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In the News
May 18, 2012
Fairfield County Business Journal

With new federal data showing continued, middle-of-the-pack performance by Connecticut schools, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy found the middle ground among competing interests for a landmark education law.

For once, teachers were not front and center in the debate.

May 8, 2012
Wall Street Journal

HARTFORD—In a sweeping education deal with lawmakers and teacher unions here, Gov. Dannel Malloy gave ground on some of his farthest-reaching proposals but contended the compromise was still a historic overhaul of public-school policy in a state that has proved resistant to change.

May 8, 2012
Hartford Courant

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said Monday night that his administration and lawmakers had reached an agreement on "meaningful education reform" — an agreement that he said adds nearly $100 million in new education spending and will help the state regain its competitive edge.

May 8, 2012
CT News Junkie

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and Democratic legislative leaders celebrated what they called an “historic” agreement on a sweeping education reform proposal that believe will help Connecticut erase its largest-in-the-nation achievement gap.

At a 10 p.m. press conference, Malloy told a packed room of reformers and leaders of at least one of the state’s teacher unions that the bill the Senate is expected to take up later this evening is just a beginning.

May 7, 2012
The Hanging Shad

Say this for Gov. Dannel Malloy, love his policies or hate them, he has largely gotten what he wants in his first year and a half in office. He pushed through the largest tax increase in state history after inheriting a $3 billion-plus disaster of a state budget; he was able to wring desperately needed concessions out of the state employee unions (after first failing); he instituted the “First Five” job-creation program; and won hard-fought approval for the Jackson Labs economic development project..

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Issue Brief: No Child Left Behind

July, 2006
No Child Left Behind Report Cover Image
application/pdf iconIB_Connecticut_NCLB.pdf

In Connecticut and across the nation, no education reform has generated as much hope or controversy as the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2002.

No Child Left Behind is actually a reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), which was signed into law in 1965 as a centerpiece of President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty. The program, which created Title I federal education funding for schools with disadvantaged populations, has been the single largest source of federal support for K–12 education for more than three decades.

Signed into law in January 2002 amidst bipartisan fanfare, No Child Left Behind combined a significant increase in federal Title I funding with a series of provisions designed to ensure greater accountability for results. Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy proclaimed that “[n]o piece of legislation will have a greater impact or influence” on maintaining America’s leading position in world affairs.1 President Bush, in signing the bill, remarked that its fundamental principle “is that every child can learn, we expect every child to learn, and [states] must show us whether or not every child is learning.”2 The law was greeted by widespread acclaim.

More than four years later, that bipartisan accord has broken down. A chorus of critics regularly denounces the program as unwieldy, unworkable, underfunded, and an intrusion on local control of education.3 To date, ten states have explored ways to withdraw from portions of NCLB and Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Oklahoma and Wisconsin filed amicus briefs in support of a National Education Association lawsuit challenging the legality of the law.4 In August 2005, Connecticut became the first state to sue the federal government over NCLB, claiming that the testing provisions represented an illegal unfunded mandate.5

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