Education stakeholders — including lawmakers, superintendents and municipal leaders — gathered Thursday to call out Gov. Ned Lamont’s administration for a lack of financial investment in K-12 education and to urge state leadership to make it a priority in the upcoming 2024 legislative session.
Superintendents across the state are concerned about intensifying learning gaps and their ability to address the unique needs of their diverse districts as COVID-era relief funding expires. While the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted districts across the state, data shows the pandemic has also fueled achievement gaps for the state’s growing student-of-color and multilingual learner populations.
Since Oct. 1, over 800 students have arrived in New Haven. More than 600 of them are multilingual learners, meaning they do not speak enough English to ensure equal educational opportunity in a general education classroom and require additional support.
The budget stabilization bill passed by the General Assembly marks another significant step toward finally implementing an equitable, student-centered funding system for all public school students.
We applaud House Republicans for proposing a budget that prioritizes K-12 education, reduces potential burdens on property taxpayers and local budgets, and keeps the promises made last year to Connecticut’s over 500,000 students.
The expiration of federal pandemic-relief funds will affect a wide range of Connecticut school districts, resulting in hundreds of lost staff positions and cuts to programs serving tens of thousands of students, a new survey of state superintendents shows.