On Tuesday morning, in a room at the state Capitol complex, a single small number seemed to tell its own story about the fiscal bind legislators are likely to find themselves in over and over again this session.
K-12
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Connecticut charter schools not really getting a funding increase
Let’s set the record straight. Public charter school students do not receive a funding increase in Gov. Dannel Malloy’s proposed budget. They will still receive the same state per-pupil grant that they have received for several years. Put simply: all public schools are flat-funded across the board. A recent story by the CT Mirror suggested otherwise, and we want to ensure the facts are front and center.
Posted inEducation
AFT’s Weingarten: Malloy budget ‘really horrible’ for education
Randi Weingarten, the leader of one of the nation’s largest labor unions, came to an inner-city school in Hartford Thursday to lambaste the budget cuts proposed by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, a Democrat she helped re-elect in 2014.
Posted inEducation
CT teacher evaluations headed for an overhaul
How public school teachers are evaluated in Connecticut needs an overhaul. On that much, educators on the state panel that determines how teachers are graded agree. But on why and how it should be done, the consensus evaporates.
Posted inEducation, Money, Politics
Malloy: Increase charter school, cut neighborhood school funding
Charter schools have escaped Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s budget axe and are slated for a $9.3 million boost in his proposed state budget. But the Democratic governor wants a $52.9 million cut on funding for special education, after-school programs, reading tutors and other services in low-performing public schools across the state.
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
New data: Majority of Hartford schools still segregated
Nearly 20 years after the Connecticut Supreme Court ordered the state to eliminate the inequities caused from the isolation of black and Hispanic students in the capital city, the latest data show that the majority of Hartford’s children still attend segregated schools.
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
CT facing at least one funding cut in new federal education law
Funding under the new law is a mixed bag for Connecticut, but one change will cost the state millions of dollars that currently help low-achieving schools hire highly qualified teachers and provide professional development.
Posted inEducation
State sets penalties for schools with high exam ‘opt-out’ rates
School districts where more than 10 percent of students miss required statewide exams for a second consecutive year will lose funding and may have their performance ratings downgraded.
Posted inEducation
Feds say too few students took required tests in 148 CT schools
After thousands of Connecticut students failed to take required statewide achievement tests last spring, federal officials want to know what Connecticut education leaders are doing to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
Posted inEducation
State drags feet on disclosing school desegregation data
State officials may have promised a judge in February that they would offer hundreds more students enrollment in desegregated environments this school year, but they’re not releasing the data to show whether that happened.
Posted inEducation
Educating students during an expulsion: Tutoring, alternative schools or nothing?
A new lawsuit claims that expelled students are placed in “hostile” alternative education settings where they get little instruction, the work is too easy, and no grades or feedback are provided.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
It’s time to address inequity in Connecticut’s schools
As Connecticut emerges from this latest budget negotiation, it’s time for us to address a long-standing inequity in our public schools. Thanks to Connecticut’s outdated and unequal system of funding public education, thousands of our highest-need kids are being valued less by the state, given less money simply because of the type of public school they attend. Charter school students are given just 74 cents on the dollar compared to their peers in traditional public schools.