Public schools and colleges throughout Connecticut and the U.S. were informed by federal officials Friday that they must allow transgender students to use bathrooms for the gender they consider themselves – guidance that conforms to and bolsters changes made to state law five years ago.
K-12
Posted inEducation, Energy & Environment, Health, Justice, Money, Politics, Transportation
Measure strips $1B in bonded projects off of CT’s credit card
The Senate voted late Thursday rebalance Connecticut’s credit card in the face of shrinking tax revenues, canceling or delaying about $1 billion in financing for a wide array of projects and programs, and to authorize $380 for municipal school construction, down significantly from recent years.
Posted inEducation
Republicans smell a rat in extra school aid for nine towns
Republican legislative leaders are upset that the budget deal scheduled to be acted on by the legislature this week directs an extra $3.52 million in school grants to nine municipalities represented largely by Democrats.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Charter schools need more support from Connecticut.
Charter schools like the ones my children attend have answered many parents’ prayers, encouraging personal and academic growth and providing an appealing alternative to failing district schools. However, despite these schools’ high performance, they receive $4,000 less per student per year in state aid than Connecticut’s low-performing district schools. This funding gap has had a real impact on charter schools in Bridgeport and throughout the state.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
School funding inequity is affecting charter schools, too
Connecticut’s education funding system is broken – with charter school students receiving on average $4,000 less in funding than their peers in district schools. And this disparity in funding hurts low-income children of color most because those are the majority of the students charters in Connecticut serve.
Posted inEducation, Justice
Juvenile justice reform in CT: 5 things to know
A tidal wave of change is headed for the state’s juvenile justice system. Here are 5 things to know about the coming changes.
Posted inEducation, Health, Justice, Money, Politics
Democrats, governor strike budget deal, aim for Wednesday vote
Updated at 1 a.m. Wednesday
Democratic legislators ended a tense day of negotiations Tuesday by announcing a deal on a new state budget that the General Assembly will race to adopt Wednesday before the constitutional adjournment deadline of midnight.
Posted inEducation, Justice
To sever school-to-prison pipeline, bill would keep troubled kids in school
A bill that aims to sever the school-to-prison pipeline by keeping children in school or providing a quality alternative education program when they get into trouble awaits action in the Senate.
Posted inEducation, Energy & Environment, Health, Justice, Money, Politics, Transportation
CT’s maxed-out credit card takes its toll on many projects
The General Assembly is expected to vote before it adjourns May 4 on a plan that would cancel more than $1.1 billion in financing earmarked for an enormous array of purposes in both the public and private sectors, including renovating the leaking, flaking dome of UConn’s Gampel Pavilion.
Posted inEducation
Magnet schools caught in squeeze over tuition, funding
The state House of Representatives voted unanimously Monday to halt New Haven’s plan to begin charging nearby communities tuition for the 2,875 suburban students attending the magnet schools it operates. That and other factors are coalescing to put magnet schools in a funding squeeze.
Posted inEducation, Health, Money, Politics, Transportation
GOP budget plan: Slash agency budgets, cut bonding drastically
Leaders insist their blueprint would close massive future deficits without tax hikes. To do that, though, the GOP minorities in the House and Senate would dilute the two big initiatives Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and the Democratic majority launched last June: a 30-year investment in transportation and a plan to share sales tax receipts with cities and towns.
Posted inEducation
Teacher evaluation data likely to be made public, not individual scores
Controversy is mounting over whether the state will require teachers to be evaluated and graded based partly on student test scores, but under pressure from the Freedom of Information Commission, the state is poised to begin releasing some evaluation data to the public.
Posted inEducation
CT high school population shrinking faster than in 47 other states
Connecticut is expected to have the third-fastest decline in students enrolled in high school in the nation over the next 10 years, the U.S. Department of Education reports – part of a regional trend.
Posted inEducation, Money
As criticism mounts, Malloy defends education cuts to affluent towns
As sharp criticism built Thursday of its proposal to end state education aid to 28 of the state’s wealthiest towns, the administration of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy released data to show that most of the towns affected have among the lowest mill rates in the state and rely relatively little on state aid.
Posted inEducation
Democrats’ education cuts fall most heavily on CT’s Gold Coast
Each of the five budgets that Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has proposed since 2012 has shielded wealthy communities from cuts in the education money they receive from the state. That changed Tuesday when he proposed cutting all of the $25.3 million in aid that 28 of the state’s richest communities currently receive through the Education Cost Sharing grant.