Amid the ferocious debate about whether Connecticut students are better off in charter schools, the State Department of Education has released the results of its first-ever research on the subject. It provides little clarity, however.
K-12
Posted inEducation
Senate votes to make charter schools subject to public disclosure
The state Senate voted early Tuesday to make the records of charter schools, and the management companies that run them, subject to the state’s Freedom of Information Act, though the names of donors to the schools could remain secret.
Posted inEducation
Deal on charter-school conflict: More funding all around
The state budget deal headed for the legislature Monday would increase funding for both charter schools and neighborhood public schools — the result of a governor insistent on opening new charter schools and pushback from a group of Democratic legislators whose votes are needed to pass a state budget.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
New seats for charter schools not the answer for Connecticut
Can you imagine a neighborhood in West Hartford in which two or three of the children on the cul-de-sac attend a charter school, funded with $11,000 per student per year of taxpayer money and promoted as a superior school, while all the other children in the neighborhood attend what is said to be an inferior school also funded by taxpayer money? Can you imagine New Canaan parents sending their children to an elementary school in which 23.78 percent of the children are suspended? The answer to these and many others regarding charter schools is: Of course not.
Posted inEducation
Bill allowing large cuts in local school spending heads to Malloy
Though wholesale cuts are not anticipated, a bill headed for the governor’s desk allows the leaders in many cities and towns to drastically cut the amount they spend on education.
Posted inEducation, Money, Politics
Could Malloy’s push to fund charter schools jeopardize budget approval?
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s insistence on increasing funding for charter schools has more than a dozen Democratic legislators questioning whether they can support the next state budget if it means their neighborhood public schools are flat-funded or cut.
Posted inEducation
Senate votes to drop Smarter Balanced test for high school students
The Senate voted Thursday to do away with the requirement that every high school junior take the Smarter Balanced Assessments, the controversial exams aligned with the Common Core State Standards. Instead, every student would take either the SAT or ACT college-entrance exam. But not everyone is convinced it’s a good idea.
Posted inEducation
Student violence declining; schools also ramp up security
Schools nationally and in Connecticut are becoming safer as student violence continues to decline. Meanwhile, schools are ramping up measures to protect themselves from outside threats in the wake of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
Posted inEducation
Union calls problems with Smarter Balanced exams ‘pervasive’
The state says administration of the new Smarter Balanced Assessment tests is going well, but the state’s largest teachers union says its members report “pervasive” problems.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Without Capital Prep Harbor, it’s a rock or a hard place
The state Appropriations Committee has proposed defunding Capital Prep Harbor, along with other charter schools across the state. They didn’t do it because we’re in a budget deficit; they did it because they don’t recognize the great work charter schools are doing for Connecticut children – including families that can’t afford other options, and kids of color, like my daughter. State legislators need to support Capital Prep Harbor. If the school isn’t funded in the state budget, it will be devastating to my daughter and hundreds of other families in Bridgeport.
Posted inEducation
The basics: Future CT education chiefs must be teachers
The Connecticut House on Thursday approved a bill to ensure that future state education commissioners have a strong background in the classroom — something the last controversial education commissioner lacked. Here are some things to know.
Posted inEducation
Connecticut’s ‘graduation gap’ is big — but shrinking
Connecticut has one of the largest gaps in high school graduation rates between students from low-income families and their higher-income peers, but a recent report shows the state is closing that gap faster than any other state.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
No time to waste in re-imagining Connecticut’s education funding
Each legislative session, we engage in the same political fights that yield only incremental progress towards the goal of providing quality education for all children. These unproductive debates, which pit traditional schools against public charter schools, underscore the need to solve our fundamentally broken funding model that currently plagues our education system.
Posted inEducation
Update: Charter school advocates double down on lobbying spending
According to spending reports filed with the Office of State Ethics Monday, Families for Excellent Schools, leading charter school advocates, spent $413,000 in April — more than double what the organization spent during the first three months of the legislative session.
Posted inEducation, Politics
Teachers rally against Smarter Balanced test at Capitol: ‘Put the test to rest’
Hundreds of teachers, parents, teachers union leaders and students descended on the state Capitol Tuesday, objecting to the Department of Education’s use of the Smarter Balanced test associated with the Common Core Standards. Some key lawmakers, however, appear to be unmoved.