Published in the Hartford Courant Opinion column, Saturday, June 20, 2026
Funding panel must turn up education equity
By Dr. Andraé Townsel
The work of the governor’s new Blue-Ribbon Commission on K-12 Education Funding and Accountability could set strong foundations for public education and economic development for decades. We eagerly look forward to collaborating with the governor’s commission in good faith, placing our cards face-up on the table in the interest of providing the best education possible for Hartford students.
I fully agree with Gov. Ned Lamont and state leaders at the General Assembly: fixing funding disparities across public school districts is urgent. Connecticut’s cities and towns with high concentrations of need are hindered from hiring sufficient certified educators and support staff. Constraints curb the capital investments necessary for the timely reparation of outdated systems and crumbling infrastructure within the state’s current funding regime. It’s affecting both urban and rural education outcomes.
Connecticut’s outdated K-12 funding structure bullies cities like Hartford into evergreen structural deficits. The state’s deficient formulae on the revenue side of our ledger, paired with our district’s lack of control over key cost areas such as unregulated special education services, means we have reached a perilous fork on the road at Hartford Public Schools.
Do we cut to the bone? Lower education standards? Ignore underfunded federal and state mandates? Inject more students into already overcrowded classrooms? As Connecticut’s capital city is unable to raise enough revenue from taxable property, the longstanding efforts to rebalance school budgets while trying to maintain essential services in the advancement of public education for all is an impossible mission.
Members of the Governor’s Blue-Ribbon Commission should be aware of Connecticut’s public education history. We must get a grip on where we’ve been to make wise decisions on where we are going.
Some incoming first graders at Hartford Public Schools will be part of the class of 2038 for Hartford Public High School. Their cohorts’ graduation year of 2038 will bring with it the school’s 400th anniversary, the second-oldest public institution for secondary education in our nation’s history, its foundation dating to Connecticut’s colonial times in 1638.
In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education said that the segregation of public school students based on racial identity was a violation of our national constitutional principles and human dignity. The unanimous ruling overturned precedent that had legally permitted schools to practice racial segregation through the doctrine of “separate but equal” known as Jim Crow.
Even today, more than 70 years after Brown, our understanding that public education is a right for all children remains somewhat aspirational. Over 30 years ago, the Supreme Court of Connecticut held in Sheff v. O’Neill that Connecticut’s State Department of Education has failed to take adequate steps to remedy racial and ethnic isolation in Hartford. Connecticut is often at the bottom of the list in national rankings for racial equality in education.
To pull Hartford kids off the cycle of inequitable opportunities and outcomes, to overcome this unconstitutional isolation and economic segregation, we require investment from the state. We need stable revenue streams that keep up with each district’s special needs, adjustments for inflation and setting reasonable costs.
For nearly four centuries “The Pub,” as Hartford dwellers nickname Hartford Public High School, has been a hub for many of Hartford’s cream of the crop. Resilient students, families and educators are pushing through the underfunded structures that threaten public education. You can’t rock The Pub.
Surely in 2038, our capital city will rise in epic celebrations. I can foresee the Owls’ alumni returning to Hartford from every corner of the world for The Pub’s 400th birthday. This Juneteenth, my prayer is that the governor’s Blue-Ribbon Commission will present courageous recommendations. My prayer is that our incoming first grade class can attend public schools where our learning community’s dreams are fully funded.
Andraé Townsel is superintendent and CEO of Hartford Public Schools.
