nowhere to be found.
“We decided maybe this was not the year for a princess,” said Brian Mahar, president of the Connecticut State Society, the organization responsible for selecting the state’s princess. “I don’t think any of our board members were going to be able to put in the time or energy to work with the princess and participate.”
This year, Connecticut is one of 12 states that are not represented among the states, the District of Columbia, U.S. territories and international embassies eligible to participate in the program. But this is not the first year Connecticut has not sponsored a cherry blossom princess. In fact, the last time a Connecticut resident participated in the program was in 2003, according to Suzanne New, the Cherry Blossom Princess chairwoman.
In years when the Connecticut State Society sponsored a participant, however, their princesses were often at the forefront of the festivities. In 2002, Connecticut princess Elizabeth O’Connor, then an aide to Sen. Chris Dodd, was crowned U.S. Cherry Blossom Queen, and in 1999, Connecticut princess Shannon Kula also received the crown. But because of a decline in its membership, Mahar said, the state society decided not to participate in recent years’ festivals.
“We’re in the midst of starting up a membership drive,” he said. “We’re trying to get more people involved, to put together more events for people. For this year, it was a decision the board made that we couldn’t put the effort in that was needed to make it a success.”
There are a number of reasons why a state society might not sponsor a princess, New said, and because New England state societies are typically smaller than those of other states, they probably have a smaller number of applicants to pick from. Inability to pay the program’s entrance fee is another reason some societies choose not to participate, she added.
“We hope for all 50 states,” she added. “If we know that there are interested parties, we put them in touch with the state society, but it doesn’t always work out that way.”
The National Cherry Blossom Festival began in 1935 as a celebration to commemorate the 1912 gift of 3,000 cherry trees to Washington, D.C., from the Mayor of Tokyo. In 1948 the princess program was added to the festival, New said, as “a cultural and educational program for the girls.”
“I do think the princess program is very important,” New said. “To meet people from other states, to meet international people is huge cultural experience. It truly is an opportunity to open the possibilities they have in their future careers.”
The week-long program includes a series of special events for the princesses to attend and culminates with the crowning of the U.S. Cherry Blossom Queen, who is chosen each year by the spin of a wheel. “It’s not a beauty pageant,” New said. “It’s not a contest at all. It’s a week of networking, camaraderie and building lifelong memories.”
After she’s chosen, the queen rides down Constitution Avenue in the final Cherry Blossom Parade the next morning and begins her year-long reign, which includes a good-will trip to Japan, where she attends events as a special guest of the Japanese government.
Although none of the members of the Connecticut State Society’s all-volunteer board could commit to “the action packed” week of events this year, Mahar said, they hope next year will mark the state’s return to the program.
“It is definitely something we’ll consider for next year, especially if someone is interested” in being the princess, he said
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Bridgeport Native is First Lady’s Chief of Staff
MCBRIDE
The Hour
Anthony Rotunno
Boston University Washington News Service
3/28/07
WASHINGTON, March 28 – Unlike her husband’s West Wing Oval Office, the East Wing office of first lady Laura Bush is modest, and square. A wall of full bookshelves stands behind a simple desk, and sunlight shines through two glass windows overlooking the East Garden in bloom. Meetings have pulled Mrs. Bush away from her desk, but seated at a small conference table in the corner is a woman as poised and put-together as the first lady herself.
Anita McBride, Mrs. Bush’s chief of staff, sits attentively, smiling politely from across the table. After two decades of White House service under three different Republican administrations, the former resident of Bridgeport, Conn., now serves as the first lady’s right-hand woman and as a senior staffer to President George W. Bush. Her perfect posture and kind brown eyes visually suggest the delicate balance between seriousness and compassion that’s come to characterize her life both in and out of the White House.
On her boss of more than two years, McBride says: “Mrs. Bush sets a very high standard. She sets the tone for the office and all of us really want to do the best that we can possibly do. She cares about us, she has very good instincts and she gives good direction.”
“More and more actually, I realize how we are so privileged to be temporary custodians of these jobs and how much we are responsible for actually accomplishing here,” she says of her various jobs in the White House. “I feel the real sense of history around me…It’s a national park, it’s a museum, it’s a symbol of our democracy where our president works and lives.”
McBride, 47, is a veteran in the ever-reshuffling White House cast. In addition to working in the current administration she also has served Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. Occupying positions in both the East and West Wings over the course of her tenure, she says there is no spot on the 18-acre estate her jobs have not taken her.
Up at 5 a.m., she says her work days start in the car, where she listens to radio broadcasts of Fox News and CNN for what will be the day's hot news topics as she drives to work each morning. In the office by 7 a.m., she tries to quickly read emails and the newspapers before she’s required to attend the president’s senior staff briefings each morning at 7:30 a.m.
“As a member of the president’s senior staff but assigned to the first lady, my position gives me, and ultimately everyone on our staff, the opportunity to have our feet in both camps,” she says of her jobs in both wings.
As Mrs. Bush’s chief of staff, McBride oversees a group of 23 East Wing employees, and is responsible for managing the First Lady’s policy, press, correspondence, scheduling, speechwriting and social offices – responsibilities, she says, that don’t allow her to leave 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue until 9 o’clock each night.
“I do get about five to six hours of sleep a night,” she says, laughing at the suggestion of going days without rest. “The days are long and full, but they are exactly what you would expect them to be working in the White House.”
McBride began working her “long and full days” more than 20 years ago, starting as a volunteer for President Reagan’s re-election campaign in 1984. Following her volunteer work, she served as Reagan’s deputy director of personnel for two years until she was promoted to director of White House personnel in 1987, a position she held through the George H.W. Bush administration.
Of all three administrations she’s served, McBride says the Reagan White House was her favorite, “because it gave me my start.”
Working under Reagan was also when she met her husband, Timothy McBride, then an aide for Vice President Bush and now the senior vice president and a top lobbyist at the financial services company Freddie Mac. They have been married for 14 years and have two children.
In terms of her influence within the White House, however, McBride says her positions in the current administration have given her the ability to have a much greater impact on a number of very diverse issues.
Earlier this month, McBride accompanied the President and Mrs. Bush on their trip to Latin America, where she visited the countries of Brazil Uruguay, Colombia, Guatemala, and Mexico. Last year she helped to organize the White House’s Summit on Malaria and Conference on Global Literacy, two integral components of the First Lady’s policy initiatives.
“One of the most important things I had an opportunity to play a role in was the search process to hire a new chief usher for the White House,” she says of her part in selecting a new manager of the first family’s executive residence. “Being part of that selection process really drove home for me that if I do nothing else, I have helped place somebody who will serve future presidents to come in a really, really good way.”
McBride says a career in politics was not one she imagined for herself while growing up in Bridgeport. The daughter of Italian immigrants, she says her parents were not politically active, but they did teach her early on how important it is to vote.
“They took voting very, very seriously,” she says.
She may be modest about her political prowess, but McBride’s flair for leadership was evident long before she joined the Reagan campaign, according to Carl Phillip, then her Spanish teacher and now assistant principal at Notre Dame Catholic High School in Fairfield, Conn. As president of her 1977 senior class, McBride (then Anita Bevacqua) did a great job “without a lot of fanfare and noise,” Phillip says.
“She’s probably perfect for the job she's in now,” he adds. “In contrast to other presidents who might have been flashier, she would take the last seat in the room but would give the best product. Laura Bush must see that in her.”
McBride’s desire to give more than 100 percent effort to everything she does is another quality that makes her so successful, according to longtime friend and fellow University of Connecticut alum Gregg Shipman. When they were both living in UConn’s Buckley Hall, McBride’s positive attitude and optimism made her one of the most well liked students in the dorm, he says.
“It’s not a coincidence that everyone ended up congregating in her room,” Shipman says. “She really is the type of person who gets her greatest joy from making other people happy.”
Initially enrolled as a pre-med student, McBride says she was not turned on to a political career until she spent her junior year abroad at the University of Florence in Italy and experienced anti-American sentiments during the Iranian hostage crisis of 1979.
“The American flag and effigies of Jimmy Carter were being burned in the courtyard of where I was going to school,” she says. “I had not had the experience of being challenged as an American, and it really threw the light bulb switch on about how deeply I felt about my country.” She returned to graduate with a degree in international studies from UConn in 1981.
After her stints in the Reagan and first Bush administrations, McBride thought it was time for a break. From 1992 to 2000, she held various jobs in the private sector, and was working part-time as an executive recruiter when her two children, now ages 9 and 6, were born. “I had moved on in my life,” McBride says.
She was enjoying the chance to spend more time with her family at their home in Washington’s Spring Valley neighborhood, but after agreeing to help the current administration set up their personnel structure, she quickly got sucked back into the daily White House routine and the subsequent offer to become Mrs. Bush’s chief-of-staff marked a “career capstone” that she and her husband decided she couldn’t pass up.
Having worked for former President George H.W. Bush, Timothy McBride says he has “a very clear appreciation and enthusiasm” for the roles his wife plays in the current administration. With the help of a nanny, the couple has been able to establish a fairly efficient system to manage their household but, he says, some kinks are still being worked out. Vacations often get missed or postponed because of their busy schedules, he explains.
With less than two years left in the White House, McBride says, everyone on the first lady’s staff, including Mrs. Bush herself, feels the pressure to get as much accomplished as possible in the short time that remains.
But, she says, once that time expires, she has no expectations of staying in the White House under a new Republican administration. And as her children get older, Timothy McBride says, they look forward to the time when their mom’s schedule isn’t so consumed by work – unless it gets them another trip to Camp David, that is.
“They're always asking when we can go back,” Timothy McBride says of their trip to the presidential retreat in western Maryland. “They don't realize those invitations are only extended by the president and the first lady.”
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Senate Joins House in Setting Timetable for U.S. Troop Withdrawal from Iraq
IRAQ
The Hour
Anthony Rotunno
Boston University Washington News Service
3/28/07
WASHINGTON, March 28 – Senate debate continued Wednesday on an emergency spending bill to fund the war in Iraq, following Tuesday’s vote to retain the legislation’s nonbinding provision establishing a firm timeline for troop withdrawal.
The Senate rejected, 48-50, an amendment to remove the timeline for withdrawal. With the House’s approval of similar but binding timeline legislation last week, this marks the first time since the war began that Congress has gone on record opposing the president’s policy to stay the course in Iraq. But President Bush already has said he will veto any bill demanding troop withdrawal.
Tuesday’s narrow vote was largely split along party lines, with only two Republicans, Sens. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and Gordon Smith of Oregon, voting not to remove the requirement that U.S. combat forces leave Iraq by March 31, 2008, and one Democrat, Sen. Mark Pryor of Arkansas, voting to strike it from the bill.
The Connecticut Senate delegation also was split, with Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd voting to keep the withdrawal provision and Independent Sen. Joe Lieberman voting to remove it.
“This vote sends a clear message to President Bush and others who believe that a protracted, embattled stay in Iraq is preferable to a clear course of action,” Dodd said in a statement following the vote. “I would have preferred to begin phased deployment even earlier, but this is a positive development that I strongly support.”
Dodd, a 2008 presidential candidate and one of the Senate’s most vocal critics of the president’s policies on the war in Iraq, has supported previous measures calling for troop withdrawal and proposed legislation to cap the number of U.S. troops in Iraq.
“Even if the President vetoes this bill, which I would strongly urge him not to, Congress has taken a critical step in taking the U.S. policy in a new direction and stopping the administration’s failed policy,” he said.
Lieberman, in remarks on the Senate floor before the vote, said legislation supporting troop withdrawal goes against the nation’s “moral responsibility to the Iraqis.”
“It is contrary to our traditions; it is contrary to our values; and it is contrary to our interests,” Lieberman said. “And yet that is precisely what this Congress will be calling for if we order our troops to withdraw.”
A final vote on the Senate bill containing the troop withdrawal measure is expected Thursday.
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Group Wants Leaner Federal Budget by Eliminating Pork Projects
EARMARKS
The Hour
Anthony Rotunno
Boston University Washington News Service
3/7/07
WASHINGTON, March 7 – Despite a $15.8 billion reduction in 2007 earmarked spending, some members of Congress say that even more fat needs to be trimmed from the federal budget by eliminating wasteful pork-barrel projects.
Last year, members of Congress procured a total of $13.2 billion to fund specific projects not included in the initial federal budget, according to the 2007 “Pig Book,” a report released Wednesday by the non-partisan, non-profit organization Citizens Against Government Waste. The report identified 2,659 “pork barrel projects,” which it identified as funds, used for a specific purpose, that are not appropriated in the normal budgeting process.
But unlike previous annual reports, this year’s was confined to the Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security. Spending bills for those two departments were the only ones Congress passed last year. Money for all other agencies and programs were included in a single “omnibus” spending bill enacted this year after congressional leaders imposed a moratorium on earmarks.
“We have a long way to go in order to help us restore the confidence of the American people in how we spend their tax dollars,” Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz, said Wednesday of overhauling the earmark process .
Although Congress has begun to initiate rules changes to reduce the number of earmarks and make the process more transparent, McCain said not enough has been done fix the system.
In January, the House adopted a number of rules to overhaul the pork barreling process. The new restrictions included measures requiring the identity of all earmark sponsors to be disclosed and prohibiting members from having personal financial stakes in earmark legislation.
President Bush also asked Congress to cut the number of earmarks in half in the coming year.
“We are pleased with the new procedures,” McCain said.
But, he added: “Have we gone far enough? Absolutely not. I’m glad to see the president recently said he wants to cut out half of the earmarks. I don’t know how exactly you do half of them – it’s like getting rid of half the drug dealers.”
While making the earmarking process more transparent could help expose unethical practices, members of Congress still have an important obligation to secure federal funding for specific local projects, Rep. Christopher Shays, R-4, said in an e-mail message following the press conference.
“An earmark is valid if it is requested by a municipality or nonprofit in the Fourth District and I can explain its value to constituents in a community meeting,” he said. “The projects I support are…valuable transportation, education, human services and economic development projects.”
Despite the fact that only two appropriations bills went through the normal process, said Tom Schatz, the president of Citizens Against Government Waste, members of Congress still pushed as many special projects as possible through the budgeting process. “Pork is the gateway drug of wasteful spending,” he added.
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash, added more than $1.6 million to the Pentagon budget to “improve the shelf life of vegetables,” and the House added $1 million for the Allen Telescope Array, a project “dedicated to astronomical and simultaneous search for extra-terrestrial intelligence observations.”
Projects like these illustrate the type of wasteful spending of taxpayers’ dollars that members of Congress are capable of, Schatz said.
“There is no permanent fix to the earmark problem,” he said. “We’ve long been fighting the war against wasteful spending. As the 2008 process unfolds there will be more exposure of which members of Congress are asking for these projects, and it will shed a lot more light on what’s going on here in Washington with our money.”
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Wide Achievement Gap Still Divides Connecticut Students
GAP
The Hour
Anthony Rotunno
Boston University Washington News Service
3/1/07
WASHINGTON, March 1 – Despite being recognized for having one of the nation’s 10 highest rates of academic achievement among the 50 states, the Connecticut public school system still has some of the nation’s widest ethnic and income-based achievement gaps, according to a new report by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
After the report was issued on Wednesday, Connecticut Department of Education officials admitted to having “one of the largest achievement gaps in the nation,” and said fixing the problem remains one of their top priorities.
“The achievement gap in Connecticut is pronounced and statewide,” said Thomas Murphy, a spokesman for the department. “If you look at any district you will see an achievement gap between poor and non-poor students and white and minority students.”
The Chamber of Commerce report graded student academic achievement by comparing the scores of fourth and eighth graders in each state to the national averages scored in the 2005 National Assessment of Educational Progress, a nationwide math and reading exam.
Connecticut received an A for overall academic achievement, but its achievement levels for minority and low-income students received a D.
The report identified a need for better teachers, more innovative educational systems, better data collection methods and better management systems in public schools across the country. By applying business practices in areas like management and data collection, states can improve their education systems, according to Thomas Donohue, president and CEO of the Chamber of Commerce.
“The private sector is essential to tapping the potential of our educators and our schools,” he said.
But if states want to improve their students’ performance in the classroom, focusing on external variables like management and data collection is not the most effective way, according to Salvatore Corda, superintendent of Norwalk Public Schools.
Instead, he said, concentrating on classroom interaction between teachers and students is the most efficient way to improve academic performance.
“There is a fundamental misunderstanding on how you improve student performance,” Corda said. “Concentrate on the work. The more you concentrate on the core the greater the probability is you will be able to improve performance.”
The achievement gap between white and minority students has very little to do with race, Corda said, and everything to do with socioeconomic status. But it often gets placed in a racial context because many children from poorer families happen to be minorities, he said.
Bridging the achievement gap can not be done by simply increasing the states’ education spending per pupil, the state agency’s Murphy said. Students who live in poverty are often deprived of educational resources that their peers from wealthier families have access to, he said.
“One of the areas we neglect is the recognition that, for the most part, youngsters who come from poor families do not have the same access to experience, to language and to nurturing,” Corda said of the advantages low-income students lack. “They find themselves entering school behind those who have had these experiences.”
It is impossible to address the issue of minority and low-income students falling further behind in Norwalk public schools without addressing the social implications behind the statistics, according to the Rev. Lindsay Curtis, pastor of Grace Baptist Church and a board member of the Connecticut Coalition for Achievement Now, a statewide organization working to narrow the achievement gap.
“You can’t look at this whole query of why kids aren’t doing well and why it breaks along racial, cultural and economic divides without considering the social side of it,” Curtis said.
Gov. M. Jodi Rell’s proposed 2008 budget provides more than $1 billion for schools with large achievement gaps, Murphy said, as well as support for special education, after-school programs and more rigorous course curricula.
The state’s limited financial resources will ultimately dictate how much money is given to the public school systems in the coming year, Corda said. Fixing Connecticut’s achievement gap will require not only a financial commitment, he said, but a political and moral commitment as well.
“We can overcome these variables,” Corda said. “This issue is one of political will, but I do not believe that this country is ready to do that.”
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Shays Supports Repeal of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’
SHAYS
The Hour
Anthony Rotunno
Boston University Washington News Service
2/28/07
WASHINGTON, Feb. 28 – With President Bush’s troop surge in Iraq already underway, Reps. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., and Marty Meehan, D-Mass., re-introduced legislation Wednesday to repeal the disputed “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that bans gays from openly serving in the military.
The U.S. military is already suffering from troop shortages, Meehan said, and a policy that discharges qualified individuals from armed service because of their sexual orientation only places additional strains on the current system.
“The president and the Republicans in Congress say they are committed to fighting the global war on terror, but when it comes time for action, they haven’t provided the number of soldiers we need,” Meehan said. “Repealing ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ and allowing our military to keep all of the best and brightest really is a matter of national security.”
Serving in the military is one of the greatest privileges a U.S. citizen can have, Shays said, and the current policy forces gay men and women who enlist to live in fear of being exposed and discharged.
Under the current law, any member of the military can be discharged for openly admitting he or she is gay.
“I look at Arlington Cemetery and wonder how many men and women who sacrificed their lives for our country were gay,” Shays said. “We will never know and the point is it doesn’t matter. Their service is as appreciated and valuable as that of the military personnel that were heterosexual.”
In addition to the policy’s blatant discrimination against homosexuals, Meehan said, it places an unnecessary financial burden on the Department of Defense.
In 2005, the Government Accountability Office, Congress’ investigative arm, estimated that the policy cost the Pentagon more than $190 million between 1994 and 2003, an amount Meehan said was “vastly underestimated.”
A separate study released by Meehan last year concluded that the cost of implementing “don’t ask, don’t tell” was more than $363 million for the same period.
“Wasting taxpayer dollars by discharging competent service members under ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ doesn’t make sense,” he said. “It’s long past time that we act to repeal it.”
The majority of the coalition forces fighting alongside the U.S. armed services in Iraq allow openly gay men and women to serve in their militaries, Meehan said, including the British and Israeli armies.
Roughly 11,000 members of the U.S. armed services were discharged between 1994 and 2003, according to the Government Accountability Office’s 2005 report.
To compensate for the loss of thousands of qualified personnel, Meehan said, the Pentagon has continually lowered its recruiting standards. The number of waivers given to recruits with criminal records has risen by almost 80 percent in the last three years, he said.
“There is no excuse for sacrificing safety in the name of discrimination,” said Dixon Osburn, executive director of Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, a national organization that provides assistance to military personnel affected by “don’t ask, don’t tell.”
Meehan proposed a similar bill last year, but the Republican majority did not let it move out of committee deliberation. With 109 cosponsors already in support of the current legislation, Meehan said, he believes it has a strong chance of succeeding.
Reps. Wayne Gilchrest, R-Md., Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., and Shays are currently the only three Republican co-sponsors but, Shays said, he will help Meehan find more support in the House and the Senate.
“The American people are very fair minded, and they will put pressure on us just to get this done,” Shays said.
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Rell Applauds Role of Businesses in Early Education
RELL
Norwalk Hour
Anthony Rotunno
Boston University Washington News Service
2/26/07
WASHINGTON, Feb. 26 – Even as Gov. M. Jodi Rell Monday applauded Connecticut’s achievements in dealing with issues concerning early childhood education some state education experts said progress remains slow.
Connecticut has been a leader in establishing organizations to confront early childhood education issues, Rell said at the National Governors Association winter meeting. With members from the state government, business and philanthropic sectors, she said, the state’s partnership between the government and private businesses represents a model for other states.
“If every state could replicate what we’ve done, [the country] would be off to a great start,” said Rell, vice chair of the governors association’s Education, Early Childhood and Workforce committee.
Rell’s decision to incorporate members of the business community in early childhood education policy-making is a step in the right direction, according to Peg Oliveira, senior policy fellow at Connecticut Voices for Children, a liberal organization that advocates for programs to aid children and their families.
But, she added, there is more work to be done. Although Rell included business members in planning solutions to problems facing children in need of pre-kindergarten education, Oliveira said, no significant attempts have been made to fund schools and early childcare providers.
“I’ve yet to see if business has put its money where its mouth is,” Oliveira said. “I don’t think we’ve figured out a way to establish a public-private partnership in a funding capacity.”
Today’s global economy creates intense competition for jobs, and businesses recognize early childhood education is essential in ensuring future generations of well-educated professionals, according to Mary Ann Hanley, the governor’s policy advisor for workforce development.
The lack of national organizations that focus on improving early childhood education is one reason private companies should support the issue, said Michael N. Harreld, an official from PNC Bank, which donated $100 million over the next 10 years to support early childhood education programs across the country.
“The longitudinal effects of investing in early childhood education are unmatched by any other investment,” Harreld said.
Programs offering tax credits to businesses that hire teachers for their daycare facilities and using bond dollars to convert existing buildings into new childcare centers are additional solutions to the problem being considered by Connecticut lawmakers, Rell said.
“You have to find buildings and find anyone you can to fill them,” she said.
Rell’s proposed 2008 budget takes the steps necessary for Connecticut to recover the money it has lost in early childhood education over the past five years, Oliveira said, and initiatives to create new facilities in existing buildings represent positive progress towards providing more extensive services.
What Connecticut lawmakers failed to adequately address is the salary gap between early childcare providers and elementary school teachers, a major setback in improving the quality of education according to Oliveira.
“The salary of a childcare provider in Connecticut is $20,000-$25,000 a year,” she said. “That does not compare to teachers’ $40,000-$45,000 a year with union benefits and summers off.”
The achievements made under Rell to incorporate businesses in the policy-making for early childhood education have broadened the scope of action Connecticut law-makers take to enrich 21st century talent, Hanley said.
“The lesson we’ve learned through our collaboration with business is to be aware of the big picture,” she said.
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HUD Awards Greater Norwalk $1.3 Million for Homeless Assistance
SHELTERS
The Norwalk Hour
Anthony Rotunno
Boston University Washington News Service
2/22/07
WASHINGTON, Feb. 22 – The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced Tuesday more than $1.3 million in funding for Fairfield County homeless assistance projects, but state officials say the sum falls short of what is needed.
Of the $1,327,150 total, only $49,017 will go towards the construction of a new Westport housing project – an amount that fails to adequately address the need for additional new units, according to members of the Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness, a liberal group that works to minimize the problem across the state.
“It’s appreciated, but it’s not enough,” Carol Walter, executive director of the coalition, said of the HUD money. “HUD has been doing a good job of renewing programs, but the money we’ve used to create new beds has largely gone away.”
The remaining $1,278,138 will go to support existing projects in the Fairfield County area, including United Way of Norwalk and Wilton and Norwalk Emergency Shelter, Inc. Despite cutting funds for new programs, Walter said, HUD has continued to provide adequate funds to successful area programs.
“The good part [of the grants] is all of the fund renewal requests got renewed,” she said. “Programs are continuing to get renewed by HUD, so we’re not losing what we already have.”
The new housing unit will be built by the Interfaith Housing Association, a not-for-profit, Westport-based organization operating nine other buildings that serve between 50-60 area homeless each night.
In 2003, HUD gave more than $320,000 to the Interfaith Housing Association for the construction of new housing projects, but since then the number has continued to fall, Powell said.
Although any HUD money used to create more permanent housing units is a step toward alleviating homelessness, the federal government’s priority has shifted away from funding new supportive housing projects, according to Peter Powell, president of Interfaith.
“We raise more than 90 percent of our funding privately,” he said. “I think federal priorities have changed. I would hope people realize we know how to solve homelessness – we need more housing.”
Nationwide, the HUD grants totaled nearly $1.4 billion, a sum just shy of the maximum amount ever given by the department to organizations working to reduce homelessness, according to HUD spokesperson Brian Sullivan.
Of the $1.4 billion, only 16 percent went to funding new projects, but Sullivan said this percentage is reflective of the funding each organization asks for.
“The breakdown of the numbers is largely driven of what’s being asked of us,” he said. “In order to get new projects funded, you’ve got to be successful [with existing ones].”
The lack of available housing often hits harder in smaller cities, Walter said, because there are fewer options to fall back on when the available services are full.
Norwalk’s reputation as one of Connecticut’s wealthier cities does not spare it from dealing with the problem of homelessness, she said.
“The fact that there are people in any town, let alone the more affluent ones, who do not know where they are going to sleep on a daily basis is unacceptable in a society like ours,” Walter said.
Because many homeless assistance programs focus more on providing services to the individuals they help, Sullivan said, HUD is trying to build incentives in its funding programs that emphasize providing housing over services.
“Nobody but HUD can provide housing support,” he said. “We try to place more emphasis on housing so people can begin to access it to a greater degree – whether a person is experiencing temporary homelessness or chronic homelessness, this money is saving lives.”
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Connecticut Residents Would Pay Price for Bush’s Budget
BUDGET-CT
The Norwalk Hour
Anthony Rotunno
Boston University Washington News Service
2/21/07
WASHINGTON, Feb. 21 – Connecticut residents would be forced to foot the bill if President Bush’s proposed cuts in K-12 education spending are adopted, according to a new study.
If the president’s 2008 budget is approved, Connecticut would lose a total of $73.5 million in elementary and secondary school funding by 2012 according to a new study by the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal think tank that advocates for low- and middle-income families.
“It is certainly the case [that states] will have to pick up some of the funding shortfall,” Sharon Parrott, the center’s director of welfare reform and income support, said. “Even when states fill in there will be implications – cuts in other services or increased taxes at the state level.”
The priorities set in President Bush’s budget are not in the best interest of the nation or Connecticut, according to Douglas Hall, associate research director at Connecticut Voices for Children, a liberal statewide research organization that advocates for programs to aid children and their families. Hall criticized the president’s budget as “one piece of a larger strategy of passing on cuts that place heavier burdens on state and local governments.”
Although the president’s proposed budget “made a sincere attempt to slow the growth of spending,” the cuts it proposes would prove detrimental to state governments, Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., said in an emailed statement.
“The bottom line is if the president’s budget were to pass, a number of social programs critical to Connecticut and the rest of the country would be significantly cut,” he said.
The president’s proposal allows the federal government to abdicate its role in education, Hall said, leaving state and local government resources greatly diminished.
President Bush’s budget provides the public and policy makers with a window into the kinds of cuts that would come down the pike, and those cuts only represent “the tip of the iceberg” if long term fiscal problems aren’t addressed properly, Parrott said.
“The president’s budget would make deficits bigger…and move us backward in confronting the nation’s challenges,” she said.
The drop in K-12 education funding would be accompanied by a $19.1 million slash in funds to the pre-schools supported by the Head Start program in Connecticut, according to data from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
“What [the budget] says loud and clear is that investing in things like education and child care are less important than sustaining tax cuts for the very wealthiest people,” Hall said.
Because the proposed cuts remove a sizeable chunk of funding, Hall said, state governments would need to respond to the issue, but it is unlikely they would be able to find ways to offset all of the cuts’ effects.
Since its delivery on February 5, the president’s budget has been criticized by the Democrats who control Congress. Democrats are now likely to write from scratch and pass their own budget, and will have to reach a compromise with the White House for a final product.
Hall said that while many members who would like to avoid the kind of cuts Bush proposes, the president’s veto power will likely defeat their attempts.
Despite the criticism it’s received, Department of Education officials said they stand by their $56 billion budget.
“We are quite proud of the investment that this…budget would make in promoting excellence in American education,” Jim Bradshaw, a department spokesperson, said in a statement.
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