Malloy, a Democrat, has been reminding everyone that Connecticut covers the entire cost of municipal teachers’ pensions in both affluent and impoverished school districts, and those costs are escalating quickly. This has left many local leaders worried their overall state aid may be cut to help close the 8 percent deficit in the next state budget.
school funding
Posted inEducation, Money
Malloy budget chief: Scale back aid for local school construction
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy will push to scale back spending on local school construction projects in the next state budget because Connecticut is on pace to exceed its borrowing limit.
Posted inEducation
School choice: Betting the odds
With more than 40 schools in the Hartford region’s school choice lottery, the odds of landing a seat vary based on what school and what grade a student’s family is seeking. While the odds for some schools are a sure bet, others can be a long shot.
Posted inEducation, Justice
Troubled schools on trial: Will a scathing court decision lead to action?
While changing the way the state distributes school aid among towns may draw substantial support from legislators and the governor, they have shown little interest in, or have outright rejected, changing other polices a Superior Court judge found unconstitutional. Last of seven stories.
Posted inEducation, Justice
Troubled schools on trial: Special education driving costs and controversies
The rate at which students are identified for special education varies drastically across school districts, and school officials differ on whether that’s because districts are over- or under-indentifying students. But they agree the rising cost to educate these students has outpaced inflation and crowds out other supports for students. The state judge presiding over a recent school funding trial blamed the state for not enforcing clear mandates on who is entitled to special education. Sixth of seven stories.
Posted inEducation, Justice
Troubled schools on trial: What does a high school diploma prove?
A seeming paradox – rising graduation rates coupled with low standardized test scores and high demand for remedial courses in college – was among the reasons that a Hartford Superior Court judge ruled that the state fails to provide students with the education the state constitution says they are entitled to. Fifth of seven stories.
Posted inEducation
Troubled schools on trial: Who’s in charge? State vs. local control
Introducing bold reforms or enforcing standards to aid struggling students in poor districts have largely stalled at the state Capitol or the State Department of Education amid conflict over policy, local control or whether resources are adequate. Fourth of seven stories.
Posted inEducation, Justice
Troubled schools on trial: Building boom, pensions lock in big costs statewide
School construction costs, coupled with well over $1 billion the state must contribute each year toward teachers’ pensions, mean about 40 percent of the state’s annual education spending is locked in for years to come. Third of seven stories.
Posted inEducation, Justice
Troubled schools on trial: A broken formula for state aid
To fix the formula, legislators would have to decide whether there is inequity in how state aid is distributed to towns, simply a lack of money, or both. Any major change would mean huge fiscal consequences and political battles. Second of seven stories.
Posted inEducation, Justice
Troubled schools on trial: When poverty permeates the classroom
“The state of education in some towns is alarming,” wrote the judge presiding over a recent five-month trial on state funding of failing schools. Whether the state is doing enough to educate children in poverty was at the core of the case, which explored the struggles of students in the state’s lowest-performing schools. First of seven stories.
Posted inEducation, Politics
CT joins lobbying fray over new federal education rule
WASHINGTON – Connecticut has joined a lobbying effort to change how federal money for schools with large populations of poor or disadvantaged students is distributed. The new regulation would bar school districts from “supplanting” the money they give to schools with poor students with federal money aimed at “supplementing” local funding.
Posted inEducation, Justice
Jepsen files appeal, says Moukawsher school ruling ‘legally unsupported’
Attorney General George Jepsen’s office filed an appeal Thursday asking the Connecticut Supreme Court to conclude that a trial judge embarked on “an uncharted and legally unsupported path” last week in asserting authority over how the state distributes education aid and sets standards for graduating from high school, serving special-needs students and evaluating teachers.
Posted inEducation, Justice, Politics
Judge strikes down state education aid choices as ‘irrational’
In a broad indictment of how Connecticut supports its poorest schools, Superior Court Judge Thomas Moukawsher ruled Wednesday that the state’s method for distributing education aid is irrational and unconstitutional, while declining to second-guess the General Assembly on the ultimate level of state spending.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
A school funding inequity solution: Better housing policy
A state Superior Court judge heard final arguments last month on the limits of the state’s responsibility in financing the education of all students, including those with low incomes living largely in urban school districts. He is expected to rule this week. How can our state, our taxpayers, spend more to take care of all “our kids” when court decisions are already forcing the state to spend hundreds of millions of dollars desegregating Hartford schools and caring for abused and neglected children? As a mother, and a housing professional, I think I know one clear answer.
Posted inEducation
Judge presses state on approach to school funding as trial wraps
The five-month trial examining whether the lowest-performing schools in Connecticut are providing students with the education the state constitution requires came to a close Wednesday with final arguments from the attorney defending the state and sharp questioning from the judge. The judge will now craft a complex decision almost certain to become the basis of an appeal to the state Supreme Court.
