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I posed this question to Sharon D. Langer, MEd, JD
Senior Policy Fellow
Connecticut Voices for Children

Here’s her response:

We don’t believe that Connecticut will forego 100% federal funding (over time that will decrease to about 90% federal funding) to cover a large segment of the uninsured through the Medicaid expansion. Connecticut was the first state to adopt a more limited version of the expansion in order to receive 50% federal matching funds. (We currently cover individuals with incomes below 56% of the federal poverty level). It is true that the Court ruled that states can choose to forego the Medicaid expansion (covering uninsured individuals with income up to 133% of the federal poverty level) and not risk losing their federal reimbursement for the rest of their Medicaid programs. See Judy Solomon’s blog post on the Center on Budget & Public Priorities website for a more in depth explanation of why states are unlikely to forego the opportunity to cover low-income individuals through Medicaid. http://www.offthechartsblog.org/health-reforms-medicaid-expansion-is-a-very-good-deal-for-states/

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Connecticut Voices for Children today cheered the U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding the health reform law, pointing to the many benefits and protections it offers for children in the state.

“This victory for health reform is a victory for all Connecticut children and families,” said Sharon Langer, Senior Policy Fellow at Connecticut Voices. “Many people don’t realize that the health reform law is already protecting children and ensuring that lower-income children can keep their HUSKY health care coverage.”

Connecticut Voices pointed to the end of discrimination against children with pre-existing conditions as one of the key benefits for families. Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, children can no longer be denied coverage based on health conditions which developed prior to their parents seeking enrollment. Up to 17 million children are estimated to have a pre-existing condition, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Children also are protected from lifetime caps on benefits under the health reform law.

Because the Supreme Court upheld the law, funding and coverage for children under the HUSKY program remains in effect. HUSKY currently covers over 250,000 children in Connecticut.

In addition, young adults and their families can breathe a sigh of relief because young adults under age 26 can continue to stay on their parents’ employer-sponsored health plan. As of December 2011, 23,000 young adults in Connecticut gained insurance coverage as a result of the health care law, according to HHS.

Expanded access is another key win, according to the child advocates. Before the passage of health reform, 45 million Americans were without access to quality care. But health reform’s expansion of Medicaid, extension of Children’s Health Insurance Program funding, subsidies for low-income families, and health insurance markets (called exchanges) will help more families in need get coverage for their children.

“Now that the fate of the health reform law is clear, Connecticut should move full speed ahead with implementation of the law,” said Sharon Langer. “We must start laying the groundwork if the law is to benefit everyone by 2014.”

Connecticut Voices for Children is a research-based think tank that works to advance policies that benefit the state’s children, youth, and families ).

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Does this sound like a moderate?

The Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the constitutionality of the individual healthcare mandate just reaffirms the need to send someone to the United States Senate who has the ability to repeal this destructive law. Obamacare is the single greatest infringement on our individual liberties and personal freedoms that we have seen in my generation. This was a power grab of the U.S. health care system by Chris Murphy, a Democratic Congress and the Obama Administration.

The Supreme Court ruled that the President’s healthcare plan is constitutional based on the fact that the individual mandate is a tax, in spite of the fact that the Democrat-controlled Congress and the Administration repeatedly insisted it was not a tax. This hypocrisy is why Americans have a right to be fed up with Washington.

Obamacare is increasing health insurance premiums, reducing patient choice, threatening the quality of care, and impeding medical progress.

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from Wait What by Jon Pelto

Last September, following Hurricane Irene’s landfall in Connecticut, President Obama released significant resources to help people, including the availability of emergency food aid (called D-SNAP.)

The Department of Social Services, the state agency that oversees the regular food stamp program (which is called SNAP) ramped up for what it expected to be 2,000 applicants. Over the next few days, 30,000 Connecticut residents stood in line to receive an emergency food card for $250 or more. The amount a family received depended on their losses and their available resources. In the end, a total of about 75,000 Connecticut residents, in nearly 24,000 families, received federal aid.

In December, with Governor Malloy leaving for a meeting on the West Coast, his press operation called reporters into the executive offices for an “unprecedented” Sunday afternoon press conference. After discovering that some state employees may have received emergency food aid when they shouldn’t have qualified, the Governor’s press event was to order a full-scale investigation. Malloy spoke of a “Culture of Corruption” that he believed permeated state service.

Over the next six months, the Governor’s Office, the Department of Social Services and the state’s labor relations operation spent thousands of hours and hundreds of thousands of dollars “investigating” whether some state employees inappropriately collected D-SNAP emergency food aid.

At one point, an agency official in the Malloy Administration sent out an inappropriate, and probably illegal, memo instructing state employees not to speak with Richard Rochlin, the lawyer representing a number of the state employees who were being accused of violating the law. In another situation, Rochlin was forced to step in to stop state actions that amounted to “flagrant” violations of employee’s privacy rights and the state’s illegal attempt to prevent terminated workers form collecting unemployment benefits.

When the dust settled, about 100 state employees who received emergency food assistance were terminated or forced to resign by the Malloy Administration.

Then in June, when the process finally made it to a neutral review, an arbitrator ordered that 40 of the state employees be reinstated because there was no evidence that they “committed intentional fraud.”

Throughout the process Governor Malloy insisted that there was no evidence that the Department of Social Services made any mistakes or failed to comply with federal guidelines.

But, of course, we now know that there were significant mistakes and that doesn’t even count the fact that there has been no comprehensive investigation into the vast majority of the applicants (who were not state employees.)

In fact, the problems go well beyond the emergency food aid program. According to at least two different lawsuits, Connecticut’s Department of Social Services is the “second worst offender among other states in the nation for mistakes in its oversight of the regular food stamp program (SNAP).”

The state’s failure to provide sufficient staff at the Department of Social Services, combined with the lack of leadership at the top of the agency, means services aren’t being provided correctly and that Connecticut is not prepared to respond appropriately when something like the emergency food aid program is needed.

Equally disturbing is that instead of a measured response and a focus on fixing the underlying problem, the Governor’s Office was more interested in engaging in an inappropriate and overzealous investigation and condemnation of Connecticut’s state employees.

Nothing excuses a person’s illegal activities, and public employees should be held to the highest standards. However, for those who watched the administration’s handling of this case, and especially the way the Governor’s Office responded to the issues brought forward by Attorney Rochlin, it is absolutely clear that the overall goal was not to fix the problem, but to garner media attention, even at the cost of people’s rights.

Thanks to the review process, 40 Connecticut state employees who unfairly lost their jobs, now have them back.

But the cost of the political attack on state employees was significant and Connecticut taxpayers still don’t have a Department of Social Services that can get the job done right.

So the question remains…now that the Malloy Administration knows that there are problems at the Department of Social Services, what are they going to do about it?

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Updated:

Westport Restaurants

Bridgeport Restaurants

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I. Things I take/get/do that are good for me (Note #9 especially!)

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The Service Employees International Union Connecticut State Council, along with the SEIU affiliated locals the Connecticut State Employees Association, the New England Health Care Employees Union District 1199ne, SEIU Local 32BJ, the Connecticut Employees Union Independent, the Congress of Connecticut Community Colleges, and the National Association of Government Employees, today announced their endorsement of Chris Donovan for the Fifth Congressional District seat. Comprised of the six affiliated local unions, the SEIU State Council represents more than 65,000 members and retirees in Connecticut.

“CSEA members endorsed Chris Donovan for Congress because he is the best candidate for the job. In fact, without Chris the reality of the lives of working men and women in Connecticut would be much different. And, thanks to his leadership in the State House, public employees in Connecticut are treated with a level of dignity and respect not seen in most other states,” said Patrice Peterson, President of CSEA/SEIU Local 2001. “Chris Donovan has been a loud, proud, and bold voice for working men and women. We need that voice in Washington.”

“Chris Donovan has always fought for working people and we will fight for him,” said Ron McLellan, President of CEUI.

“Our strong endorsement is based on Chris Donovan’s outstanding record and unwavering commitment to all workers, whether or not they are members of a union,” said David Pickus, President of the New England Health Care Employees Union District 1199ne, and President of the SEIU State Council. “No one has done more to raise families out of poverty, to ensure fairness for all, or to protect the rights of every individual than Chris – whether it’s fighting to raise the minimum wage or to ensure that everyone has health care. He’s the right leader to represent the working families of the 5th Congressional District.”

“It is an honor to have the endorsement of SEIU, a union that is unwavering in its fight on behalf of the working families of Connecticut,” said Donovan. “Together, we will fight for every Connecticut family to be treated with fairness, dignity, and respect, to bring good-paying jobs with solid benefits back home to Connecticut, and to protect Medicare and Social Security from draconian Republican cuts.”

SEIU joins the Connecticut Democratic Party, Secretary of the State Denise Merrill, Comptroller Kevin Lembo, former 5th CD Congressman Jim Maloney, Simsbury First Selectman Mary Glassman, Southbury First Selectman Ed Edelson, Congressman and Co-Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus Raul Grijalva and Congresswoman and Vice Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus Chellie Pingree, the Connecticut Working Families Party, the Connecticut Citizen Action Group, the New Britain DTC, the Meriden DTC, the Newtown DTC, the Bethlehem DTC, the Burlington DTC, the Torrington DTC, the Harwinton DTC, the Canaan DTC, the Middlebury DTC, the Morris DTC, the Watertown DTC, the New Milford DTC, the New Fairfield DTC, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, Blue America, the Connecticut State Police Union, the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 478, Sheet Metal Workers Local 40, AFT Connecticut, AFSCME Council 4, AFSCME Council 15 – the Connecticut Council of Police, the Connecticut Education Association, the Connecticut State Council of Machinists, the Connecticut Carpenters, the IAFF – Uniformed Professional Fire Fighters Association of Connecticut, United Auto Workers Region 9A, the Connecticut Laborers District Council, and the United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 777 in endorsing Chris Donovan as the best candidate to fight for the families of Connecticut’s Fifth Congressional District.

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From Wait, What by Jon Pelto

….Then there is Vallas’ decision to purchase Rubicon Atlas, a powerful curriculum mapping program. Rubicon’s pitch is that their software provides “a tool to organize, communicate and disseminate information” and that it “is the solution to managing curriculum and sharing instructional best practices across grades, subjects, schools, and cultures.”

Although powerful and potentially very useful, the software is not cheap and requires a tremendous commitment of time and money to recruit and train employees on how to use the software, and even more time developing and aligning the curriculum to the common core standards. One nearby community spent three years developing and enhancing their Rubicon based curriculum, and that was just in their math department. Many schools in New York City use the Rubicon Atlas software but actually have to dedicate much of their professional development time to training teachers on how to work with the program.

Readers won’t be surprised to learn that Vallas is big on Rubicon Atlas. The software has made an appearance in most of the school systems Vallas has gotten involved in. In fact, in 2010, when Vallas get a big consulting contract to help rebuild Haiti’s schools system, Rubicon sent a team “armed with school supplies, apparel and professional development” to help develop Haiti’s school system.

And finally, word on the street is that Vallas has or will soon be signing a contract with Schoolnet, an “Instructional Improvement System (IIS) [which] helps schools increase student achievement and teacher effectiveness.”

And one guess who put Schoolnet on the map?

Schoolnet’s website highlights its work in the Chicago Public Schools and the School District of Philadelphia.”

According to one blog post in December 2008,

Paul Vallas approved $6,000,000 in Philly public education funds for Schoolnet to operate a “curriculum reform project.”

The Board action read; RESOLVED, That the School Reform Commission authorizes the School District of Philadelphia, through the Chief Information Officer or designee, to amend resolution #E-17 dated May 21, 2003 with Schoolnet to increase the amount payable by $342,000 for a revised total of $6,042,000 for Phase I of the curriculum reform project beginning June 1, 2003 and continuing perpetually.

Perpetually?

Yup, at least perpetually to the point that the Philadelphia Schools paid out $20,000,000 between 2004 and 2008, and at last check, the number was still climbing.

See: http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2008/12/how-paul-vallas-and-arne-duncan-helped.html

Oh, and perhaps the greatest irony of all is that Schoolnet website reads, “in June 2011, Schoolnet was acquired by Pearson, the world’s leading learning company. Schoolnet and Pearson share a common vision where we believe in learning – all kinds of learning – for all kinds of students. Pearson offers world-class solutions for K-12 education, including PowerSchool Chancer SMS, PowerTeacher and others.”

Wait, PowerSchool?

Yup, Bridgeport bought that only two or three years ago.

Updating software and technology is part of any turnaround program, but all at once? And all with using no-bid contracts?

Bridgeport may need $3.4 million to balance this year’s budget, but just wait till you get the bill for all these new software programs.

And with the state of Connecticut picking up 80 percent of Bridgeport’s school expenses, the incredible Paul Vallas’ spending spree of 2012 is going to mean higher taxes for the people of Bridgeport and every taxpayer in Connecticut.

Just one more question. Did Bridgeport’s illegally appointed Board of Education approve all these contacts?