CT Lawmakers Raise Education Funding Concerns Following Story of High School Grad Who Can’t Read

CT Mirror

Some Connecticut lawmakers are raising concerns about oversight of public school funding and said they plan to push for several education reforms after The Connecticut Mirror published an investigation about a Hartford student with a disability who alleges she graduated without the ability to read or write.

Bipartisan leaders of the state legislature’s Education Committee said the CT Mirror’s story illustrated a “broken system” that they were aware of “anecdotally.”

“This is not the first time that we’ve heard about some of these atrocities that are going on” across school districts in Connecticut, said Sen. Eric Berthel, R-Watertown, who serves as a ranking member on the Education Committee.

Berthel issued a joint statement with state Sen. Lisa Seminara, ranking member of the Committee on Children, and Senate Minority Leader Stephen Harding, both also Republicans, shortly after the story ran.

“Aleysha Ortiz’s story is a scathing indictment of Connecticut’s education system. As policymakers, we must examine every part of this story and how the system failed Aleysha in so many ways,” the lawmakers said in the statement. “Tens of thousands of dollars a year are spent per student in the Hartford Public Schools. The vast majority of that money is subsidized by taxpayers from across Connecticut. … Aleysha Ortiz’s unimaginable story is Hartford’s — and Connecticut’s — reality. Her story must be a blaring alarm bell for anyone who cares about the education of Connecticut’s children.”

CT lawmakers raise education funding concerns following story of high school grad who can’t read