As the Connecticut General Assembly enters the last few days of its regular session, there are a lot of important issues being addressed.

At 3 PM in Room 1C of the Legislative Office Building in Hartford, there will be a news conference of people urging Gov. Rell to sign the repeal of the Death Penalty in Connecticut. I hope to make it up to Hartford in time for this. Then, from 4 until 6 PM, the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education will hold a workshop on organizing school’s curriculum committees. The workshop is fully subscribed so I won’t be able to attend, but I am hoping to get more information about the workshop to share.

In the evening, there will be a symposium on student speech. It will feature Mary Beth Tinker who was sent home back in 1965 for wearing a black arm band to school. Her case went on to the Supreme Court and Tinker v. Des Moines ends up being a key case for all student free speech cases. Patrice McCarthy of CABE will present their view of this from a school policy perspective. I will be interested in seeing how this relates to the workshop on curriculum. In my mind, part of any curriculum should be teaching critical thinking and effective writing, which may include criticism of the school or the government.

It is also of interest to see how this relates to the Doninger v. Niehoff case. On the larger picture Judge Sotomayor, who has been nominated for the Supreme Court ruled against Doninger in the Second Circuit. Will this become part of the discussion?

Meanwhile, there is plenty of positioning going on. Kim is busy trying to make sure that Election Day Registration passes the Senate, and is trying to head off possible amendments to defund the Citizen Elections Program. In terms of Public Access, HB 6604 is on the Go List to be debated in the House. Rep. Williams of Woodbury and Watertown has introduced a few amendments designed to kill public access television in Connecticut. LCO 8428 would prohibit nonprofit PEGs from taking in-kind donations and business sponsorships. LCO8430 would require a full audit of nonprofit PEGS even though such audits can be expensive for smaller PEGs and are not always justifiable. Most significantly, Rep. Williams has introduced LCO8473 which would make PEG fees optional for subscribers, most likely effectively killing public access television in Connecticut. I do not know what it would do to CT-N, but I hope to watch more of the hearings on CT-N.

Both sides are gearing up for a battle about paid sick days. Jon Green has sent out an email urging people to come to the capitol to support paid sick days. Rep. Klarides sent out a bizarre email claiming it hurts businesses to require them to make sure their employees are healthy. She started off the email complaining that the House has debated the death penalty and healthcare, as well as frog dissection, paint ball safety and water lettuce. She fails to mention that it is Republican Peevishness that has really slowed down progress on many bills. She also manages to work in some very twisted logic about dolphins getting citizenship in San Francisco, but I, and she, seem to be digressing.

Other bills getting attention include SB 1014 which would require that the state education department open its stores of data to nonprofits and universities to analyze. As a data junkie, I’m glad to see this pass. ConnCan is also tracking SB 939 which would make it easier to get better teachers in Connecticut.

There are plenty of other bills including one to protect horse trails near where I like to go Horse Campign. There is plenty more coming and I’ll add it when I get back from travels.