The Connecticut Supreme Court will be asked Tuesday to determine if Connecticut schoolchildren have a right to an adequate education.

Yale Law students filed the case against the state more than two years ago on behalf of 15 students and their families that feel the quality of education is falling far short of its intended goal. The Attorney General’s office is expected to argue on behalf of the state.

“By recognizing that each child in this State has the right to an adequate education, the Supreme Court can empower the Legislature to provide our children with the kind of education they deserve,” David Noah, one of the law students who will make the oral arguments to the court, said in a press release.

At the press conference Monday, East Hartford Mayor Melody Currey said the fact that the state could argue there is no right to an adequate “education under the Connecticut constitution strikes me as preposterous.”

“Surely out beloved Attorney General has gotten the State’s position all wrong!” she added.

Nekita Carroll-Hall, one of the plaintiff’s in the case, said “I have seen how grossly underfunded the Bridgeport schools truly are.” She said the class sizes are too large and books, computers, and instructional staff are too limited.

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A nonprofit advocacy group will go before the state Supreme Court this week to push its claim that the state’s failure to adequately fund public schools has irreparably harmed thousands of schoolchildren.

Two Yale Law School students, Neil Weare and David Noah, from the school’s Education Adequacy Clinic, will argue Tuesday on behalf of the Connecticut Coalition for Justice in Education Funding (CCJEF).

“I went to public schools growing up,” Weare said. “I want to ensure the opportunity I was able to have in public school are available to all students, no matter where they are.”

“The question the Supreme Court is deciding is, does the right to education guarantee the right to a suitable education for every child,” said Brian Savage, another clinic member. “If not, it’s an equally deficient education for everybody.”

The suit was filed by the Coalition for Justice in Education Funding against Gov. M. Jodi Rell and the state in 2005. Following a motion by state officials, Hartford Superior Court Judge Joseph Shortall set aside three of the four complaints in the lawsuit, and ruled that schoolchildren had no right to “suitable educational opportunities” under the Connecticut Constitution.

CCJEF then successfully petitioned the Supreme Court for an expedited appeal.

Read the entire Connecticut Law Tribune story by Christian Nolan