The Connecticut Conference of Municipalities (CCM) today, Wednesday, February 11, released its newest public policy report -- K-12 Public Education: The State of the State and Local Partnership  that calls on the General Assembly to sustain and, if possible, exceed the Governor’s proposed state aid levels all major education grants, including Education Cost Sharing, Special Education, School Transportation and Priority School Districts for the next two fiscal years.

If the General Assembly only sustains the Governor’s level of funding, towns and cities will not be able to fully keep pace with the rising costs of running local public schools.

“This detailed report is meant to educate state and local policymakers, other public servants and citizens about Connecticut’s education finance system,” said Jim Finley, CCM Executive Director and CEO. “It should serve as a useful primer for anyone seeking to better understand Connecticut’s K-12 public education system and why supporting the Governor's call for sustaining education aid is in the best interests of every resident and business in Connecticut.”

“In Connecticut, the States share of pre-school and K12 public education costs is too low,” Finley emphasized. “Connecticut towns and cities bear a larger financial burden for public education than do municipalities in any other state.”

The cost for public primary and secondary education across the state for the current school year will exceed $9 billion, and municipal property taxpayers will:

Finance approximately 54% of that amount ($4.9 billion).

Pay about 64 of every $1 raised in property taxes toward K-12 public education.

Pay for at least $840 million (56%) of the States $1.5 billion in special education costs.

Pick-up the bill for numerous other state-mandated education priorities that are not fully funded by the State.

“The State must meet its funding obligations to Connecticuts schoolchildren and school districts even in the face of budget challenges,” noted Finley. “To continue to transfer State budget problems to towns and cities and their property taxpayers is unfair. It would shortchange Connecticut's future.”

  Over the last decades there has been much attention paid to the inadequate state funding of education in Connecticut. Numerous groups have been discussing the issues at hand and there now appears to be a developing consensus on what needs to be done. This has been further supported by the work of, and lawsuit filed in November 2005 by, the CT Coalition for Justice in Education Funding. The Governor’s Commission on Education Finance issued a report in 2004 with recommendations on how to improve Connecticut’s financing system for K-12 public education and increase the State’s share of funding to 50%.  

There is growing support to:

Correct State underfunding of regular education programs by:

• Increasing the foundation level biennially based on a statutorily identified cost index.
• Increasing the State Guaranteed Wealth Level (SGWL).
• Maintaining or accelerating the current phase-in program.

• Decreasing the Excess Cost grant threshold to at least 2.5 times the district’s average expenditure and eliminating the arbitrary cap on state reimbursement.

Correct State underfunding of school districts with specific student-performance challenges by:

• Increasing funding for categorical grants.
• Expanding school district and school eligibility for these programs to ensure that all performance gaps are addressed.

Meet the statewide need for school construction and renovation by:

• Maintaining the State’s unparalleled funding commitment to ensure that aging schools are renovated and replaced to meet rising enrollments and higher technology and quality standards.