Budget Snapshot: Education Funding in Appropriations Committee's Budget for FYs 2024 and 2025

On April 18, 2023, the General Assembly's Appropriations Committee released its state budget proposal for fiscal years 2024 and 2025. Included in the proposed budget were policy and funding changes related to K-12 public education.

This analysis details the changes to state K-12 education funding contained in the Appropriations Committee’s proposed budget and how they impact students and school across Connecticut. Below are some of the key education policies and funding changes proposed in the Committee's budget.

• ECS funding is increased by approximately $54.9 million in FY 2024 and $109.3 million in FY 2025 over current funding levels.
  
  
• ECS formula phase-in is continued per current law over the next two fiscal years, providing increases to towns considered "underfunded" according to the formula.
  
  
• Towns considered "overfunded" according to the ECS formula, which are currently scheduled to receive decreases in their ECS grants for FYs 2024 and 2025, would be "held harmless" and receive their FY 2023 funding amounts for both fiscal years instead.
  
  
• $150 million is provided for education finance reform in FY 2025, but it is not clear how the funds would be allocated to towns and school districts or if that was the intended purpose.
  
  
• Open Choice program is reduced by $3 million in FYs 2024 and 2025.
  
  
• Funding for state charter schools is increased by $3 million in FY 2024 and funding is provided in FY 2025 for new charter schools in Middletown, New Haven, and Norwalk.
  
  
• $450,000 is included to increase education finance transparency and support three additional forensic analysis staff positions at the Connecticut State Department of Education.