Good News; Only 10% of CT Children Living in Poverty.

Yeah, isn't that great news. The national average of children living in poverty is a whopping 18%.

The good news doesn't end there either. I received a CABE document saying that Connecticut [and you have to be sitting down for this news] passed a new law allowing state funds to be spent to fund NCLB. Can you stand it? That's right, not only are the feds underfunding this steaming pile of legislation but the State of Connecticut has just empowered the feds to further underfund Connecticut schools. Yep, Connecticut already underfunds local school districts but has found money in their magic taxpayer-funded giant wallet to support NCLB.

Now if the State would simply fund the local schools for trivialities like, um, education.

From the Courant;

State's Children Better Off This Year, Study Says, June 27, 2006, By MAYA RAO, Courant Staff Writer

The study reports that 10 percent of children in Connecticut are living in poverty, better than the 11 percent reported last year. The national average is 18 percent.

But 25 percent of Connecticut's children live at income levels that are twice the federal poverty level or less. Even at the higher income level, the families are considered low-income because of Connecticut's high cost of living, Carroll said.

Sue Wilson, a researcher at the Child Health and Development Institute of Farmington, said families in the state generally are not considered self-sufficient until their incomes rise to at least three times the federal poverty level.

"We are a high-income, high-cost state, so the national poverty level is really magnified ... and it falls heavily on families with young children," Wilson said.

I only mention news like this because Joe Lieberman and Rob Simmons contimue to blow smoke up our pant legs about what they've done for Connecticut. With representation like this in Washington, who needs enemies?

And the State legislators need to have their heads examined as well. The teacher's pension fund is being raided, NCLB is being funded but local schools are still begging voters for funding, and tax relief is nowhere in sight.

Hopefully the voters will wake these people up in the coming election.