Legislators maintain they had a solid agreement with Lamont’s administration last year as part of the two-year budget for an additional $150 million for K-12 public education, but that total has not been placed into the latest budget recommendations.
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.
By cutting the legislature’s historic, bipartisan investment in K-12 education made just eight months ago, the governor is proposing a budget built on broken promises while turning his back on the needs of students, families, and educators throughout the state.