School Leaders, Parents Call for Funding for Public Schools of Choice

More than 50,000 children attend public charter and magnet schools in Connecticut and parents are pushing the state to include those schools in the budget.

School leaders from the nearly 120 schools said they act as a critical education option for low-income children across the state. But officials said many of the schools are underfunded and have had to cut programs.

"We much rewrite our public school funding formula to include fair funding for all public schools, including magnet and charter school children," Laquita Bowles, the mother of two children who attend the Achievement First Charter Schools in Bridgeport, said.

"It is vital that all public school students are funded fairly and equitable and they are included in the new funding formula," Annette Armstrong, a Bridgeport parent, said. 

Gov. Dannel Malloy, a Democrat, has said he wants the state to come up with a solution before courts decide what is best.

Republicans who don't have any charter schools in their districts support school choice funding, as do some Democrats. But in this kind of budget year, it's unclear where increases for funding would come from.

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