As promised, the co-chairmen of the legislature’s Education Committee have introduced a bill they hope will improve conditions at the state’s Vocational-Technical Schools, including the shuttered J.M. Wright Technical School in Stamford.
Wright Tech was closed last summer for at least two years because of the budget crisis.
The legality of that decision – which involved the Governor, state Education Commissioner and state Board of Education – was questioned locally. Attorney General Richard Blumenthal a few days ago determined state officials did not break the law but recommended changes in state statutes to allow for greater public input.
So the vo-tech bill proposed by Sen. Thomas Gaffey, D-Meriden and Rep. Andy Fleischmann, D-West Hartford, requires a vote of the state Board of Education to close or suspend operations at a vo-tech school – something that, believe it or not, is not currently required.
But what I also found interesting was another requirement that at least two of the state ed board’s eleven-members must have “industrial, trade or technical school experience” and only one of those two can chair the vo-tech subcommittee.
“It’s important that we have members of the Board of Education that are experienced in the trades and running and business that incorporates that trade so that we have people on the board that value the vo-tech high schools and workforce development product they turn out year end and year out,” Gaffey said.
