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.
The school district is under a “budget freeze” after the reimbursement percentage of the Excess Cost grant decreased due to the increase in special education services districts provide to students.
Room 2D at the Legislative Office Building in Hartford was standing room only on Thursday afternoon. Hundreds of people had gathered for a press conference, flanked by signs reading “Keep the promise to CT’s students” and “Fairly fund all students.”
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.
Gov. Lamont's plan to redirect funds earmarked for K-12 education to instead support early childhood programs could have a "devastating" effect on Meriden schools, a district already facing deep staffing cuts.
Education advocates and a bipartisan group of legislators assembled in a packed room in the Legislative Office Building in Hartford this afternoon for a press conference arguing against proposed budget cuts to K-12 education in the state.