While Connecticut ranks among states with the highest levels of education spending, most of that does not derive from the state itself but from municipal budgets.
Gov. Ned Lamont and his fellow Democrats in the legislature’s majority appear headed for a battle over education in the next state budget.
Just eight months after signing a bipartisan budget that made historic and long-overdue investments in K-12 education, Gov. Lamont has proposed cutting more than $60 million from Connecticut’s public schools — breaking a promise his administration made to students, families, and educators.
Constrained by a pledge to not increase spending, Gov. Ned Lamont is rolling out modest initiatives for the coming legislative session, including a bump in day care spending that would require a cut in education funding.
Boxed in by a budget that embraces the fiscal guardrails put in place before he was elected, Gov. Ned Lamont will tinker around the edges when it comes to adjusting the two-year budget.
Hundreds of staff members at Connecticut schools could face layoffs as federal pandemic-relief funds expire, and state lawmakers appear unlikely to come to the rescue. A year after signing off on $150 million in additional funding for K-12 education, Gov. Ned Lamont will seek to redirect some of those funds to early child care, his budget chief said Wednesday.