Enrollment: 531,000
K-12 Budget: $2.97 billion
Connecticut, one of the wealthiest states in the country, ranked fourth on both the Chance for Success and School Finance indeces.
It ranked second in both preschool and kindergarten enrollment indicators.
The state’s per-pupil spending was the fifth-highest at $17,798, and it is one of eight states where all students attend districts with per-pupil spending above the national average.
But Connecticut also ranked 34th in school finance equity and 18th in academic equity.
Concerns about gaps in performance have not gone unnoticed, although debate over the reasons continues.
In 2018, the state’s supreme court overturned a lower court ruling that had condemned teacher quality standards, special education spending, and the dwindling academic performance of the state’s poor, black, and Hispanic students.
The high court said plaintiffs hadn’t proved that resource gaps were the result of intentional discrimination against needy students as opposed to a “complex web of disadvantaging societal conditions over which the schools have no control.”
For more about Connecticut’s Quality Counts score, click here.
