The Fight for Quality Public Schools

Following last week’s filing of Martinez v. Malloy by a group of students and parents in Connecticut, the groundbreaking new federal education equality lawsuit has earned continued local and national media coverage. The case challenges the constitutionality of anti-opportunity laws in Connecticut that restrict the availability of quality public schools options, such as charter public schools and magnet schools, forcing thousands of students to remain in schools that consistently fail to provide even a minimally adequate education.

In the coverage of the new case, The Connecticut Mirror’s Jacqueline Rabe Thomas highlights lead Plaintiff Jessica Martinez struggle to get her son Jose into a better public school: “Quality schools exist in our neighborhoods, too, but their doors are open only to just a few lucky few…Enough is enough…We are not buying the excuses any more, whatever they are, for why the students get the golden ticket to success and others get the wait list.”

The Washington Post’s Emma Brown quotes Plaintiffs lead co-council, Theodore J. Boutrous Jr., who asserts, “The fundamental principles of equality in our country demand that every child have a chance to get an education, to learn and to have that platform to succeed.”

In a New Haven Register opinion piece Jennifer Alexander, chief executive officer of New Haven-based ConnCAN, an education advocacy organization, expressed ConnCAN’s support for the Plaintiffs, insisting “This case is what Connecticut needs to break through the impasse on improving education and start expanding what we know works so that all of our children can access the great public schools they need and deserve.”