Since 2020, inflation has increased the prices of goods and services by over 20 percent, placing increasing financial strain on school district budgets in recent years. However, the foundation amount in Connecticut’s Education Cost Sharing (ECS) formula has remained the same since 2013.
This divide between the cost of providing services and the stable ECS foundation has created challenges for Connecticut school districts in maintaining educational services among growing expenses. To address this issue, some states have codified inflationary increases for their education funding formulas into statute.
The purpose of this document is to provide an overview of the current inflationary increases in state school funding formulas, and what this means for Connecticut.
Citation
School and State Finance Project. (2025). State Scan: Inflation Adjustments to Funding Formula Foundation Amounts. Southington, CT: Author. Retrieved from https://files.schoolstatefinance.org/hubfs/Reports/Inflation
%20Adjustments%20to%20Formula%20Foundation%20Amounts.pdf.