Eighth-graders raise scores on national reading exam

Eighth-graders in Connecticut improved their reading scores significantly and fourth-graders held steady as the state posted some of the nation’s highest scores on results of a national test released Wednesday. However, minority and low-income students continued to lag farther behind white and wealthier students than in most other states on fourth- and eighth-grade reading tests […]

With the November elections still to go before they must face a 2011 state budget deficit of historic proportions, legislators admit they aren’t ready to order major tax hikes this spring. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t laying the groundwork. “We need a comprehensive overhaul of the entire tax structure in Connecticut,” House Majority Leader […]

Two of every five Hispanic high school freshmen fail to graduate on time from Connecticut’s public high schools, part of a bleak record of graduation rates among minority students, state officials said Tuesday. Overall, about one of five freshmen who entered high school in 2005 failed to graduate four years later, according to a new […]

It was billed as “Municipal Action Day,” a time to “let your voice be heard” at the state Capitol. Instead, stunned town officials heard legislative leaders bickering over the state’s budget crisis, leaving them with little confidence they’d get any relief for their own fiscal problems. “We talk, talk, talk, but we never act,” said […]

Now that an overhaul of the national health care system has been signed into law, state officials and the health care industry are scrambling to determine what it means for Connecticut. “We are still digging through it,” said State Health Care Advocate Kevin Lembo. He estimates 260,000 people in Connecticut will gain coverage by 2014 […]

State employee unions have rejected Gov. M. Jodi Rell’s request for a second concession package that would have allowed layoffs under certain conditions, required four more furlough days, deferred one cost-of-living raise and canceled longevity bonuses for senior workers. The proposal, which the State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition said showed “cynical disrespect” to state government’s 45,000 unionized […]

State Rep. James F. Spallone of Essex decided against a campaign for secretary of the state, endorsing fellow Democrat Denise W. Merrill of Mansfield, the state House of Representatives’ majority leader. Spallone, who has visited dozens of Democratic town committees since launching his exploratory effort 14 months ago, said ‘the response has been positive.” But […]

A bill backed by 19 Senate Democrats that would tax executive bonuses is “likely constitutional”, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said today. The bill would affect employees who earned bonuses in excess of $1 million from eight firms in Connecticut that received money from the federal bailout last year known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program. Critics, […]

A landmark state Supreme Court ruling Monday gave renewed hope to a coalition of municipal officials and education leaders hoping to force the state to pump billions of dollars more into its public schools. But with the state already facing years of massive budget deficits, the price tag for the coalition’s effort to overhaul the […]

The race for governor intensified Monday as Dannel P. Malloy pitched himself to the Connecticut AFL-CIO as labor’s strongest ally and repeatedly jabbed at Ned Lamont, his chief rival for the Democratic nomination. On Friday, Malloy smiled and shook Lamont’s hand at a televised debate. On Monday, no small talk passed between them, even though […]

Finding $1.3 billion in revenue for next year’s budget by selling future income for pennies on the dollar means weighing a series of unpalatable options. Legislators don’t want to give up their revenue streams for too little, but they also don’t want to sell the blue-chip revenue-raisers, like the income tax, that would fetch the […]

A temporary employee who worked at the state Office of Policy and Management is a suspect in the theft of personal information about applicants to a furnace rebate program from 2008 through this month, OPM said today. The state learned of the theft Friday from Hartford police, who have a potential suspect, said Robert Genuario, […]

The Connecticut Supreme Court today at 11:30 a.m. is releasing a long-awaited decision in an education-funding lawsuit brought to establish that children have a right to an “adequate” education, not merely a free and public education. The decision will be accompanied by two dissenting and concurring opinions, indicating a deeply divided court. The justices have […]

It’s spring, when the fancy of nearly every Democratic gubernatorial candidate turns to organized labor. Over the weekend, five Democrats romanced 400 activists from the bargaining coalition that represents 51,000 state employees. State employee union lawyer Dan Livingston, left, introduces Democrat Ned Lamont at a union gubernatorial forum Today, about 200 members of the Connecticut […]