CT school districts make push for more state aid

As talks on the next state budget hit a new phase, local officials are ramping up their push for more education aid.

New Haven officials made a public plea Thursday, asking the state to give more help as the city’s education budget faces a $23 million shortfall.

“The governor and the state legislature are sitting on a huge pile of money and there’s an obsession by the governor with protecting the fiscal guardrails,” Mayor Justin Elicker (D-New Haven) said.

Other school officials are leaving the fiscal guardrail debate to lawmakers, but agree education aid should be the top priority.

Connecticut Association of Boards of Education President Leonard Lockhart said school districts are doing their part to keep costs down.

“At the same time, there’s a lot of unfunded things that are in there as well as just not enough funding to do the basic job of the school district,” said Lockhart, who is also on Windsor’s school board.

Gov. Ned Lamont’s budget proposal would add $85 million next year for Education Cost Sharing Grants, the state’s primary form of aid to school districts.

“One of governor Lamont’s top priorities is ensuring that our children have access to the best possible educational system,” Office of Policy and Management spokesman Chris Collibee said in a statement.

Collibee also noted that New Haven’s per-pupil ECS funding has increased by 17.8% since Lamont (D-Connecticut) took office because those grants have increased as enrollment has dropped.

Still, Democratic lawmakers say they want to do more.

The proposal they advanced out of the Appropriations Committee Tuesday included another $26.2 million above what Lamont suggested for ECS. It also includes an extra $124 million for a separate pool of aid for special education.

Sen. Matt Lesser (D-Middletown) said the state will also need flexibility in the fiscal guardrails, a package of rules meant to limit state spending.

Lesser and other Democrats are also worried about additional cuts in federal aid as Republicans in Washington, D.C., have expressed a desire to slash federal aid.  

Meanwhile, Attorney General William Tong (D-Connecticut) filed a lawsuit Friday to block President Donald Trump’s efforts to put conditions on education aid.

“We know that there are a lot of challenges coming to us from the federal government, including attacks on education funding, and so what we really need is just more flexibility,” Lesser said.

Republicans remain opposed to the increased spending or to changes to the guardrails.

Rep. Vincent Candelora (R-Minority Leader) said many schools are facing shortfalls because they used pandemic-era aid to cover ongoing operating expenses.

He also said the guardrails created the same surplus others want to utilize, so those budget constraints should remain in place.

“They’re there for a reason,” Candelora said. “It’s not just to restrict spending, but it’s actually to allow us to pay down on unfunded liabilities and not get government into crisis.”