The president of the state’s largest public college system said tuition increases spread over the next two years are necessary to help close a budget gap of at least $70 million over that time while still giving students the ability to handle and plan for future costs.
Education
Stories about schooling in Connecticut: Pre-Kindergarten through grade 12, higher education, education spending and child welfare.
Posted inEducation, Money, Politics
Aresimowicz offers phase-in compromise on pension bills for CT towns
House Speaker Joe Aresimowicz offered a compromise Wednesday on one of the stickiest points in Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s budget: asking communities to gradually assume a portion of skyrocketing teacher pension costs.
Posted inEducation
Feds: ‘Systemic issues’ still hamper DCF care for foster kids
The Department of Children and Families often places abused or neglected youths in living situations without making a concerted effort to provide necessary supports to the youths and their caregivers, said a much-anticipated federal review released Tuesday.
Posted inEducation, Money, Politics
Black and Puerto Rican Caucus wants to broaden CT tax debate
Leaders of the legislature’s Black and Puerto Rican Caucus said they are exploring raising income tax rates on wealthy households — a once popular proposal among House and Senate Democrats that has fallen into disfavor as Republicans have gained seats in both chambers.
Posted inEducation
She’s aging out of DCF care, graduating college and beating the odds
Ashley Foster will soon be graduating from college, defying the odds against foster children. One in five leave the state’s care without having a high school diploma or GED, few have a college degree and the majority are unemployed. Many go on to become homeless or incarcerated shortly after they leave care – things Foster is determined to avoid. She sat down to talk with The Mirror at her apartment in East Haven as she braces for aging out of the Department of Children and Families’ care.
Posted inEducation
Tuition hikes pitched for public colleges and universities
The president of the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities system is proposing a two-year $800 hike for the four regional state universities and $210 for community college students.
Posted inEducation
In CT, black students far more likely to get less-experienced teachers
In the 4th grade, 36 percent of black students are being taught by math teachers with less than five years in the classroom vs. 19 percent for white students. That gap is the largest in the nation.
Posted inEducation, Money
Some momentum builds for changes to education aid formula
Legislators express support for studying how much it actually costs to adequately educate children, especially those in poverty.
Posted inEducation
Trump’s education budget: 4 things to know for CT schools
President Donald Trump unveiled a budget outline Thursday that slashes federal funding for education by 14 percent – cuts that would cripple programs that thousands of Connecticut children participate in each year. Here is what you should know about what was and wasn’t cut.
Posted inEducation, Health, Money, Politics, Transportation
Trump budget would end CT heating aid, housing, after-school programs
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump’s first budget proposal would strip Connecticut of tens of millions of dollars in federal grants, eliminating programs that subsidize heating bills for nearly 110,000 Connecticut households and provide housing for the homeless and after-school care. But the budget would boosting the state’s defense industry and fund a border wall.
Posted inEducation
Salaries, fringe benefits driving tuition hikes at CT public colleges
Top financial officials from Connecticut’s two major public college systems told legislators Friday that rising fringe benefit costs and mandated employee salary increases are key driving forces behind tuition hikes.
Posted inEducation, Health, Money
Once again, school health clinics facing cuts
School-based health centers have widespread support among policymakers. Research has linked them to better academic and health outcomes, and experts consider them a key way to help students access mental health care. So why do they keep facing budget cuts?
Posted inEducation
UConn researchers say CT’s chief education reform plans lack coherence
Despite spending five years and hundreds of millions of dollars to improve the state’s lowest-performing schools, the state’s efforts have lacked coherence and have left districts scrambling to comply with constantly shifting broad reform expectations.
Posted inEducation, Politics
Senate kills school accountability rule
WASHINGTON – The Senate on Thursday voted to overturn a key regulation that places tougher accountability measures on schools — measures backed by civil rights groups and those who advocate for disabled children. Sen. Chris Murphy said the move to kill the regulation was a GOP rejection “of a bipartisan rule that assured that civil rights are protected.”
Posted inEducation, Money, Politics
Small towns want teachers’ pension bills ‘off the table’
Connecticut’s small towns pressed the General Assembly on Thursday to take the governor’s proposal to shift a third of teacher pension costs onto communities “off the table” in state budget deliberations – but administration officials held firm on their plan.