Despite the best of intentions, in an overly-broad ruling Judge Thomas Moukawsher has prescribed some remedies that I believe would lead us to repeat past mistakes at great cost to many. I respectfully ask the judge and state leaders to seek policies that are not just rational, but ones proven to actually work in practice. Borrowing a phrase from another judge, I argue further that many of his demands are “decided upon an economic theory” which a large part of education research does not entertain.

Last week, Judge Thomas Moukawsher released a siren call of a decision in Connecticut Coalition for Educational Funding (CCJEF) v. Rell, an 11-year-old case that has been working its way through the Connecticut Superior Courts. The recommendations on how public education in Connecticut should be funded and facilitated were detailed, thoughtful, and comprehensive. Most importantly, the court gave legislators in the General Assembly a clear directive: right the ship on school funding and educational opportunity for all students, in all districts, in the next 180 days. Democrats in the state house have the opportunity today to reclaim the mantle of social justice and fight for our children’s most basic civil rights.

Judge Thomas Moukawsher says the state’s school funding mechanism is irrational and the that state thereby failed to fulfill its mandate to thousands of schoolchildren across the state, and that the state spends this money “whimsically.”The funding formula is perhaps irrational and needs to be revised, but this judge’s decision can be described by those same two adjectives, and reflects a very basic failure to understand the problem. It seems that the decision was arrived at by looking at test scores and making the assumption that the only variable that affects these scores is financial, while neglecting the fact that there are many other variables which contribute to the quality of the outcomes.