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.
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.
“Inequitable.” That’s the word that various education stakeholders used while describing Gov. Ned Lamont’s proposed budget, which was released on Feb. 7.
Supporters of K-12 education and early childhood education funding claimed Thursday that Gov. Ned Lamont is trying to pit them against each other in a budget fight.