According to the U.S. Department of Education, Connecticut also is expected to have the nation’s third-fastest decline in students enrolled in high school over the next 10 years — an estimated 17,400 fewer students with an estimated 5,400 fewer graduating each year.
So, solutions are needed — but is more regionalization the answer?
It appears to be a sound way to go, but as the towns of Norfolk and Colebrook in Litchfield County recently found out, not everyone is onboard with regionalization or consolidation. Voters split on approving a regional pre-K through sixth-grade school: Norfolk, with 102 students, supported the idea but Colebrook, with 91 students, rejected it.
According to the Connecticut Council for Education Reform, while the number of students may decline, the administrative costs associated with running the schools continues to increase — something state Senate President Pro Tempore Martin M. Looney thinks must be considered.
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