Local Legislative Challengers Square Off

Over State Education Funding

By John Voket

Newtown’s two 106th District candidates have each recently tendered positions on future funding for state and local education. Articulated via separate press releases, Republican Will Rodgers who currently chairs the Legislative Council, favors a wholesale overhaul of the Education Cost Sharing formula, while the Democratic challenger Christopher Lyddy, also a council member, favors using “comprehensive property tax reform to more equitably fund public education.”

According to a 2007 report published by the nonprofit Connecticut Voices For Children, the Education Cost Sharing (ECS) grant is the largest state funding program for K–12 education in Connecticut.

As the tool used to allocate ECS grant funds across school districts, the formula equalizes spending by targeting more money to poorer districts, and seeks to improve educational equity by adjusting for differences among these local school districts in terms of: (a) student need (as a function of poverty, test performance, and limited English proficiency) and (b) district wealth (as a function of property tax wealth and per capita and median household income).

These are a small indication of the complexities of the formula, Mr Rodgers pointed out.

As the largest state funding program for K–12 education in Connecticut, the ECS grant provides nearly half (49 percent) of all such state funding. The ECS grant, however, is not the only source of state funding for K–12 education.

State funding is also provided for targeted program aid grants (such as magnet schools, priority districts, school readiness, and charter schools [10 percent]), categorical aid (such as special education and transportation [18 percent] , and construction aid (23 percent).

The report indicates that Connecticut’s cities and towns provide more than half of all funding for K–12 education. In 2004-2005, 55 percent of such education funding was generated from local sources (property taxes), while 39 percent came from state sources, and six percent from federal sources.

Out of all 50 states, Connecticut ranks highest in the percentage of funding that comes from local sources.

Mr Rodgers said Newtown has been shortchanged by the formula for years. For the 2007-2008 fiscal year, one of historic education funding increases throughout the state, he said the town only received a 2.81 percent increase.

“To say the formula is broken is a serious understatement,” Mr Rodgers said. “The hallmark of this system is the shortchanging of towns like Newtown to pour disproportionate funds into failing schools in Hartford, Bridgeport, and New Haven. An overhaul, not simply tweaking here and there as has been done repeatedly from year to year, is long overdue.”

Mr Lyddy’s plan is to work with legislative leaders to form a bipartisan task force comprised of economic experts, educational leaders, and elected officials from across the state to research municipal investment in education as well as looking toward promising practices in other states.

The group would be tasked with formulating a set of recommendations that can be turned into legislation within two years.

“The way we fund education in this state is fundamentally flawed. To me, there are no boundaries and no limits as to how we approach the problem,” Mr Lyddy said. “The current structure is not working as citizens in towns like ours are overly burdened, with some even being forced from their homes.”

 If elected this November, Mr Rodgers plans to introduce legislation to overhaul the state’s ECS formula.

“Legislative leaders in Hartford have opposed making substantial changes to the ECS formula because it benefits urban areas,” Mr Rodgers said. “Considering how much of the state is suburbs and small towns, the disconnect is clear. If elected, I will immediately begin working with legislators from both parties to make substantive changes for our smaller communities and one of my top priorities will be increasing state education funds for Newtown.”

 He added that whether a change can be brought to the ECS formula, or whether it is a matter of increasing other state aid for education, Mr Rodgers’ goal is to bring “more education dollars, indeed more state tax dollars period, back to Newtown.”

As a young working professional and a lifelong resident of Newtown, Mr Lyddy has already publicly voiced his concern about the impact rising property taxes are having on the people of Newtown, adding that it is nearly impossible for young people to settle here given the high taxes and cost of housing.

“It seems to me that after all of these years on the Legislative Council if Mr Rodgers was going to bring about the change we need, he would have by now. Instead property taxes have doubled under his watch,” Mr Lyddy said. “It is time for change that will make a real difference,” Mr Lyddy said. “We need real reform, and I will settle for nothing less when I get to Hartford. It is time to step up and make a big change that will really make a difference for Newtown and the State of Connecticut.”

To review the entire Connecticut Voices For Children report, click on the following link at the agency’s website: www.ctkidslink.org/pub_detail_349.html