An anticipated 14.2 percent decline means an estimated 77,600 fewer students will be attending Connecticut’s public schools by 2025, and about 2,100 fewer students will be graduating high school each year, the U.S. Department of Education said.
K-12
Posted inEducation
CT Supreme Court grapples with its role addressing poverty in the classroom
The Connecticut Supreme Court Thursday grappled with the question of the state’s responsibility for overcoming the ill effects of poverty as a coalition of parents, educators and local officials argued the state should be required to spend more in its lowest-performing school districts.
Posted inEducation
Court to hear school funding case amid discord over education aid
The Connecticut Supreme Court will hear arguments today in a once-in-a-generation lawsuit that could pave the way for major changes in how the state funds its public schools. Meanwhile, across the street, legislators and the governor are little closer to fixing the problems that prompted a scathing lower-court ruling more than a year ago.
Posted inEducation
The state of CT’s public schools in charts
The state’s public education system has reached a pivotal time. Click to read more stories in charts The Connecticut Supreme Court is set to hear arguments today in a landmark school-funding case. And with the state facing major projected deficits for the foreseeable future, it might take an order from the high court for much […]
Posted inEducation, Money, Politics
Bipartisan budget talks take back seat to partisan sniping
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy Wednesday called the Republican budget a “hot mess” that deals a body blow to education in Connecticut. One Republican responded by questioning the governor’s grasp of reality. Another says UConn’s president needs to stop “bellyaching.” It does not bode well for budget talks Friday.
Posted inEducation, Money
State education funding to be a battleground in budget dispute
Huge questions over how state aid for schools and state colleges ultimately will fare will be a critical focus of Democratic and Republican leaders as they grapple with reconciling their vastly different state budgets. Here are the critical differences in funding for schools and colleges that Democrats and Republicans must resolve.
Posted inEducation
Are ‘high’ standards hurting diversity among teachers?
Because candidates of color are less likely to get over the certification hurdles, states that have bet on improving education by “raising the bar” for entering teaching risk excluding teachers of color even as there has been heightened attention on the lack of diversity in the teaching profession.
Posted inEconomic Development, Education, Health, Money, Politics
Last night, the budget politics — today, the details
Legislators arrived at the State Capitol on Friday with the opportunity for the first time to see the details of a $41.4 billion, two-year budget proposal that the administration of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and Democratic legislative leaders hoped would end Connecticut’s summer-long budget impasse.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
It is time for lawmakers to get to work and fund Connecticut’s schools
As our students return to school, they know they’re beginning a year of new challenges, new ideas, and new people. Behind the scenes, however, things look a little different. Because state legislators still haven’t fixed Connecticut’s broken public school funding system, the staff at Park City Prep is going into the new school year prepared to scrape by with insufficient resources.
Posted inEducation, Money
Separating fact from fiction on state school aid
How the state funds public schools is so messy and complicated that dozens of parents, educators, legislators, the governor, and a Superior Court judge have characterized the setup as broken. However, some of the criticism that regularly surfaces is based on skewed perceptions of reality.
Posted inCities & Towns, Education, Money, Politics
Students urge compromise on CT budget
As state government’s ongoing budget standoff prepared to enter a crucial week, 200 students and teachers from a regional high school in Burlington protested Sunday in front of the Capitol.
Posted inEducation, Money
State aid: See how your town fares under Malloy’s latest budget
In the biggest change, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy on Friday offered a much more restrained redistribution of state education aid dollars from better-off communities to impoverished ones. Add all the cuts together, and overall state aid for municipalities would be cut by $198 million – 8 percent.
Posted inEducation
Coming soon for expelled students: a full-time education
It has long been up to local educators to determine what to offer students they expel. That’s about to change.
Posted inEducation
State’s probe of ‘broken’ special education system limps along
A task force assigned to the probe has missed its Aug. 1 deadline – and on Tuesday state education department officials that staffed the panel asked for more time. Some members of the panel say that won’t help.
Posted inEducation
Teachers’ union, teacher-prep colleges: Don’t make it easier to become a teacher
The State Board of Education was told last month that the department is working on paring back existing certification requirements and creating new non-traditional pathways to becoming a teacher in an effort to resolve problems finding teachers to fill certain vacant positions.