Statement from Barbara Dalio, Co-Founder and Director, Dalio Philanthropies:
“Today we are announcing our intent to withdraw from The Partnership. We’ve tried hard over the past
15 months to make this unique model work, but it has become clear that it’s not working because of
political fighting. I am not a politician and I never signed up to become one. I only want to help
people. Through this experience I’ve learned about our broken political system and I don’t see a path
through it to help people.
Our dream of working together in a bipartisan way to help the disengaged and disconnected youth of
Connecticut came to an end because politicians like the two leading Republicans of the House, Rep.
Klarides and Rep. Candelora, want to fight in the media rather than debate issues and resolve them with
other board members. They sought to sabotage The Partnership. It can’t go on like this, so I suppose
they “won.” That is tragic because the other board members wanted The Partnership to succeed. It
saddens me because it denies the students the resources needed to give them basic education and to
get them into jobs. Though I and most of the non-political board members will continue to help the
children, the state probably won’t. For example, while we will buy students computers so they can learn
from home and explore providing them with Internet connectivity, politicians are putting their political
objectives above the children and the state. So it’s time to move past politics, and it’s time to refocus
on the issue at hand: how do we help these kids? Everything else is just noise.
While politics has broken the Partnership, it has not broken my and Ray’s commitment to the children
and teachers in Connecticut. We are committing $100 million over the next 4 years to address the
needs of young people who are disengaged or disconnected in our home state. Instead of directing
these resources through The Partnership, we’ll work through Dalio Philanthropies and we’ll work with
people who want to help others above all else.
Through this journey, I have been inspired by the people I’ve met and the stories I’ve heard. There are
heroes in every Connecticut community who work hard every day to help young people succeed. They
deserve our support. Honestly, Ray and I consider it a blessing that we have the resources to help and
we are committed to seeing it through, starting with the 60,000 laptops that began arriving in schools
this week. We are also going to work with communities to ensure students have access to the Internet
and to find ways to support teachers who’ve been thrown into this new world of online learning with
almost no training or support. And most importantly, we’re going to continue to listen, to learn, and to
ensure that students and teachers help inform our commitment of $100 million.
We are disappointed that The Partnership didn’t work out, but we are excited to continue the mission
that we believe deeply is so important.”

 Statement from Governor Lamont:
Last year, I was proud to announce the creation of The Partnership for Connecticut in order to match
private philanthropy alongside public dollars to help disconnected and disadvantaged kids get back on
track. Given the COVID-19 forced break in classroom learning, this mission is more important now than
ever. In addition to Barbara Dalio and the incredible generosity of the Dalio Foundation, the board
included teachers, educators who focus on kids, the four legislative leaders, Barbara and myself.
Except for executive sessions involving personnel decisions, the meetings were in public, votes were cast
in public, press questions were answered in public since we all wanted the public to know how and why
we made our decisions to provide resources to help these kids. The Partnership has already provided
60,000 laptops for kids who otherwise would not have had access to the on line learning. Plans were
being made to provide back to school support for kids who needed extra help before returning to the
classroom in the fall.
Boards that are designed to accomplish significant goals must have a foundation of trust. It has been
made clear since the inception of this Partnership that breaches of trust were part of the norm. The
Dalio’s have lost confidence in this board structure, and I totally understand why, and together we have
decided to dissolve the Partnership. This a big disappointment to me and the thousands of kids the
Partnership was serving. Thankfully, Ray and Barbara Dalio are not easily deterred and they will continue
their amazing commitment to Connecticut kids.