A t a time when there is a lot of division across the country, one thing we can all agree on in Connecticut is there is no more important priority to parents and to the future of our state than ensuring our children receive a high-quality education that puts them on a pathway for success in college, career, and life.
However, the sad truth is that far too many of our young people are currently off track and struggling.
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About 119,000 young people in Connecticut are currently at-risk or disconnected from education and the workforce. That’s nearly one in five of our youth ages 14 to 26. And, absent a change, this number will grow by another 10,000 youth … every year.
To raise alarm bells even further, the signs on the horizon are also troubling. According to the most recent NAEP scores — known as the Nation’s Report Card — which were released in January, only about one-third of Connecticut’s eighth-grade students are proficient in reading and math.
While the challenge of disconnected youth is a multi-faced one that requires a multi-pronged approach, there is no more impactful lever that we have at our disposal than providing our children with a high-quality education alongside robust vocational and career training programs. Our teachers are working hard to educate, equip and empower our young people so they have the knowledge, habits and skills they need to connect them to higher education, good paying jobs and meaningful careers. We need to support our students and educators so they actually have the resources and support services to get the job done.
This starts in early childhood, and we commend Gov. Ned Lamont’s proposal to establish a new Universal Preschool Endowment. This historic $300 million investment will make preschool more accessible and affordable for families and help ensure more of our youngest learners get the very best start in life.
Similarly, though, we believe the state needs to make an equally bold investment in our K-12 learners. And, while the state has made some progress in recent years, it is still falling far short.
The primary way the state supports local school districts is through the Education Cost Sharing formula, and the state’s base contribution is currently $11,525 per student. That amount hasn’t increased in more than a decade. And you know what has increased in cost over the last 10 years? Everything. Teacher salaries, student support services, facilities costs, school busing and transportation costs have all gone up, and understandably so. Since 2013 (when the foundation amount was last updated), inflation has averaged 2.77% per year.
So, who’s been picking up the bill? Property taxpayers and municipalities in the form of higher local property taxes. That’s not “education cost sharing” by the state — that’s the state passing the buck.
The infusion of federal COVID relief funds helped bridge the funding gap from the state in recent years, but those federal funds are now gone — and many of our local budgets are now at a breaking point. We’ve been doing our part and increasing our local contributions to our schools year after year, and now we need the state to do its part and increase its contribution to our schools.
Our school districts have teacher shortages and staff shortages with social workers and school psychologists that have student-to-staff ratios in the hundreds, all the while our students are facing increasing mental health challenges that require more investment in these services.
We especially need the state’s support for our highest need students — students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, multilingual learners, and students with disabilities.
The state provides the same amount of foundation funding for a student without disabilities as it does for a student with disabilities, when we all know it costs thousands of dollars more — and often tens of thousands of dollars more — to properly support students who have more diverse and complex learning needs. The state also does not provide adequate funding for students living in poverty or multilingual learners who we also know require significantly more resources. We have a moral obligation to do right by all our children — and that requires a new level of financial commitment from the state.
And you know what? The state actually has the money to make this investment.
The state has had seven consecutive years of significant budget surpluses. Last fiscal year, 2023-24, the state ended the year with a $400 million surplus in its general fund and a budget reserve fund of $4.1 billion. As chief executives of our towns and cities, we appreciate the need for responsible budgeting, spending within our means, and having a rainy-day fund. But guess what? The state has the means, it’s raining on our students, and the forecast shows more storms are headed their way.
So, here’s our proposal, as outlined by the bipartisan 119K Commission’s Young People First report and the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities:
- Increase the state’s annual foundation amount by approximately a thousand dollars per student from $11,525 to $12,488 — and index the amount for inflation moving forward.
- Provide a financial weight for students with disabilities of 50%, which was also proposed by the State Legislature’s Select Committee on Special Education.
- Adjust the current financial weights for students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds and for multilingual learners to 40% and 35%, respectively.
All in, that’s a $545 million investment statewide. That may seem like a big number in the aggregate, but when you break it down across 160-plus school districts, it ranges from $3,000 to $59 million per district depending on district size and student population. Another way to look at it is, on average, it’s an additional $1,120 per student, and that’s certainly not too much to ask for each of our kids.
Most importantly, it’s an investment that will pay dividends in the lives of our young people both today and for decades to come. We urge Governor Lamont and the Connecticut General Assembly — whom we know care about our youth just as much as we do — to join us and make a lasting investment in our young people and in our future workforce that will keep our state and local economy growing and moving forward.
Co-authors (52 mayors, selectpersons, and town managers):
- Bethany First Selectwoman Paula Cofrancesco
- Bloomfield Mayor Danielle Wong
- Branford First Selectman James (Jamie) Cosgrove
- Bridgeport Mayor Joseph Ganim
- Bristol Mayor Jeff Caggiano
- Canterbury First Selectman Chris Lippke
- Colchester First Selectman Bernie Dennler
- Danbury Mayor Roberto Alves
- Darien First Selectman Jon Zagrodzky
- East Haddam First Selectman Irene Haines
- East Hartford Mayor Connor Martin
- East Haven Mayor Joseph Carfora
- East Windsor First Selectman Jason Bowsza
- Ellington First Selectman Lori Spielman
- Groton Mayor Keith Hedrick
- Guilford First Selectman Matt Hoey
- Hamden Mayor Lauren Garrett
- Hartford Mayor Arunan Arulampalam
- Killingworth First Selectman Eric Couture
- Madison First Selectwoman Peggy Lyons
- Manchester Mayor Jay Moran
- Meriden Mayor Kevin Scarpati
- Middletown Mayor Ben Florsheim
- Milford Mayor Tony Giannattasio
- New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker
- Newington Mayor Jon Trister
- New London Mayor Michael Passero
- New Milford Mayor Pete Bass
- North Haven First Selectman Michael Freda
- Norwalk Mayor Harry Rilling
- Norwich City Manager John Salomone
- Orange First Selectman Jim Zeoli
- Pomfret First Selectman Maureen Nicholson
- Portland First Selectman Michael Pelton
- Putnam Town Administrator Elaine Sistare
- Roxbury First Selectman Patrick Roy
- South Windsor Mayor Audrey Delnicki
- Stamford Mayor Caroline Simmons
- Stonington First Selectman Danielle Chesebrough
- Stratford Mayor Laura Hoydick
- Thomaston First Selectman Edmond Mone
- Trumbull First Selectman Vicki Tesoro
- Wallingford Mayor Vincent Cervoni
- Waterbury Mayor Paul Pernerewski, Jr.
- West Hartford Mayor Shari Cantor
- West Haven Mayor Dorinda Borer
- Wethersfield Mayor Ken Lesser
- Wilton Town Administrator Matt Knickerbocker
- Windham Mayor Tom DeVivo
- Windsor Mayor Nuchette Black-Burke
- Wolcott Mayor Thomas Dunn
- Woodbridge First Selectman Mica Cardozo