With Budget Crisis Handled, Thoughts Turn to Education

Last year was a tough one for state lawmakers struggling to find the money to run the state.

But now, with that budget crisis hurdle overcome -- at least for now -- it's time to focus on education, Gov. Dannel Malloy has told members of the state House of Representatives and Senate.

Malloy held a workshop Thursday in New Britain to talk about what education proposals might be part of this year's legislative session. 

Last November, Malloy appointed an ECS Task Force to address issues with those state grants doled out to each municipality.

"The task force is looking at the formula that has gotten skewed over time and is not fully funded," said state Sen. Martin Looney, D-11, who is the senate majority leader. "Parts of it are outdated and don't reflect the true basis of need."

Proof of a crisis in education can be found in a study done in 2010 of the status of students who graduated from Hartford public schools in 2004, Looney said. Only 14 percent of those students who graduated from high school that year went on to earn advanced degrees, including associates and bachelor's degrees, he said.

Also alarming, he said, is statistics that show half of students enrolled in the Connecticut State University System are in need of remedial courses and in the community college system, that figure is two-thirds.

"Students who need remediation like that have a large chance of never graduating," he said, and instead get side-tracked trying to get up to the level where they can take the required classes and end up giving up.

And the problem is clearly that those students aren't being prepared properly for college, indicating a failure of the municipal public school system, he said.

"We need to focus relief in the areas of greatest need," he said.