Gov. Dannel P. Malloy proposed Wednesday an overhaul of Connecticut’s two- and four-year college system to emphasize more education and less hierarchy.
Malloy’s education consolidation plan comes one day after he aired a proposal to combine the state’s utility regulatory office and environmental protection agency into a single Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.
Modeled in a similar setup in Minnesota, Malloy said Connecticut’s state universities and community colleges would be overseen by a new Board of Regents of Higher Education whose mandate would be to ensure post-secondary education is affordable and effective.
It would replace the current boards for the Connecticut State University System, community colleges, Charter Oak College, and the Board of Governors of Higher Education, Malloy said.
In addition, the central offices for all those units would be consolidated into a single office, run by a chief executive officer.
The University of Connecticut would continue to be governed separately.
“This won’t be easy, and certainly there are a lot of people listening to this who believe things are fine just the way they are,” Malloy said in a statement. “I disagree, and that’s why I’m proposing this overhaul to help put more money toward teaching, and less toward central office and board hierarchy. We need to adapt to a broad and changing economy and this will help us do that.”
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