Parties on both sides say they’re ready for the trial to start in October.
A landmark state education funding trial that was delayed in January is scheduled to take place later this year.
The case was brought by the Connecticut Coalition for Justice in Education Funding, but postponed after allegations surfaced that the woman leading the group had instructed possible witnesses to destroy emails containing potential evidence. She failed to delete her own, which is how the attorneys representing the coalition discovered them.
But now parties on both sides say they’re ready for the trial to start in October.
Lee Erdmann is CCJEF’s current executive director.
"Both CCJEF and the state will have expert witnesses on the issue of whether or not the current education finance system for K-12 education in the state of CT is constitutional or not. CCJEF has taken the position what the state has done is insufficient," Erdmann said.
CCJEF is made up of municipalities and education advocates who say that the state’s significant achievement gap is one reason that the state needs to do more.
"The state wholeheartedly shares the goal of educational opportunity for everyone," said Kimberly Massicotte, associate attorney general at the Connecticut Attorney General's office. "However, the state is already funding a substantial component of urban centers’ educational systems, and Governor Dannel Malloy has been very active in developing other programs to assist inner city educational systems."
Back in 2005, Malloy was a founding member of CCJEF when he was mayor of Stamford.
Meanwhile, Massicotte said information raised in the e-mails calls into question the coalition’s standing to pursue the case. But the court has denied the state’s motion to dismiss.
