State officials agreed Monday to offer 1,325 more children living in Hartford seats in existing magnet or suburban public schools next school year. The agreement is the latest result of an 18-year-old Connecticut Supreme Court decision that ordered the state to eliminate the educational inequities caused by the capital city’s segregated schools.
Sheff vs. O’Neill
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School choice: Future of new magnet schools uncertain
When state legislators placed a moratorium on building new magnet schools outside the capital region five years ago, they wanted to know if these schools were worth the large investment before boosting enrollment further. So they ordered the state education commissioner to assess magnet school performance and submit a plan for their future. That plan is now four years late, magnet schools approved before the moratorium will probably be full by the start of the next school year, research is incomplete on their impact and many legislators are reluctant to open new schools.
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60 years after Brown vs. Board of Education: Still separate in Connecticut
It was 60 years ago this Saturday that the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its landmark Brown vs. Board of Education decision outlawing segregation in the nation’s schools. But in many large Connecticut cities, racial isolation in schools is as bad as ever.
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Report: Many Connecticut charter schools ‘hyper-segregated’
State law requires education leaders to “reduce racial, ethnic and economic isolation” to advance the state’s interests, but an advocacy group reports that most of Connecticut’s charter schools are “hyper-segregated.”
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Can Connecticut afford school choice?
At a time when the state’s school-age population is declining and resources are scarce, key state lawmakers are questioning whether it’s appropriate to spend millions of dollars more over the next several years to increase enrollment in magnet schools.
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Hartford parents are divided on integrating CT’s schools
It has been the state’s primary strategy to comply with an order from the Connecticut Supreme Court to reduce educational inequalities in Hartford by providing an integrated education for children who live in Hartford. But 17 years after the court ruled in the landmark Sheff vs. O’Neill lawsuit, parents disagree on the effect it has had.
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By the numbers: Integrating schools in CT
Over the last 10 years, the state has spent about $2.5 billion to offer Hartford students enrollment in an integrated school. Most of the state’s spending has gone toward opening new magnet schools in the region to encourage Hartford minority students and white students from the suburbs to enroll.
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Nearly half the students from Hartford now attend integrated schools
Nearly half of the students from Hartford now attend integrated schools, the state reports — 17 years after the Connecticut Supreme Court ordered the state to eliminate the educational inequities caused by the segregation of Hartford’s overwhelmingly black and Hispanic school population. “We are proud of the progress we’ve made to date,” said Kelly Donnelly, […]
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Deadline passes for agreement on reforms to desegregate Hartford schools
A student attending Newington Public Schools through the Open Choice Program The deadline has passed for state officials to reach an agreement on how to desegregate Hartford’s predominantly black and Hispanic public schools. “As of right now, we don’t have an agreement,” said Martha Stone, the lawyer behind the school desegregation lawsuit that led to the […]
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Must the state provide every Hartford student a seat in an integrated school?
As a court-ordered deadline approaches for state officials to outline how they will desegregate Hartford’s public schools, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy drew a line in the sand on what he is willing to agree to. Thirty-seven percent of Hartford students attended integrated schools last school year –- 4 percentage points shy of the 41 percent […]
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2,500 Hartford students to have chance to attend different school
The plaintiffs in the case leaf through the agreement Having run out of time to comply with a court order to desegregate Hartford’s schools, the state has entered into a new agreement that will expand school choice opportunities for 2,523 more students. The new order — agreed to Tuesday by the Connecticut Attorney General and the plaintiffs in […]
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Efforts to desegregate, expand school choice a challenge with looming deficits
The Caro family debates which schools to enter their children in for the state’s school choice lottery. The Caro family debates which schools to enter their children in for the state’s school choice lottery. State education officials are proposing to expand opportunities for Hartford children by sending more of them to suburban schools — but […]