Fasano sees grounds to appeal education ruling (Connecticut Post)

September 13, 2016

CT Post

The state Senate’s Republican leader on Tuesday told Attorney General George Jepsen that there are several areas that he can contest and ask for clarification in last week’s controversial court ruling on public education in Connecticut.

Senate Minority Leader Len Fasano, R-North Haven, suggested that “a number” of procedural issues are unclear in the decision of a Superior Court judge who declared the public-school system unconstitutional and discriminatory to the major cities.

“His decision reads more like a legislative agenda or white paper on education policy than a judicial finding,” Fasano, a lawyer, wrote.
The case pitted school professionals against the governor’s office and the state Department of Education.

“For a judge to opine on the possible solutions and order the Legislature to undertake sweeping education reform that comports with his own policy analysis is breath taking in its hubris,” Fasano wrote of Judge Thomas Moukawsher’s September 7 decision, which gave the state six months to radically change funding procedures, teacher assessments and high school graduation requirements.

Fasano said the judge essentially repudiated years of politically motivated funding by majority Democrats in the General Assembly.
Jaclyn Falkowski, communications director for the attorney general, said Jepsen and his staff are still studying the issues raised by the judge and expect to soon have a strategy for reacting to Moukawsher.

“We continue to review the decisions in consultation with our client agencies,” Falkowski said in a phone interview.