Since the School and State Finance Project was founded, one of our primary goals has been to improve Connecticut’s education finance system for all students and communities by creating a more equitable, logical, and transparent system.
Throughout the Connecticut General Assembly’s 2017 legislative sessions, we worked with the Office of the Governor and all four legislative caucuses to revise the state’s Education Cost Sharing (ECS) formula, which is the method the State of Connecticut has established to distribute approximately $2 billion in state education funding to local public school districts. Our policy and data team created funding formula models to simulate different formula inputs and synthesized stakeholder priorities into actionable formula policy changes.
The team then used scenario analysis to model the quantitative impact of dozens of potential formula revisions on the state budget and individual towns. Our staff also consistently met and communicated with legislators about the need for a new, equitable ECS formula, and created talking points and presentations for lawmakers to use.
Through our work and the technical assistance we provided to the Office of the Governor and the General Assembly, our team helped spark the conversation that ultimately resulted in the legislature passing a new, more equitable ECS formula as part of the state’s biennial budget. As a result of the new formula, local public school districts, for the first time in years, are now funded more equitably and receive state education aid based on the needs of their students and communities rather than through arbitrary and political block grants.
