The rate at which students are identified for special education varies drastically across school districts, and school officials differ on whether that’s because districts are over- or under-indentifying students. But they agree the rising cost to educate these students has outpaced inflation and crowds out other supports for students. The state judge presiding over a recent school funding trial blamed the state for not enforcing clear mandates on who is entitled to special education. Sixth of seven stories.
Judge Thomas Moukawsher
Posted inEducation, Justice
Troubled schools on trial: What does a high school diploma prove?
A seeming paradox – rising graduation rates coupled with low standardized test scores and high demand for remedial courses in college – was among the reasons that a Hartford Superior Court judge ruled that the state fails to provide students with the education the state constitution says they are entitled to. Fifth 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
Text of the state’s appeal in the school funding case
Here is the text of the appeal to last week’s decision in the school funding case filed Thursday by the office of state Attorney General George Jepsen.
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
Malloy, a plaintiff and then a defendant, hedges on school appeal
NEW HAVEN — Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said Tuesday he agreed with the “core” of Superior Court Judge Thomas Moukawsher’s finding last week that Connecticut’s distribution of education aid was so irrational as to be unconstitutional, but the ruling raises so many legal and practical complexities that he will defer a decision on an appeal to Attorney General George Jepsen.
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
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.