Connecticut Coalition for Justice in Education Funding, Inc. v. Governor M. Jodi Rell

Summary

The court held that the plaintiffs had standing but failed to prove that Connecticut's public schools were constitutionally inadequate or that educational funding disparities violated the state constitution's equal protection provisions. It ruled that the trial court properly applied the narrow, specific minimum-adequacy criteria but improperly created and applied an additional rationality standard to the state's educational policies. The court stated that satisfaction of the minimum-adequacy criteria resolved the education-clause claim, while equal protection required a separate showing of more-than-de-minimis disparities affecting substantially equal educational opportunity.