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CT Insider: Budget deal adds hundreds of millions of dollars for UConn, state universities, K-12 schools

 -  Alex Putterman, CT Insider

State legislators and Gov. Ned Lamont have agreed to boost funding for UConn, the state university system and K-12 schools by hundreds of millions of dollars over initial budget proposals.

K-12 public schools will also see the largest investment in state funding in a decade, though not the full phase-in of the Education Cost Sharing formula that advocates had hoped for. The proposed budget does not include salary increases for teachers, which had been a priority for unions this legislative session.

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As for K-12 education, the new budget agreement calls for an additional $150 million in ECS funding over two years, which will particularly benefit the state's poorest school districts. Under this proposal, the ECS formula would be fully funded by the 2026 fiscal year, as opposed to 2028 under current law.

Michael Morton, a deputy executive director at the nonprofit School + State Finance Project, said the budget provides about 42 percent of the funding advocates were seeking this session.

"It's the largest single investment in K-12 education in the last 10 years and the second largest one-time investment in state history," Morton said, praising legislative leaders. "Is it everything we would have wanted? No. But that's kind of the budget reality we have to deal with."

Still, Morton said, "there is certainly more that needs to be done, and I think everybody knows that."