Dive Brief:
- A school funding lawsuit making its way through the courts in Connecticut has pitted state lawmakers against a coalition of parents, teachers, and school boards over the question of whether preschool is included in a general education.
- The impetus for the suit is a concern that the state will draw on dollars intended for early education to pay for K-12 expenses when money is tight.
- Six years ago, the state’s highest court ruled that the state was obligated to fund a certain level of education but failed to explicitly call out preschool as included in that, leaving the door open for the current lawsuit.
Dive Insight:
More cities and states are rolling out universal preschool programs, but most of those have come from legislative action, which Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen argues is how it should be. If the courts rule that the state is responsible for preschool, the ruling could require a statewide universal preschool program, which few states have achieved as of yet.
Connecticut has already begun to move to a near universal system, even without judicial intervention. But members of the coalition argue that preschool is essential to improving education and closing achievement gaps, making a legal mandate necessary.
"Early childhood programs ought to be one of the tools that could be required by the courts to provide an adequate education," Merrill Gay, the executive director of the Connecticut Early Childhood Alliance (a plaintiff in the case), told the CT Mirror.