Members of Connecticut’s General Assembly voiced their continued support for the state’s school choice program and signaled an interest in renewing talks to allow tax money to follow the child.
On Wednesday, Representatives Tom O’Dea (R-New Canaan) and Rachel Chaleski (R- Danbury) held a press conference for National School Choice Week, making their case for updates to the state’s system and arguing for an expansion of charter schools.
Connecticut has school choice through its Open Choice program but the system does not function the way Rep. O’Dea believes it should. For one, it still prioritizes public education while offering options for students to attend local charter, magnet, or technical schools, so long as those schools opt into the program. Open Choice is funded through grants awarded to schools based on how many students they admit through the program.
According to the Connecticut Department of Education, grants totaled $5.1 million for the 2023-2024 school year in primary funding, and a little more than $400,000 in support funding for K-12 districts.
Open Choice allows families to choose which schools within their district their kids will attend and can offer students an opportunity to choose a school that aligns with their needs or interests.
But O’Dea believes that the program should be expanded and that the funding model should be updated.
“What we would like to see happen is allowing at least a portion of the money that goes for each student, follow a student,” said O’Dea. “So that they can utilize that money, whether it’s at a Catholic school or charter school, or technical school, however, that money should follow the child.”
This is not a new argument. School voucher programs, in which tax dollars can follow a child to whichever school or district they choose have been the subject of widespread debate for decades. Opponents of these programs have argued that they pull funding out of already underfunded schools, which can exacerbate issues. Additionally, attempts to use vouchers for religious education have resulted in lawsuits, a measure that O’Dea openly supports.
“Catholic schools are an unbelievable opportunity,” he said. “And the Catholic schools are able to do the education at a much cheaper rate than what our public schools are doing.”
Historically, public schools have enjoyed widespread support and there has been little enthusiasm for efforts to completely restructure a longstanding system. That has started to change, however, following the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw disruption to the school system. Debates over mask mandates, vaccine requirements, and school closures, have made some parents more critical of schools and more likely to seek alternatives or to support an increase in those alternatives.
O’Dea says he plans to introduce legislation in the coming session to explore allowing at least a portion of state funds to follow the child. “We’re gonna try and bring it up again this year,” he said. “I had proposed it and I’m gonna keep proposing it — where a certain percentage of the money, whether it’s 50%, certainly up for negotiation — but we have proposed having at least a portion of the money, the state money follow the child to different educational opportunities.”
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