This is a sad reversal for Connecticut’s poorest children.
As a candidate for governor, Dannell Malloy supported a lawsuit that would guarantee that the children of the state have a constitutional right to a quality education.
Now that he is governor, he is trying to quash the lawsuit he once supported.
Go figure.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
This action by the Connecticut Guv is mirrored by other similar cases nationwide with the seeming intent of doing away with the 1954 case Brown v. Bd. of Ed. Although we always refer to that decision as a single case, actually it was a compilation of cases decided in favor of desegregation of American schools. No more separate but equal !
Now we are back to square one…not only separate, but vastly unequal public schools are being foisted on the neediest communities….all in the name of reform, but really a push for profit. In Diane’s earlier post today re online for-profit charters, the ads on TV encouraging students to opt out of schools in favor of going the easier route of online schooling, almost always show only White upper middle class students in beautiful homes monitored by gorgeous mothers at home and cooking meals for them.
And the message is????
What could be more clear? The well-to-do should leave the public school system for the publically funded private education online, and those left behind can suffer the consequences. This rush to privatized reform paid for by public taxes will result in continuing underfunded public education and inner city students who lead lives in poverty having fewer chances to succeed. Yet the literature (some provided in Diane’s links today) shows clearly the failures of online ed, but these advertising messages are so blatant that it is not even subliminal.
Thanks for getting out the word, Diane! For those interested in learning more about the CT lawsuit, visit the homepage of the CT Coalition for Justice in Education Funding, http://www.ccjef.org. And an updated news story about the state’s efforts to dismiss this case appeared today online at http://www.ctmirror.org/story/19681/were-education-reforms-passed-enough-derail-school-funding-lawsuit.
Thank you for the link to the informative CT Mirror article. Thank you also for your tireless work on this case!
Thanks for this info Dianne. And I admire and support your stance. We are facing this same situation in Los Angeles with a self aggrandizing Mayor Villaraigosa, and a Supt. of Schools Deasy who matriculated with Michelle Rhee from the Broad Academy, bragging that they will close their assessed “failing schools” as rapidly as possible. Of course that also means laying off teachers, administrators, and staff without due process.
With our huge student population of near 900,000, the preponderance live in poverty and are in increasingly segregated schools. Charters are stealing the top students (by lottery) and we are left with unmanageable overcrowded classrooms and exhausted, frightened, teachers.
DINO Dan does it again. His aspirations must be higher than being reelected as governor: he has managed to alienate many of the Democratic Party’s supporters in such a short time.