Dive Brief:
- In addition to requiring a new funding formula to improve equity across Connecticut’s education system, Superior Court Judge Thomas Moukawsher ordered an overhaul of the state’s teacher and administrator evaluation systems and a new plan for deciding student advancement and graduation.
- The Hartford Courant reports the ruling will require state education officials to develop clear education standards for the entire K-12 system, as well as a graduation test to ensure students are not pushed through the system without proving mastery of key skills.
- Moukawsher did not say how much money the state should be spending on schools, meaning a new funding formula could reallocate existing dollars and spur a divisive battle in the legislature, but the judge’s decision allowed the state just six months to make all the changes.
Dive Insight:
Court cases alleging improper or insufficient funding of schools have become commonplace. The more standard decision, however, has been limited to the actual dollars the state spends on education and the method by which it allocates them. The Washington state Supreme Court has been fining lawmakers $100,000 per day for being in contempt of court by failing to agree on a new funding formula for schools after an August 2015 ruling found the current formula insufficient.
Oral arguments are set for Sept. 21 in a Kansas Supreme Court case over school funding. The court had threatened to shut schools down if the legislature did not come up with an equitable school finance law following a decision that funding to poor districts was inadequate. Just as the first successful challenge to school funding inspired a number of other cases, the Connecticut decision could embolden judges to make more sweeping rulings elsewhere.