School construction costs, coupled with well over $1 billion the state must contribute each year toward teachers’ pensions, mean about 40 percent of the state’s annual education spending is locked in for years to come. Third of seven stories.
CCJEF vs. Rell
Posted inEducation, Justice
Troubled schools on trial: A broken formula for state aid
To fix the formula, legislators would have to decide whether there is inequity in how state aid is distributed to towns, simply a lack of money, or both. Any major change would mean huge fiscal consequences and political battles. Second of seven stories.
Posted inEducation, Justice
Troubled schools on trial: When poverty permeates the classroom
“The state of education in some towns is alarming,” wrote the judge presiding over a recent five-month trial on state funding of failing schools. Whether the state is doing enough to educate children in poverty was at the core of the case, which explored the struggles of students in the state’s lowest-performing schools. First of seven stories.
Posted inEducation, Justice
State Supreme Court says it will review school funding case
The state Supreme Court will hear an expedited appeal of a lower court’s conclusion that the way the state distributes education aid and oversees local schools is unconstitutional.
Posted inEducation, Justice
CCJEF attorneys ask high court to reject AG appeal, for now
The coalition of education reformers who won a suit striking down Connecticut’s school funding formula as unconstitutional on Monday asked the state Supreme Court to deny the attorney general’s request for an expedited appeal of the case.
Posted inEducation, Justice
Jepsen files appeal, says Moukawsher school ruling ‘legally unsupported’
Attorney General George Jepsen’s office filed an appeal Thursday asking the Connecticut Supreme Court to conclude that a trial judge embarked on “an uncharted and legally unsupported path” last week in asserting authority over how the state distributes education aid and sets standards for graduating from high school, serving special-needs students and evaluating teachers.
Posted inEducation, Justice, Politics
Judge strikes down state education aid choices as ‘irrational’
In a broad indictment of how Connecticut supports its poorest schools, Superior Court Judge Thomas Moukawsher ruled Wednesday that the state’s method for distributing education aid is irrational and unconstitutional, while declining to second-guess the General Assembly on the ultimate level of state spending.
Posted inEducation
Judge presses state on approach to school funding as trial wraps
The five-month trial examining whether the lowest-performing schools in Connecticut are providing students with the education the state constitution requires came to a close Wednesday with final arguments from the attorney defending the state and sharp questioning from the judge. The judge will now craft a complex decision almost certain to become the basis of an appeal to the state Supreme Court.
Posted inEducation
CT school funding on trial: 5 key questions facing the judge
The opposing sides are summing up their arguments this week in the five-month trial that will determine whether the state is providing students in high-poverty districts with a suitable education. Here are five critical issues the judge will wrestle with.
Posted inEducation
Program that trains teachers for hard-to-fill slots faces big cut
With hundreds of students in low-performing districts already being taught by a revolving door of substitute teachers because schools cannot find enough qualified teachers, the state’s largest producer of teachers in high-need subject areas might have to close its summer program.
Posted inEducation
Staffing problems hamper failing schools, educators testify
Connecticut’s lowest-performing schools need great teachers and other support staff in order to improve, but education leaders from Bridgeport, East Hartford, New Britain and Windham have told a Superior Court judge that they lose waves of their best teachers each year, have trouble hiring replacements, and have too few teachers and other support staff to keep their students from falling further behind.
Posted inEducation
Malloy celebrates a school’s turnaround — and his record
BLOOMFIELD — With a trial underway to determine if the state is meeting its obligations to poorer school districts, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy visited this racially diverse Hartford suburb Tuesday to celebrate the turnaround of Bloomfield High School, where test scores and graduation rates have climbed significantly over the past five years.
Posted inEducation
School funding on trial: 5 things to know
A trial has begun in Hartford that is taking a deep dive into the conditions in the state’s lowest-performing schools. Here are some important things to know as the five-month proceeding unfolds.
Posted inEducation
On trial: Is educational opportunity sufficient everywhere in CT?
Opening arguments begin today in a trial five-month trial to ultimately determine whether the education being provided in Connecticut’s lowest-achieving school districts fulfills the state’s constitutional obligation.
Posted inEducation
School funding trial will look at preschool, too
Hartford Superior Court Judge Thomas Moukawsher on Thursday provided a key victory to a coalition suing the state when he rejected the state’s request to exclude evidence related to preschool from a trial that will determine whether the state is spending enough on education.