Milford High Schools Ranked 100th Best In State

The Connecticut Academic Performance Test (CAPT) is an annual exam administered to Connecticut high school sophomores at the beginning of March. This week, Democratic 4th District Vice Chairman posted a study on his Facebook page from SchoolDigger.com in which 2010 and 2011 CAPT scores from Connecticut's 191 high schools were compared.

In 2011, was ranked 103rd. This was down 24 spots from their 2010 ranking of 79th best CAPT score average in Connecticut in 2010. was ranked 97th in the same year, up 18 spots from their 2010 ranking of 115th best CAPT score average.

In anticipation of the upcoming release of 2012 CAPT results, Republicans and Democrats and Milford have weighed in on the state of the education system in Milford, and possible solutions to the overall middling performances by Foran and Law in 2011, which saw each school moving nearly 20 spots up or down, and both ending up as about the 100th best high school in Connecticut.

"You tell me the per capita income of a school district and I'll tell you the CAPT scores +- 5% with just a few outliers," Michael Brown stated in an email, explaining that he used 2010 census numbers to come up with that statistic.

Milford Republican Town Committee Chairwoman directed questions to National Review publisher and Milford parent , whom DiLullo described as having a "fantastic grasp of the complexities" of Milford test scores.

"We're one of the wealthier towns in the state," Jack Fowler said on a phone call yesterday. "They will make make excuses. 'Oh, you're comparing Milford to these 23 towns. We have more kids.' Meanwhile, the test scores keep going down."

Fowler went on to say, "There's handcuffs all over. The solution has to be labor contracts. The Union contract rules the day."

Pointing to the taxpayers, Fowler said, "What would it be if we were paying half and getting the same results? Throwing money at the issue is not the solution."

For the 2012-2013 City of Milford Budget, the Finance Board is recommending a 1.7% increase in education operations, bringing the $85.4 million budget of 2011-2012 up to $86.8 million. This increase is less than the move up in 2010-2011 to 2011-2012, which took the budget from $83.2 million to $85.4 million, increasing education operations by 2.7%.

Describing Milford Public Schools' treatment of high school students, Fowler said, "We are at the end of the manufacturing process. Here's a spatula, go flip hamburgers. This is a terrible thing we've done to these children."