From Alex's Desk

More Bang for More Bucks (Spring Compass)

As this year’s legislative session comes to a close, Connecticut is likely on the eve of the largest increase in public education spending in more than a generation. But will this historic infusion of funds help ensure that all Connecticut students have access to a great public school? The answer will depend on whether our state leaders from both political parties are willing to use their political capital to connect this new financial capital to real reforms.

In her 2007 State of the State Address Governor M. Jodi Rell called for an end to business as usual in education. She proposed new accountability measures alongside an additional $3.2 billion in spending over five years, which if enacted will move Connecticut from the third highest per student spending in the nation to the front of the class. House Speaker James Amman and the Democratic leadership in the State Legislature have pushed forward their own substantial plan for increased education spending.

Clearly something dramatic is needed to address the problems in Connecticut’s public schools. National tests reveal that on average Connecticut’s low-income eighth grade students are reading and performing math on a fourth grade level: the country’s worst achievement gap. Compared to low-income students in other states, they rank 39th in reading and 44th in math. Our eighth grade Latino students have the second-lowest math scores in the nation, on average scoring one and one-half grade levels behind Latinos in Texas, Virginia and South Carolina. Just 29 percent of students in Hartford high schools graduate in four years with a diploma.

It is also clear from countless district and state reform efforts across the country that more money by itself is unlikely to have much impact on these problems. To make real progress, this increase in funding must be connected to changes in the way our schools are organized, staffed and held accountable for results.

What would these changes look like? Drawing on the lessons learned from great public schools across the nation and the latest research on proven policies for raising student achievement from around the country, Connecticut parents’ rights advocates, community action groups, business associations, and nonprofit education organizations have come together in support of a comprehensive set of changes called the “Great Schools for All” initiative.

This approach combines greater investments in public education with high-impact reforms that have proven results, including: free high-performing preschools for low-income families; innovative new public charter schools, magnet schools and pilot schools; partnerships with non-profit organizations that recruit the highest-caliber teachers and principals into urban school districts; support teams to help districts implement best practices for raising achievement across all their schools; and investments in new data and accountability systems to provide parents and the public with straightforward information on education spending and student progress in every school in every district.

These targeted investments would cost $120 million over two years, about one-tenth the cost of the new education spending under discussion by Connecticut’s legislative leaders and the Governor. Yet together they would add up to a sea-change in the quality of public education available to those Connecticut students most in need.

Although the achievement gap costs Connecticut’s poor and minority communities the most, we all have a compelling stake in ensuring that it is closed. In these final days of the legislative session, our state’s leaders have a historic opportunity to help close America’s largest achievement gap by insisting not just on more educational dollars, but also on the systemic reforms needed to make this spending truly count for all our kids.