‘Connecticut needs a school finance system that makes sense’
In his decision on Wednesday in Connecticut Coalition for Justice in Education Funding (CCJEF) v. Rell, Connecticut Superior Court Judge Thomas Moukawsher made a lengthy, wide-ranging ruling on...
View ArticleDestroying UConn’s Faculty Row — a stupid move
My family lived along Gilbert Road when father first came to the Connecticut Agricultural College, a school limited to 500 students by the State Legislature. They moved to a farm just off campus where...
View ArticleJudge correctly identified need for systemic public education overhaul
The ink isn’t yet dry on Judge Thomas Moukawsher’s ruling in CCJEF v. Rell — originally brought in 2005 -- and Connecticut must already prepare to defend its educational practices in another court...
View ArticleOf Connecticut’s teacher shamers and Zip Code apartheid
With the decision from the Connecticut Coalition for Justice in Education Funding (CCJEF) v. Rell case, we are taking a giant leap forward in Connecticut, but taking an equally giant step backwards as...
View Article‘Dark poison’ in Judge Moukawsher’s education ruling
Judge Thomas Moukawsher issued a monumental ruling last week in Connecticut Coalition for Justice in Education Funding v. Rell. Based on an extensive trial that ran from January through June, the judge...
View ArticleOn SBAC test results: ‘We are asking the wrong questions’
The recent release of the latest Connecticut SBAC scores indicates that nearly half of the state’s elementary and middle school students tested last year were not at grade level in reading or math. In...
View ArticleUConn misrepresenting Faculty Row situation
As an alumnus of the UConn School of Business, a member of the Storrs community, Chair of the Mansfield Historic District Commission and local preservationist, I am writing to point out an issue that I...
View ArticleConnecticut’s school funding formulas whimsical, but not inequitable
Judge Thomas Moukawsher says the state's school funding mechanism is irrational and the that state thereby failed to fulfill its mandate to thousands of schoolchildren across the state, and that the...
View ArticleEducation funding — An opportunity for CT Democrats to lead
Last week, Judge Thomas Moukawsher released a siren call of a decision in Connecticut Coalition for Educational Funding (CCJEF) v. Rell, an 11-year-old case that has been working its way through the...
View ArticleEducation reform should be rational, and should work in practice
Despite the best of intentions, in an overly-broad ruling Judge Thomas Moukawsher has prescribed some remedies that I believe would lead us to repeat past mistakes at great cost to many. I respectfully...
View ArticleCCJEF v. Rell appeal more dangerous than status quo
On Sept. 7, there was a moment when interest-convergence was happening right in front of us. As Superior Court Judge Thomas Moukawsher read his ruling on CCJEF v. Rell, advocates like myself started to...
View ArticleClosing Connecticut’s real achievement gap
There‘s a lot of talk in Connecticut about closing the achievement gap between affluent students who are predominately white and poor students who are predominately black or brown, but there have been...
View ArticleWhy Connecticut should think twice about asking to ‘end Sheff’
In the wake of the recent CCJEF v. Rell trial court decision on school finance, we should take a moment to consider the continuing benefits of the Connecticut Supreme Court’s 1996 Sheff v. O’Neill...
View ArticleMoukawsher got the problem right, and the solution wrong
Judge Thomas Moukawsher has performed a remarkable service by shining a bright light on the profoundly unfair, counterproductive, and irrational way Connecticut funds public education. While the odds...
View ArticleHillary’s choice for Education Secretary could be ‘anti-public’
A recent survey of educators across the nation reveals that, when elected, Hillary Clinton may follow in the footsteps of President Obama concerning her choice of Secretary of Education in the...
View ArticleThe expectations gap dividing Connecticut’s schools
he gap dividing Connecticut’s schools is much more than wealth. I would argue that it is also a gap of expectations. A major problem driving what Judge Thomas Moukawsher so aptly called the...
View ArticleIn CCJEF v. Rell, a troubling outlook on funding students with disabilities
Deep in Judge Thomas Moukawsher’s decision in the Connecticut Coalition for Justice in Educational Funding v. Rell is troubling language regarding funding for students with severe disabilities. Judge...
View ArticleOpting out of testing in Connecticut — now a civic duty
Since implementation of the new teacher evaluation system by Gov. Dannel Malloy and the legislature, I have believed opting out of standardized testing was a student right. I now see it as a civic...
View ArticleConnecticut needs more ELL teachers for growing Hispanic population
As we celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, I'm asking you to think about what that actually means. Specifically, I want you to think about the thousands of young Latinos who are in our schools right now,...
View ArticleInfant Dylan’s case: How Fasano — and Eagan — are getting it wrong
In every child welfare system, certain things are inevitable. The only acceptable goal for child abuse tragedies is zero - but no system achieves it. Every system has horrible cases, including cases...
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