Dive Brief:

• A Connecticut budget committee this week cut funds for charter school expansion in the state, allowing for more money to go to impoverished school districts and private college scholarships.
• The legislature appropriations committee's version of the state budget cuts $4 million that Gov. Dannel P. Malloy had proposed giving Capital Prep Harbor School in Bridgeport and Stamford Charter School for Excellence in order for those schools to open in the fall.
• Additionally, the proposed budget would also put $6.5 million toward the Priority School District grant program, an after-school and summer learning fund that Malloy had suggested scaling back.

Dive Insight:

Sen. Beth Bye (D-West Hartford), the appropriations committee's co-chairwoman, told the Hartford Courant that "with so many difficult cuts," legislators decided against funding new charters.

Intentional or not, Connecticut has been making moves as of late that are delighting the state's teachers union. Last week, the state announced Dianna Wentzell as its next education commissioner, a much-appreciated move given Wentzell's teaching credentials — something the previous ed chief lacked.