ACTION ALERT – LAST CALL: STATE FUNDING FOR EDUCATION

With less than a week to go in the legislative session, there is still no sign of a budget agreement between the governor and the legislative leadership and every indication that the two sides are deadlocked.  So it’s time for our local representatives to get into the mix, to put pressure on their leadership to negotiate a budget compromise that includes two full years of funding for the phase-in of an updated ECS formula.  Otherwise, the best chance we’ve had in years at meaningful reform and real increases in education funding may get lost in the fog of partisan combat and political parochialism.  

As a reminder, here again are the three competing ECS proposals:

·         The governor’s plan, which generally follows the recommendations of her bipartisan Commission on Education Finance, updates at long last the ECS grant formula and phases in funding over 5 years.  ECS would increase $228 million in 2007-08, another $154 million in 2008-09.  By 2012 the total grant would rise from the current $1.6 billion to $2.7 billion.

·         The Democrats’ ECS plan, embodied in the Appropriations Committee budget, tinkers with the governor’s proposed changes to the formula—most notably setting a lower minimum aid level, which would reduce but by no means eliminate increases to the state’s wealthiest towns.  It makes no attempt to phase in full funding, however, providing a $204 million increase for 2007-08, flat funding for 2008-09.

·         The Republicans’ ECS plan, touted as a compromise, changes the way the formula measures town wealth so that wealthier towns generally receive more and poorer towns less than under the other two proposals.  It increases funding by $154 million for 2007-08, by another $204 million for 2008-09.

The League supports the phase-in of an updated and fully funded ECS grant that will ultimately raise the state’s overall share of education spending statewide to 50%.  While we could live with the modifications to the formula proposed by the Democrats, we cannot accept their failure to implement increased funding beyond next year.  The Republican proposal is also unacceptable because, by diminishing the wide disparities in wealth that really do exist in this state, it fails to distribute funds in a manner that equitably reflects towns’ relative ability to raise funds from local resources.

The General Assembly is scheduled to adjourn June 6.  Please contact your state senator and representative now.  Urge them to tell their leaders they want a budget that truly invests long term in educational equity and adequacy for Connecticut, that includes funding for the first two years of the phase-in of an updated and fully funded Education Cost Sharing grant.

You can find your representatives by town at http://www.cga.ct.gov/maps/townlist.asp.

Find your house representative by name at http://www.cga.ct.gov/asp/menu/hlist.asp.

Find your senator by name at http://www.cga.ct.gov/asp/menu/slist.asp.

And please forward this to everyone you know who’s interested in the quality of education in Connecticut!

For more information contact LWVCT Specialist Kathy Wilson at kwilson772@sbcglobal.net

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