UPDATED: Conn. high court sets minimum education standard

HARTFORD (AP) - Connecticut's Supreme Court on Monday revived a lawsuit that challenges the state's method of funding public schools, saying the state constitution promises an education that is good enough to prepare students for a job or college.

The 4-3 ruling means the lawsuit, brought against the state by the Connecticut Coalition for Justice in Education Funding in 2005, may go back to the Superior Court. The coalition argues that achievement gaps between rich and poor towns show some students are not receiving an adequate education.

The group, made up of officials and parents from several municipalities, says the way to close that gap is to overhaul the 22-year-old funding formula that determines how much state money the schools receive.

"The decision means that the state can no longer pay lip service to the notion of putting up a building and putting in a teacher and saying that's a meaningful education," said Robert Solomon, a Yale professor and attorney who supervised law students who argued the case for the coalition.

A spokesman for Attorney General Richard Blumenthal did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.

A Superior Court judge had dismissed that portion of the coalition's case in 2007, agreeing with the state's argument that the constitution guaranteed access to education, but did not guarantee a standard of quality.

The current state education funding formula created in 1988, the Education Cost Sharing grant, distributes state education funds to municipalities using a complicated equation that takes into account poverty, tax bases and other factors.

Some local officials, particularly in struggling large cities, have said the system has failed and arbitrarily allocates funds for regular and special education.

Many of those officials involved in the case said they would like to scrap the formula and start over. Some suggested requiring the state to pay all education costs.

The coalition said schools across Connecticut are underfunded by $1 billion to $2 billion a year, and that legislators and Gov. M. Jodi Rell haven't done enough to address the inequities.