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NORWALK, Conn. – Lauren Rosato expects 40 Norwalkers to head to Hartford on Thursday to get the attention of lawmakers. The number is fewer than hoped for, but a step in the right direction, she said.
"This rally is just the beginning," Rosato said of the trip to the capital organized by the Norwalk Educational Foundation. She said that she wants to get Gov. Dannel Malloy to have an open forum here and that Norwalk's legislators are working on proposed changes to Connecticut's Educational Cost Sharing formula.
"In a nutshell the ECS formula ascribes too much weight to property values (our proximity to Manhattan and surrounding wealthy communities) without giving enough weight to the demands placed on the school system by those who speak a language other than English at home and our significantly lower median household income," Keith Lyon wrote in an e-mail. Lyon is a concerned Norwalker who plans to take the city's free bus ride to Hartford on Thursday.
The most recent figures show that 31.2 percent of Norwalk's residents speak a language other than English, compared with 19.2 percent in the rest of the state, Lyon said.
Rosato had hoped to fill three buses with people, but only one is scheduled at this point due to lack of response. She said she has heard that some people plan to just show up at 8 a.m. at City Hall to join the trip to Hartford and that some people plan to drive.
There were 1,258 signatures on an online petition at 2:45 p.m. Wednesday. Rosato wants more than 10,000 when the ECS committee makes a recommendation to the Legislature in October.
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