Conn.’s absurd charter school approval process
In 2018, the Connecticut Board of Education approved the opening of Danbury International Academy Charter School, bringing the promise of educational opportunity within reach of families to whom it had long been denied.
Among other things, many families were looking forward to the school’s International Baccalaureate curriculum, bilingual instruction, and focus on college preparation. The school intended to provide a strong alternative for students who struggled in the overcrowded Danbury High School, which serves nearly 4,000 students.
Yet six years later, Danbury International Academy remains a largely theoretical proposition, and the many Danbury parents whose students remain trapped in the city’s traditional district-administered schools remain frustrated.
The crux of the issue is Connecticut’s flawed process for approving the creation of new charter schools. A 2015 law mandates a dual procedure that requires consent from both the State Board of Education and the legislature, which controls the funding. While Danbury International Academy was approved by the former in 2018, the legislature has so far refused to allocate funding for the school — leaving it paralyzed.
Connecticut is the only state to require legislative approval of individual charter schools in this manner, presumably because doing so creates an unnecessary and unhelpful opportunity for political maneuvering. If I were a teacher union lobbyist, I would be hard-pressed to find a more convenient opportunity to stymie new charter schools.
Substitute Senate Bill 1096, which was introduced during the 2023 legislative session, would have eliminated the legislature’s involvement, but it was never put to a vote. Consequently, Connecticut charter schools remain at the mercy of the legislature and the annual budget process.
This year’s budget provided funding for two new charters in Norwalk and New Haven, but Danbury International Academy was once again excluded. Meanwhile, many Danbury students remain largely devoid of viable alternatives to their neighborhood schools.
Apart from innovative programming, there is a strong empirical argument for a charter school in Danbury — where more than 60 percent of the student population is Hispanic. After all, numerous studies have found that charter enrollment is associated with substantial achievement gains for Hispanic students. Furthermore, as students begin enrolling in charter schools, kids in nearby traditional public schools also tend to do better due to the resulting competitive pressure.
But perhaps the most compelling argument is that Danbury families deserve the empowerment that choice provides.
Currently, Danbury is the only major city in Connecticut without a public charter school, making it one of the least competitive education markets in the country. In practice, that means many students in the district — 34 percent of whom are English Learners and 48 percent of whom are eligible for free or reduced lunch — do not have any educational alternatives. Unless they can afford a private education or their parents have the resources and desire for homeschooling, Danbury students are forced to attend their district school — and for many, it’s not working.
Connecticut’s maze of bureaucratic nonsense has placed unnecessary barriers in the way of new charter schools. Despite the green light from the state board, Danbury International Academy has had to sit empty while the students it could have served have grown six years older. The Danbury case underscores the need for a substantive revamp of Connecticut’s charter school approval framework, so that we can avoid another six years of unrealized potential.