Analysis of State Education Funding Changes in Appropriations Committee's Proposed Budget for FYs 2020 and 2021

On Tuesday, April 30, the leadership of the General Assembly’s Appropriations Committee introduced a biennial spending plan for fiscal years 2020 and 2021. The spending plan was adopted the same day by the Committee on a party line vote. Included in the Appropriations Committee’s spending plan are several changes to state education funding, including changes to funding levels for the Education Cost Sharing (ECS) grant, schools of choice, and other education grants.

In an effort to provide useful information for policymakers, educators, community leaders, and all individuals interested in how Connecticut funds its public schools, the Connecticut School Finance Project has prepared two documents that provide an overview of the state education funding contained in the two biennial budget proposals presented at the time the Appropriations Committee's spending plan was adopted by the Committee: 1) the Appropriations Committee’s spending plan and 2) Governor Ned Lamont’s budget proposal from February 2019.

These documents are:

• An analysis featuring ECS estimates for each town based on both the Appropriations Committee’s spending plan and governor’s proposed budget for FYs 2020 and 2021, along with a comparison of those estimates to ECS amounts for FY 2019. Also included is a table with changes to schools of choice line items and other major education grants for each budget proposal. *Please note all ECS town funding numbers are ESTIMATES and should not be used for official uses.*
• A table outlining how the ECS formula in both the Appropriations Committee’s spending plan and the governor’s budget proposal compares to the ECS formula that was passed in October 2017 and is currently in its first year of being used and implemented