Landmark State Education Lawsuit Postponed

Back in January, a Superior Court Judge in Hartford rejected the state’s effort to delay a lawsuit that challenges the way Connecticut funds its public schools. Judge Kevin Dubay ruled the lawsuit would head to trial Sept. 9.

Now the educational coalition that initially fought the state’s delay has agreed with the state attorney general’s office to a five-month postponement. The trial is now slated to begin Jan. 6, 2015, two months after the gubernatorial and other statewide elections are held. 

The lawsuit was brought by the Connecticut Coalition for Justice in Education Funding (CCJEF,) which represents cities (including New Haven) towns (including Branford), parents and children across the state. Law students from the Yale Law School’s Education Adequacy Clinic, along with attorneys from the law firm of Debevoise & Plimpton in New York City and David Rosen & Associates in New Haven, are preparing the case.

The CCJEF argues the current way the state finances public schools denies many children of their constitutional right to an equitable and adequate education.

Last January Dianne Kaplan deVries, executive director of CCJEF, told the CT News Junkie, ​“The state sought to delay this trial by another 16 months, so as to wait out the November gubernatorial election and then have another go at trying to moot out the case.”

On Wednesday deVries said in a press release that the trial delay will enable CCJEF ​“to gather information from the fall term of the 2014 – 15 school years and give additional time for other evidence collection.”

She subsequently told the Eagle, ​“What CCJEF is trying to achieve is not just to win adequate and equitable funding for today’s schoolchildren, but also to bring about needed systemic changes in Connecticut school finance that will better ‎serve all our children, their schools and communities, over the next 10, 20, or 30 years. Thus waiting another five months for the trial to get underway truly is inconsequential.”

“Moving the trial date to January can only strengthen our case and heighten our resolve,” said Herb Rosenthal of Newtown, the coalition’s president. The lawsuit was first filed in 2005.

A spokeswoman for Attorney General George Jepsen told the News Junkie Wednesday that the new trial date is necessary based on discovery requests.

“The state and the plaintiffs in this case agreed to the rescheduled trial date as it became clear that plaintiffs needed additional time to respond to court-approved discovery requests,” Jaclyn Falkowski said. ​“We believe that a new trial date was necessary for the state to have a fair opportunity to defend this lawsuit, which seeks billions in additional taxpayer-funded education funding each year.”

In 2010, the Connecticut Supreme Court held that Connecticut’s constitution guarantees public school students an adequate education, an education that works. The state’s highest court then sent the case back for trial and motions have been going back and forth since then.

In December, Judge Dubay (pictured) rejected the state’s request to dismiss the lawsuit altogether. The attorney general’s office represents the state. It argued that education reforms in 2012 and changes to the funding formula last year were sufficient to satisfy the Supreme Court’s concerns.In a 31-page decision, the judge rejected those arguments, saying, in effect, that the purported impact of the 2012 legislation on the constitutionality of Connecticut’s education system is an issue for trial.

The judge has also rejected the state’s effort to exclude the (CCJEF) from the case. He said the organization met the legal requirements for standing, and thus had the right to bring this lawsuit. The membership includes several dozen cities and towns from across the state.

Branford’s estimated gap for the 2013 – 14 school year between what the town currently receives from the state’s education grant and what the formula suggests the town should get is $4,269,321, according to previously published data. ###