In a harrowing budget season, the legislature’s Appropriations Committee decided to remove a $4 million budget allotment for two new charter schools in our state. What must have been a difficult decision is also a prudent one on our legislators’ part, as our precious resources this budget cycle should go to those schools and programs that serve all students and which serve those children in the greatest need of our support.
K-12
Posted inEducation
Aggressive charter school campaign descends on the Capitol
Legislators are being bombarded with emails informing them every time a student applies to a charter school that the state has yet to agree to fund. And when they turn on the television, they see advertisements warning that thousands of students will be trapped in failing schools unless state lawmakers spend millions more to expand enrollment in charter schools.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
CT Legislators must deliver on charter school promises in Bridgeport, Stamford
Last week, the state’s Appropriations Committee proposed a budget that includes cuts of more than $20 million dollars to public charter schools — including funding for Capital Prep Harbor and Stamford Charter School for Excellence — two approved schools that families have been demanding and are counting on. This budget would stifle the progress we’ve made in the past few years and would hurt the future of children across our state.
Posted inEducation, Politics
In suburban schools, student poverty growing faster than education aid
The number of low-income, high-need students attending school in the suburbs is rising, putting new strains on local budgets. That’s why their municipal leaders are pressing the legislature to adjust the state’s system of aid to local schools.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Connecticut’s lawmakers must see through the ‘edu-profiteers’ and testing mania
I can’t begin to tell you how frustrating it is, as a public school employee and practicing school psychologist, to have federal legislation written that continues to allow our students to be assessed by an unproven and invalid standardized test process and also enables the charter school industry to take funds allocated for public school students and divert them to their own private business interests.
Posted inEducation
This time, Malloy picks a former teacher for top education post
Updated at 4:48 p.m.
While announcing Dianna Wentzell as the state’s next education commissioner Friday, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy made clear he was looking for a teacher — a qualification his first controversial commissioner did not have.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Myths about Bridgeport charters hurt the entire community
Let’s get one thing straight: Bridgeport charter schools do not syphon money away from traditional public schools. This is not only the most pervasive myth about charter schools, it’s also the most damaging.
Posted inEducation
For students with limited English, glaring gaps in achievement and state remedies
One of every 15 students in Connecticut’s public schools speaks and understands only limited English, and their academic achievement lags far behind that of their classmates. The achievement gap in Connecticut is among the highest in the nation, according to the U.S. Department of Education.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Connecticut lawmakers should pass comprehensive charter school reform
Connecticut children need new, high-quality school options, and Connecticut taxpayers need an updated charter law that ensures those schools are well run and successfully monitored. We encourage the General Assembly to focus on passing comprehensive charter authorizing reform that implements all of the policies above – but to leave the moratorium on the cutting room floor.
Posted inEducation
More charter schools? Education Committee leaves decision to budget panel
Lawmakers on the legislature’s Education Committee have decided not to take a position on whether new charter schools should open in the state over the next two years. The committee instead decided Friday to leave the question up to the General Assembly’s budget-writing Appropriations Committee.
Posted inEducation
Rabinowitz drops bid to become state’s next education chief
Fran Rabinowitz, the Bridgeport schools chief, has withdrawn from consideration as the state’s next education commissioner, and plans to instead continue running Bridgeport’s public schools. “I want to stay here and do the work here,” Rabinowitz told the Connecticut Post yesterday. Rabinowitz was one of three candidates who was to be interviewed by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy for the commissioner’s post. […]
Posted inEducation
The charter debate: More schools, transparency and oversight?
Legislators are grappling with whether to fund new charter schools in Bridgeport and Stamford, put a moratorium on new charters while existing schools are assessed, or demand more transparency and oversight in the wake of financial and management failures at a charter school in Hartford.
Posted inNews
Op-Ed: CEA rhetoric not helping kids, public schools are
The CEA’s recent Op-Ed, “Connecticut charter schools a good idea gone awry,” made a bunch of claims that aren’t only false, they’re dishonest and frankly insulting to parents who are exercising their right to choose a school for their children.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
CEA rhetoric not helping kids, public schools are
The CEA’s recent Op-Ed, “Connecticut charter schools a good idea gone awry,” made a bunch of claims that aren’t only false, they’re dishonest and frankly insulting to parents who are exercising their right to choose a school for their children.
Posted inEducation
What you should know about this year’s standardized testing
Thousands of students across Connecticut will begin taking controversial new standardized tests today that are aligned with the Common Core State Standards. Here is what parents and students should know.
