State of Connecticut Sued by Its NCLB Lawsuit Allies
A coalition of mayors, community activists, school adminstrators and teachers’ unions filed a school funding lawsuit against the state of Connecticut on behalf of a group of 15 students and their parents. The suit claims that the state’s funding formula puts too heavy a burden on local governments to finance education.
The Connecticut Coalition for Justice in Education Funding is led by three mayors and John Yrchik, the executive director of the Connecticut Education Association (CEA). Sharon Palmer, president of AFT Connecticut, also sits on the coalition’s board of directors.
In a press statement, CEA said the lawsuit “has greater potential to transform teachers’ classrooms than any finance litigation in Connecticut in the past 30 years.”
The New York Times noted: “Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who recently filed a lawsuit against the federal government in which he claimed the No Child Left Behind education policy amounts to an unfunded mandate, is now in the position of having to defend the state against a claim that it, too, is providing inadequate money for education.”
