8-30g: CT’s strongest tool against exclusion in housing and education
Summary
Section 8‑30g remains one of Connecticut’s most effective tools for countering exclusionary zoning, reducing concentrated poverty, and expanding access to high‑quality schools.
For many Connecticut families, choosing where to live is really about choosing a school system. I know this firsthand. My wife and I chose our town largely because of its schools and our hope that our children would have educational opportunities we believed they would not have had in our previous community.
We were fortunate to find a home we could afford, but many families are not. They remain priced out of the housing market in most towns, and, as a result, out of most school systems. That experience reflects a broader reality.
Connecticut is one of the most economically unequal states in the country, and those disparities are sharply drawn between municipalities. Where families can afford to live strongly shapes where their children go to school. Without access to housing, school choice is largely theoretical to many families.
The true entryway to a high quality school is the local zoning office. In 1989, 18 schoolchildren from the Hartford area filed a lawsuit against the State of Connecticut.
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Touches Connecticut's landmark affordable housing statute and the friction between state production goals and local zoning authority.