Facing pressure, members of the Education Committee reluctantly approved measures addressing the Sheff v. O’Neill settlement agreement.
Sheff v. O’Neill
Posted inEducation
Lamont budget would help towns improve school air quality
After initial reluctance, Gov. Ned Lamont’s administration is warming to the prospect of helping towns improve air quality in schools.
Posted inEducation
State settles school desegregation case
The agreement in the Sheff vs. O’Neill case dedicates 600 of the 1,000 new magnet school seats to children who attend segregated Hartford schools.
Posted inEducation
Judge hears arguments in suit challenging alleged school racial quotas
U.S. District Court Judge Stefan Underhill heard arguments Thursday on a motion to dismiss a suit seeking to challenge one of the state’s key levers to promote diversity in schools. The state is arguing that the parents union, the plaintiff in the lawsuit, lacks legal standing.
Posted inEducation
Judge rules magnet school discrimination case belongs in federal court
LaShawn Robinson, the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit challenging the state’s magnet school lottery, holds up a sign outside the court house before the hearing. LaShawn Robinson, the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit challenging the state’s magnet school lottery, holds up a sign outside the court house before the hearing. A civil rights case alleging […]
Posted inEducation
Lingering questions remain about school desegregation in Connecticut
Does research show integration improves student outcomes in Connecticut? Do magnet schools drain money from neighborhood schools? How does the lottery work? What’s next for school desegregation? We provide some answers.
Posted inEducation, Justice
Fate of state’s school integration efforts rests with federal judge
BRIDGEPORT — A federal judge will soon determine whether his court should get involved in how the state awards enrollment to students in high-performing magnet schools located throughout Connecticut. At issue is whether the lottery’s algorithm – which is designed to limit enrollment of black and Hispanic students in a school to 75 percent – is discriminatory, and therefore a violation of the U.S. Constitution.
Posted inEducation
Do magnet schools need white students to be great?
In the Hartford region, a difference in philosophies about whether segregation contributes to poor educational outcomes divides parents, educators and lawmakers. Most magnet schools have no problem attracting enough white students from the suburbs to go to school with city kids, but some struggle. This means seats in some schools are left open to maintain diversity – a reality that is causing a rift among neighbors about what should happen next. On Tuesday, a federal judge will consider whether the state must stop considering race when awarding seats.
Posted inEducation, Justice
Judge alarmed state has no plan to further desegregate schools
Twenty-one years after the Connecticut Supreme Court ordered the state to integrate Hartford’s schools, the Superior Court judge overseeing compliance with the order is troubled the state has no plan to integrate city schools that remain segregated.
Posted inEducation
State to run school desegregation lottery but tight-lipped on seat count
The state Department of Education declined to say whether the lottery will include more seats for students in desegregated magnet and suburban schools or whether the state will continue a present cap on the number of seats it will pay for.
Posted inEducation
A stalemate in desegregating Hartford schools
A Superior Court judge Friday gave the state another year to figure out how to desegregate the schools thousands of Hartford children attend, though Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said later in the afternoon the state is under no obligation to move much beyond currently required levels of integration – 47.5 percent of Hartford’s students.
Posted inEducation
School desegregation: Will focus shift from magnets to suburbs?
As Connecticut spends billions to build and run 42 racially integrated magnet schools in an effort to meet a court desegregation order, the state has failed to substantially grow a far less expensive alternative by enrolling city students in suburban schools.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Six reasons not to ‘end’ the Sheff desegregation case
The state of Connecticut is once again trying to avoid its constitutional obligation to provide every Hartford child with a high-quality, integrated education. Just days before kids returned from their summer breaks, the state’s lawyers suggested that the court should withdraw from oversight of the implementation of Sheff v. O’Neill, the case that has created Connecticut’s award-winning two-way voluntary integration system. Here are six reasons why Superior Court Judge Marshall K. Berger should never agree to end court supervision of the case:
Posted inEducation
Is school choice really a choice, or a chance?
When it comes to winning the lottery for a magnet school seat in the Hartford region, some bets are a sure thing. Overall, however, the odds are more often not in the student’s favor, recent data shows. The majority of area magnet schools throughout the region offer seats to fewer than half the students who apply.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Connecticut must keep up the momentum in school integration
A new report from UCLA shows us how far Connecticut has come since the Sheff v. O’Neill school desegregation case in Hartford — and how far we still have to go. Connecticut is the lone success story among states in the Northeast, bucking a national trend toward more racially segregated schools,