Legislators maintain they had a solid agreement with Lamont’s administration last year as part of the two-year budget for an additional $150 million for K-12 public education, but that total has not been placed into the latest budget recommendations.
Education advocates and officials said the gap largely comes down to whether cities and towns can fund teaching and learning in their districts on their own, without needing to rely heavily on state and federal money to offset funding gaps.
If signed into law, the state’s Education Cost Sharing Grant, which supports all local and regional school districts, would be fully funded beginning in 2024-25. That means more than $275 million would be invested across 164 public school districts in the state.