House overwhelmingly passes additional $40 million for special education

The fight over bolstering special education in our state had lawmakers working late into the night.

Some want to send $40 million to schools that say they’re struggling to keep services those students need to stay afloat, but the governor’s budget chief said there isn’t enough money for that.

Special education has taken on a special focus at the state Capitol to the tune of $40 million. Democratic House Speaker Matt Ritter said that money is needed to help schools dealing with soaring costs and uncertainty about future federal funding.

“We think it’s an important investment in our local boards of education who are seeing exponential growth in special education costs,” he said.

An increase in cost coming from an increase in students who need those special education services, now around 91,000. Advocates say there’s a clear need.

“More and more kids are being found eligible for special education and require services,” Stacey Tie with Special Education Equity for Kids said.

But Gov. Ned Lamont’s budget chief Jeffrey Beckham said there’s “not room in the current budget” for it, saying in part:

“We have to account for all of our actual spending, and we project we will spend beyond our appropriated amounts in various categories. We must cover those deficiencies with lapses or new appropriations. There are insufficient lapses and insufficient spending cap room to cover all the deficiencies. The General Assembly is incurring new bills when we have not yet arranged to pay our current bills. We have four months left in this fiscal year. The time to have made additions to spending this year was last session. The General Assembly declined to make such adjustments. It is too late to do so now in an intelligent and thoughtful manner consistent with the Constitutional and statutory requirements for honest budgeting.”

Lamont already committed $54 million in special education funding for local schools, but not until the 2026-27 fiscal year.

House Republicans say this issue should have been addressed in the last legislative session.

“It’s frustrating to us to now see they’re attempting to fix it at a time when there’s only three months left in the budget,” minority leader Rep. Vincent Candelora said.

Ritter said the additional funding has bipartisan support and hopes the governor and his staff will be on board if it passes.

“We think it’s the right time, again, if he disagrees, he can disagree. We can disagree in politics. That’s OK,” he said.

The bill passed overwhelmingly with bipartisan support in the House. The $40 million would add to grants for local school districts.

Some legislators proposed having the money come from the state’s rainy day fund.

Lamont issued a statement Tuesday, saying:

“Even while well-intentioned, the way this funding was hastily approved by the legislature is reminiscent of how budgeting was dangerously done in the past. These concerns, combined with expenses that are already pushing beyond the spending cap, are why I cannot support adding this significant expenditure this late in the fiscal year without a plan to cover budget overruns.

Together, we have made progress as a state by stabilizing our budget and abiding by financial controls that paid down debt, enacted historic tax cuts, and increased investments in our children and their future. I look forward to working with the General Assembly throughout ongoing budget deliberations and continuing that progress.”