Opinion: Connecticut needs to resolve its education funding issues

September 21, 2016

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State Rep. Gail Lavielle (R-143) issued the following statement regarding the Supreme Court’s announcement that it will hear an appeal of Superior Court Judge Moukawsher’s decision in the lawsuit filed by Connecticut Coalition for Justice in Education (CCJEF) against the state.

This is not a time to identify winners or losers in this matter. The Supreme Court’s review may be a very long process, and until it is completed, the state’s and the legislature’s obligations remain unaffected by the Superior Court’s decision.

While the issue of education funding, which is central to the case, therefore remains unresolved, it is an area where constantly changing legislation and policy over the years, coupled with grave deficiencies in the state budget, have created acute inequities or climates of great funding uncertainty in many school districts.

In Fairfield County, for example, Norwalk and Stamford continue to receive a level of state funding that is calculated primarily on the basis of their grand lists. This means that both have received substantially less than other municipalities that are similar to them in all respects apart from property values, including median income and poverty levels. At the same time, local governments in our area’s smaller towns like Wilton, Westport, New Canaan, and Weston, having been taken by surprise at the end of their budget seasons last spring by massive education funding cuts, now face great uncertainty about further cuts if the state’s budgetary situation continues to deteriorate. There are, of course, many districts with other types of funding-related problems around the state.

As it was before the Superior Court decision, it is still critical today to resolve these funding issues. Norwalk and Stamford, and other districts in similar situations, should receive equitable funding, and our smaller towns with high-performing school districts need both more certainty and relief from costly one-size-fits-all mandates.

There is nothing to stop the General Assembly from addressing these specific longstanding matters in the 2017 session, nothing except political will. I hope that there will be no movement in the legislature to use the Supreme Court review process as an excuse to delay or hinder reasonable action in these areas once again. We have a duty to set sound policy for the state’s public education funding system – not just Education Cost Sharing (ECS), but also categories like magnet schools, charter schools, and Priority and Alliance Districts. The legislature has work to do in this area, regardless of the timing and outcome of the Supreme Court’s review, and we should get on with it.

State Rep. Gail Lavielle represents Norwalk, Westport, and Wilton. She is Ranking Member of the General Assembly’s Education Committee.

Comments

Piberman

September 22, 2016

The two central questions are first, what should be the minimum per pupil education outlays in CT’s 5 “welfare cities” and second, how should CT allocate State funds amongst the remaining 154 towns. These questions arise because unlike most other States, CT’s towns and cities raise public school funding from its 159 towns and cities. Not using Counties as common elsewhere in the nation. Currently the disparities in per pupil funding are 2 to 1 between the welfare cities and the wealthiest towns. Hopefully the ECS funding can be switched from Grand List per capita to income.

However, since Norwalk’s household income is modestly above the CT average its most unlikely under a revised ECS formula Nowalk will receive large additional outlays. One has only to compare per pupil outlays between the welfare cities and the rest of the CT towns to see the enormous current funding disparities. And appreciate the $25 to $35,000 teaching salary differentials between the welfare cities and the wealthier towns.

Meanwhile, CT’s politicians as they have in the past will point fingers and raise hopes about nirvana from a new ECS funding procedure. Like the endemic CT Budget mess CT’s Legislature seems unable to resolve a fairly straightforward issue. Just like the CT Budget.

Rep. Lavielle, one of the Legislature’s more thoughtful and capable members with impressive professional credentials is surely on target stating there the Court’s recent decision doesn’t prevent the Democratic controlled Legisalture from resolving the decades long ECS funding debacle. Should they so desire. So far there’s no evidence that the Court’s decision has focused the Legislators attention. The ECS can will continue to be kicked down the road for years, if not longer. And politicians will continue to run for office promising to resolve the long standing ECS funding nexus. And the kids in the welfare cities will continue in underfunded public schools needing repairs. That is the real ECS funding tragedy.

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