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The State Board of Education and the Governor are breaking the law by not funding Capital Prep Middletown. Two schools were approved in 2023, Capital Prep was the highest scoring school, yet it was not funded. The Governor and Commissioner argue that the General Assembly has the authority to select which schools are funded. The Charter School Law, 10-66, established otherwise.
1. Section 2, 10-66bb states that, “the General Assembly may appropriate funds to the State Board of Education for the purpose of providing grants to local or state charter schools, pursuant to section 10-66ee. This does not say that the General Assembly may appropriate to a specific school, the “State Board of Education.”
2. To determine how individual schools are selected, the statute directs us to go down to 10-66ee, which encompasses subsections a to o. In 10-66ee, subsection (k), it states that if more than one charter is awaiting funding and is approved pursuant to section 10-66bb (the above section), “the State Board of Education shall determine which school is funded first.” Not the General Assembly, but the State Board of Education shall determine which school is funded first.
Pretty straightforward.
The Governor's Office offered floor comments from former state Rep Mr. Fleischman as a rationale for disregarding the explicit sections of 10-66, the Charter School Law. Of course the Governor knows that floor debate does not supplant the resulting law. Nonetheless, the offered comments of former Rep Fleischman, that charter school approval is a two step process, serve to illustrate the above sections.
Section 10-66bb (2) and Section 10-66ee, subsection (k) reflect a two steps charter approval process in which the General Assembly appropriates a block grant for charters to the Board of Education and the Board of Education selects which schools will be funded. Two steps.
The Governor’s Office said that charter schools are not funded as block grants. Yet no charter schools are listed by name in the CT budget. The line accounting for the appropriations to fund all charter schools is referred to as "charter schools." That’s the textbook definition of a block grant.
So what are we left with? The State Board of Education was supposed to fund schools in order, which would have meant that Capital Prep would have been funded in 2023. That did not happen. That would appear to reflect a clear breech in the law by at least the State Board of Education.
My hope is that this is resolved immediately, in accordance the aforementioned statute, by funding Capital Prep Middletown immediately.
Career Politician.
Mayor, State Rep., State Sen., yet still wet behind the ears.
Matt “the Lesser”
Has a nice ring to it.
You’re gonna go far, kid.