A years-long campaign to allow undocumented students to receive financial aid at Connecticut’s public colleges almost certainly will not achieve its goal this year, and its future chances are in doubt.
Sen. Beth Bye
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Legislators, stop using the disabled as a fiscal punching bag!
There is no honor in how the state has disrespected persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities(IDD). Their plight is dire. With the last rescission, the IDD population since 2013 has lost nearly $100 million from its agency — the Department of Developmental Services(DDS).
Posted inEducation
Cutting DCF: Right-sizing or wrong-headed?
The Department of Children and Families says it has been able to absorb large budget cuts and better serve vulnerable children by placing more of them with family members and fewer with strangers in expensive group homes. But critics say the agency hasn’t been allowed to redirect enough of those savings into community support to improve outcomes. And more cuts loom.
Posted inMoney, Politics
Some Democrats ready to talk about state worker concessions
Republican state legislators no longer are the only ones talking about an immediate need for new concessions from state employees. The top Democrat on the legislature’s Appropriations Committee, Sen. Beth Bye of West Hartford, confirms that Democrats on her panel have discussed the possibility of worker furloughs to mitigate recent cuts to hospitals and to services for the mentally ill and developmentally disabled.
Posted inMoney, Politics
Time is short, but budget talks are going long
With just two weeks left in the 2015 General Assembly session, the principals in final state budget negotiations acknowledged Wednesday that little progress has been made as the June 3 deadline looms large.
Posted inEducation, Politics
CT school funding overpays wealthy towns, underpays needier, critics say
It seems like a reasonable standard: No town shall receive less state money to help run its schools than it did in the previous year. But in practice this means several Connecticut school districts in the wealthiest towns — towns that have fewer high-need students — are receiving more money from the state than they would otherwise be entitled to while needier districts get less.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
One political party rules Connecticut, period
Of the hundreds of votes that make state government run, there are dozens that determine Connecticut’s direction. On these, the philosophical divide between Democrats and Republicans is profound. And in Connecticut, the Democratic votes control.
Posted inNews
Op-Ed: One political party rules Connecticut, period
Of the hundreds of votes that make state government run, there are dozens that determine Connecticut’s direction. On these, the philosophical divide between Democrats and Republicans is profound. And in Connecticut, the Democratic votes control.
Posted inEducation
Lawmakers concerned over CSCU administrative costs
Top state legislators are concerned about how much officials of the state’s largest public college system are spending on administrative costs. (Photo: CSCU President Gregory Gray answers legislators’ questions.)
Posted inHealth
Tobacco funds: Connecticut’s budget-balancing escape hatch
Connecticut has received nearly $2 billion in settlement funds from big tobacco companies in the past 15 years. Only a small fraction has gone to anti-smoking efforts. Instead, the fund has become largely an escape hatch when lawmakers need help balancing the budget.
Posted inHealth
Legislators say DSS hearing rules must change for ‘fundamental fairness’
They’re called fair hearings — the chance people get to appeal decisions made by the state Department of Social Services, such as denials of applications for benefits or being turned down for Medicaid coverage of a certain treatment. But some legislators say the way the department handles the hearings makes them anything but fair.
Posted inEducation
Malloy, lawmakers: dueling plans for ‘universal access’ to pre-k
When Gov. Dannel P. Malloy proposed providing “universal access” to preschool, he said it would cost the state an additional $51.1 million a year. When Democratic legislators released their plans two months later to provide “universal access,” they said it would cost the state $10 million a year. Why such a huge difference?
Posted inEducation
Education funding: Malloy wants to back off state formula
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy is asking state legislators to ignore the formula they adopted last spring, a move that would relieve the state from having to send school districts another $6 million next school year.
Posted inEducation, Money, Politics
Beth Bye brings passion, toughness to budget chairmanship
Sen. Beth Bye: “Those of us who have been through some of the challenges of discrimination, when you go through something this hard, you come out strong. I think it’s a critical part of who I am.”
Posted inEducation
Changing remedial college courses: law, implementation, pushback
Some people are confused about a new state law aimed at helping the many community college students who need remedial work.