Senator Boucher Statement On Charter School Funding

Senator Toni Boucher (R-Wilton), Ranking Member on both the State Education Committee and Higher Education Committee, today released the following statement re: Gov. Dannel Malloy’s proposal to increase charter school funding and create more incentives for local districts to improve failing schools or risk intervention by the State Department of Education.

“The incentives and increase in funding for charter schools is a positive step in the right direction. We should consider and support every means possible to improve the quality of education for children particularly in persistently failing schools. Charter schools were created to be the learning and teaching laboratories, a place where best practices and new strategies to improve student outcome are put into action.

“I look forward to working in a bipartisan way to help further these and other reforms desperately needed to close the widest achievement gap in the nation. It is the very best way to move children out of poverty, provide them the opportunity to support themselves and their future families, and improve our state’s economic health.”