Education reforms group calls for $1.3B to close learning gaps
By Stephanie Reitz, Associated Press, January 24, 2007

HARTFORD, Conn. --A group of education reform advocates and parents called on lawmakers Wednesday to fund a $1.3 billion plan they believe will help close the learning gap between Connecticut's richest and poorest students.

The proposal calls for better access to preschool, steering skilled teachers to struggling schools, and tripling the number of magnet, charter and other unconventional types of public schools.

National reviews have concluded that Connecticut has among the largest achievement gaps nationwide between students in wealthy districts and those in poor cities.

"That is unacceptable, but it is something we can also change," said Alex Johnston, executive director of the Connecticut Coalition for Achievement Now.

Specific funding sources were not named Wednesday for the six-year plan.

Among its recommendations are guaranteeing high-quality, free preschool to children in low-income families; increasing the number of skilled teachers and principals working in city schools; and boosting schools' accountability for scholastic results and financial decisions.

But the Connecticut Education Association, the state teacher's union, has differed with ConnCAN over charter schools and methods to rate public school achievement. The union plans to soon unveil its own recommendations to close the gap.

The CEA has been working for more than 18 months with superintendents, administrators and other education experts on ideas, CEA president Phil Apruzzese said Wednesday.

He compared the ConnCAN recommendations to a patchwork quilt.

"When you take a look at it at first glance, it has some old proposals in it, it has some repackaged notions and it has some unproven ideas," he said. "We have been in this arena for many years and we understand the parameters that we have to work within."

House Speaker James Amann, D-Milford, said he believes people should ignore those he calls the "doubters," those trying "to pull you down," although he did not mention the CEA specifically.

Later, he said its disputes with ConnCAN "sounds a little jealous," but that he also plans to meet soon with the union and believes they will have valuable ideas.

Amann said funding questions had not yet been ironed out for whatever measures eventually are adopted that attempt to close the achievement gap.

He said one possibility is to reroute money toward prevention and intervention programs -- including those in the new report -- and away from programs emphasizing incarceration and similar measures.

"There's money that's been identified that we can be efficient and effective with," said Amann.

State Rep. Andrew Fleischmann, D-West Hartford, co-chairman of the Education Committee, was equally enthusiastic about the proposals.

"A child is only 7 once, 10 once, 17 once ... We need to get it right," he said.