Advocate says charter school changes needed to win federal funds

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 […]

Young workers are leaving Connecticut at alarming rates, in part because of the lack of affordable housing. But House Majority Leader Denise W. Merrill and the chairman of the state’s Planning and Development Committee Brendan J. Sharkey said Wednesday the state can and should do only so much to address the problem. “There’s no money. […]

Common Cause today bolstered its efforts to save the public financing of campaigns in Connecticut with a poll showing support for the reforms passed in 2005 after the resignation of Gov. John G. Rowland. The group is trying to nudge legislators to cure legal defects in the law that could kill the Citizens Election Program […]

Connecticut needs a half-billion-dollar answer to its fiscal woes – and state Comptroller Nancy S. Wyman (left) told a crowded room on Tuesday there are only so many options. “People really don’t want to hear it, but the fact is we’re going to have to cut spending. We’re maybe going to do some more borrowing […]

Rep. Matthew Lesser Three thoughts are animating Themis Klarides these days: A soldier can never have too many socks, the New York Yankees are the best baseball team ever, and the Republican Party is the way of the future. But if you followed the deputy House minority leader on the popular social networking sites Facebook […]

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The Republican field for governor is about to grow by one: Oz Griebel, a Greater Hartford business leader, intends to announce his candidacy at noon Thursday on the north steps of the State Capitol. Griebel is the president and chief executive officer of the Metro Hartford Alliance, which serves as the region’s chamber of commerce. […]

Two state Senate leaders want Connecticut to become the third state in the country to set standards for how high schools handle athletes with concussions. With the support of the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference, the senators today proposed legislation requiring that athletes with suspected concussions be benched until getting medical clearance. “The mantra has become, […]

A national survey released today found that nearly 15 percent of households in Connecticut struggled to buy food in 2009. The report by the Food Research and Action Center says that 18.7 percent of households with children said they did not have enough money to adequately feed their families. The findings are consistent with statistics […]

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 […]

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 […]

U.S. Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman today endorsed the re-confirmation of the suddenly embattled Federal Reserve chairman, Benjamin Bernanke. On this score, the independent from Connecticut is standing with the Obama administration. Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who is running to succeed the retiring U.S. Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, is among the Democrats distancing themselves from Bernanke. […]

Who has a state legislator on the payroll? Three public employee unions have one. So do Northeast Utilities, the Middlesex Chamber of Commerce, Tweed-New Haven Airport, municipalities and non-profits that rely on state funding, and single-issue advocates like the Marijuana Policy Project. About 70 percent of legislators hold jobs outside the General Assembly, bringing both […]

State ethics laws provide only limited transparency into the financial dealings of Connecticut’s part-time legislators. To whom do they owe money? Disclosure is voluntary. How much stock do they own? Impossible to say. By contrast, Congress and a dozen states require lawmakers to disclose within ranges the amount of outside income they receive and the […]

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 […]