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CGA Education Committee

Public Hearing February 23, 2011

HB 6385 AA Implementing the Budget Recommendations of the Governor Concerning Education

Comments Submitted by Katherine Wilson, School Finance Specialist
The League of Women Voters of Connecticut appreciates the opportunity to comment today on the governor’s budget recommendations concerning education.  We have thoughts in three specific areas.

Section 14 – The League supports the establishment of a task force to study issues relating to the ECS formula and other means of state funding for education, as outlined in this section of the bill.  We hope this work will lead to a revised aid formula that –

  • is based on the latest and best research regarding the factors that influence the cost of educating children of all backgrounds and needs,
  • reflects the relative ability of different communities to finance schools from local resources,
  • fully funds through grants to towns 50% of the overall statewide cost of local public elementary and secondary education.
While the League supports targeted additional grants directed at raising the level of achievement in communities with concentrations of children who are especially costly to educate, we also hope that a new, properly designed and funded aid formula will serve to minimize the number of such grants.  

Section 15 – The League supports the minimum budget requirement described in this section.  We believe it is not unreasonable to require districts to spend in 2012 and 2013 at least as much as they did in 2009, given the rising cost of education.

Section 16 – The League supports the provision in this section that would allow local and regional boards of education to opt out of inheriting the operations of regional vocational-technical schools located within their jurisdictions.  We have concerns about the long term funding implications of the proposed transfer of these schools to local control, despite the administration’s stated intent that it be cost neutral.  Vo-techs have been 100% state funded, while local schools are funded only in part by the state and have never even been funded as required by the state’s own aid formulas.  We have difficulty believing that a similar pattern of underfunding will not prevail once the state sheds its operational responsibility for these schools and that under this scenario they will not ultimately add to the education costs and property taxes of local communities.

Thank you for allowing us to share our ideas with you today on this important legislation.

 


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