State To Appeal Controversial Education Overhaul Decision

The state's top lawyer will appeal a controversial school funding decision, asserting that the ruling represents a broad overreach of judicial authority.

"This decision would wrest educational policy from the representative branches of state government, limit public education for some students with special needs, create additional municipal mandates concerning graduation and other standards, and alter the basic terms of educators' employment — and entrust all of those matters to the discretion of a single, unelected judge," Attorney General George Jepsen said in a statement Thursday.

Jepsen's announcement comes eight days after Superior Court Judge Thomas G. Moukawsher issued a sweeping decision that orders the legislature to overhaul the way public education is funded and delivered, from elementary to high school.

Moukawsher gave lawmakers and Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's administration 180 days to devise a new funding formula for public schools, calling the current method arbitrary and irrational, and declaring that it shortchanges poor children. He also directed the legislature to devise a new way of evaluating and compensating teachers, principals and superintendents; institute a graduation test for high school seniors; and revise the way special education services are delivered.

Read more: http://www.courant.com/education/hc-state-appeals-school-decision-20160915-story.html