With steep increases in college tuition and ominous predictions for the state’s economy, it is time to rethink strategies for paying for Connecticut’s public colleges, says state Higher Education Commissioner Michael Meotti. Meotti echoed the warnings in a new national study showing that many states, including Connecticut, have slipped in their support for higher education […]

Parents would have the authority to shake up or even close failing public schools in Connecticut under a proposal outlined by members of the legislature’s Black and Puerto Rican Caucus Thursday. That idea and others, including income tax breaks for teachers who work longer hours in troubled schools, are intended to take on the chronic […]

She enjoys student teaching, carries a perfect 4.0 grade point average and expects to complete her master’s degree in the summer, but Stephanie Salafia’s dream of becoming a public school teacher is on hold. She is one of hundreds of prospective elementary and preschool teachers in Connecticut who have failed a required exam testing their […]

She enjoys student teaching, carries a perfect 4.0 grade point average and expects to complete her master’s degree in the summer, but Stephanie Salafia’s dream of becoming a public school teacher is on hold. She is one of hundreds of prospective elementary and preschool teachers in Connecticut who have failed a required exam testing their […]

University of Connecticut officials will recommend a tuition increase next week that, if adopted, will mark a milepost in the long trend of shifting public higher education costs to students. The 5.8 percent increase in tuition and fees would mark the first time that revenue from students would exceed the state’s contribution to running Connecticut’s […]

During the long effort to desegregate Hartford’s schools, state officials helped create and support more than 20 magnet schools they hoped would attract minority children from the city and whites from nearby suburbs. They weren’t counting on suburban students like Brandon Rothschild. “I thought this would be the best fit for me,” said Rothschild, 17, […]

Educators expressed relief Wednesday at being spared major cuts in school funding in Gov. M. Jodi Rell’s recommended budget adjustments, but they said the forecast remains ominous, including more layoffs. The key recommendation for schools was to hold the state’s Education Cost Sharing grant at its current level of just under $1.9 billion, avoiding some […]

As the state looks for ways to cut costs in a slumping economy, Gov. M. Jodi Rell proposed Wednesday to hold the line on major education programs. In her mid-term budget adjustments, the governor recommended no reductions in municipal aid for schools, preschool programs and college financial aid. The state’s Education Cost Sharing grant, the […]

As Connecticut spends millions of dollars a year to meet a court desegregation order by building and running racially-integrated magnet schools, parents like Iraida Sanchez of Hartford would be happy with a far less expensive alternative. Year after year, Sanchez has put her son Nathaniel’s name in a lottery. She is not aiming for one […]

NEW HAVEN — In public education circles in Connecticut, Alex Johnston has not always been a welcome guest. As head of the New Haven-based school reform group Connecticut Coalition for Achievement Now (ConnCAN), Johnston often rankled the public school establishment with his blunt criticism of schools he believes are failing to educate the state’s poorest […]

Connecticut’s restrictions on charter schools could jeopardize its chances of winning millions in federal stimulus money, an outspoken school reform advocate told state officials Wednesday. Unless the state removes barriers to the growth of charters, “we are not going to be competitive” in the federal school reform competition known as Race to the Top, Alex […]

As parents strolled among rows of displays at a recent magnet school fair in Hartford, those who stopped at a booth for the city’s Classical Magnet School heard an appealing sales pitch. Tim Sullivan, the school’s high-energy principal, told them about the prep-school atmosphere at Classical Magnet, a place where college-bound teenagers study Latin, read […]

As magnet schools sprouted across the state following the court order to desegregate schools in Hartford, so did a patchwork of financial formulas designed to pay for them. The state also has developed formulas to pay for charter schools and suburban school choice programs, two other strategies for promoting school integration. Here are the latest […]

Connecticut’s Sheff vs. O’Neill desegregation court ruling led to a spurt in education funding, a $2 billion expansion of magnet schools and renewed attention to the state’s troubled urban districts. But did it help children learn? Yes, says University of Connecticut researcher Casey Cobb-and not just for inner city students, but for their suburban classmates […]

Hoping to transform America’s public schools, the U.S. Department of Education is challenging states to design winning school reform plans in a competition for more than $4.3 billion in economic stimulus grants.The competition, known as Race to the Top, is designed to promote innovative strategies, raise academic standards and encourage aggressive reforms, including the shakeup […]