Education advocates and state officials said this week that they want the Connecticut legislature to address educational disparities experienced by the state’s less affluent school districts by supporting legislation that will accelerate increases in the state’s education cost sharing (ECS) grants.
The ECS formula is the method the state uses to distribute around $2 billion annually in state education funding, according to the state Department of Education. The ECS formula adopted by the legislature in 2017 is currently being phased in over 10 years, which started in 2019. On its current schedule, towns receiving increases in their ECS grants will be fully phased-in by FY 2028, while towns receiving decreases to their ECS grants are to be phased-out to their full funding grant by FY 2030.
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Lisa Hammersley, executive director of the School + State Finance Project, said a kindergarten student in an underfunded district, under current circumstances, would not receive the full amount of funding for what they need in their education until they are in high school.