Budgeting is at best a zero-sum game this year, and [Jeff] Beckham acknowledged that most or all of the additional money would come from the $150 million in enhanced education funding that was negotiated last year and scheduled to become available on July 1, the start of the next fiscal year.
Rep. Jeff Currey, D-East Hartford, co-chair of the Education Committee, said any proposal to divert the money committed to education after careful negotiation with him and municipal stakeholders would be a betrayal reflecting on the governor and his staff.
“Unfortunately, the governor has not kept his word,” Currey said. “The only thing you bring with you into the legislature is your word.”
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The executive director of the School + State Finance Project, an education policy think-tank that worked with legislators to craft the 2023 measure, said the governor’s proposal is unnecessary, given the nearly $650 million surplus his administration is projecting for the current fiscal year.
“You should not be pitting early child care versus education,” Lisa Hammersley said.
She said weakening these programs won’t help the governor’s economic development goals.
“Strangling local public school districts is contradictory to your desire to have an educated workforce,” she said.