GOP says they’re left out of state education bill

Republican legislative leaders complained Friday that their members are being left out of closed-door talks on a bill that would overhaul Connecticut’s public schools system.

Senate Minority Leader John McKinney and House Minority Leader Lawrence Cafero Jr. Republican House and Senate leaders of the legislature’s Education Committee have not been invited to participate in negotiations. The committee is controlled by Democrats.

“It’s a product that should be bipartisan,” said McKinney, R-Fairfield.

The committee faces a Wednesday deadline to act. It has meetings scheduled for Monday and Wednesday, but Rep. Andrew Fleischmann, D-West Hartford, the panel’s co-chairman, said he is uncertain which day members will vote on the revisions to the legislation first proposed by Democratic Gov. Dannel P. Malloy.

“I’m optimistic that we will get a major reform bill out of the Education Committee by our Wednesday deadline,” he said.

Fleischmann said the ranking Republican leaders on the committee are not part of the current closed-door talks, which he said are happening on a “discreet set of issues.” He said adding more people won’t help the process.

Fleischmann said the Republicans have been in meetings on the bill and voiced their concerns about certain aspects.

Roy Occhiogrosso, Malloy’s senior advisor, said the legislature controls the process. However, he said Malloy’s office has made it a point to meet with Republicans, as well as the state’s two major teachers’ unions to try and reach an agreement.

Occhiogrosso said whatever is voted on by the Education Committee might not necessarily be the final version of the reform bill, which still has to be approved by the full General Assembly and signed into law by Malloy. He said Malloy would like the process to get done by May 8, the last day of the legislative session, but it’s OK with the governor if the process takes longer.