Connecticut lawmakers are taking a closer look at how the state funds its public schools, as educators and local leaders testified before lawmakers that the current formula no longer reflects the real cost of education.
Two bills now before the legislature’s Education Committee, HB 5002 and SB 7 aim to update the state’s Education Cost Sharing formula, the main way Connecticut distributes funding to school districts. Supporters say the changes are needed to address rising education and special education costs across the state.
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Both HB 5002 and SB 7 would increase the state’s per-student foundation amount, currently capped at $11,525 per student, but the bills take different approaches to how that funding would be distributed.
Patrick Gibson, deputy executive director of the School and State Finance Project, said both proposals are designed to account for rising costs school districts face.
“We know that it costs more to go to the grocery store now than it did five years ago, and that holds true for our local public school districts too,” Gibson said. “Their utility costs, their transportation costs, the buses we see on the road; those are all costing more than they used to, and we think the state funding should reflect those cost increases.”
House Bill 5002 would phase in full funding for certain “choice programs,” including magnet schools, charter schools and agricultural science programs that are currently only partially funded by the state.
“HB 5002 takes that formula and starts to fully apply it to those choice programs,” Gibson said.
Senate Bill 7, meanwhile, would provide a larger inflation adjustment to the funding formula but does not include the same phase-in for those programs.
“There’s a little bit of a tradeoff happening here,” Gibson said. “SB 7 has a bigger boost for inflation, but it doesn’t include the choice program phase-in that you see in HB 5002.”
While Gibson said the School and State Finance Project appreciates both proposals, he believes they represent only an initial step toward addressing a larger funding gap.
Lawmakers will now decide whether to move the proposals forward as the legislative session continues.