http://cptv.vo.llnwd.net/o2/ypmwebcontent/Chion/do%20111117%20ECS%20Task%20Force.mp3
Governor Malloy’s “E-C-S Task Force” meets today. The panel will hear testimony from a researcher at Connecticut Voices for Children on how to improve state financing of local public schools.
The Education Cost Sharing, or ECS, grant is the single most important source of funding for education from the state to local towns. The amount that a town receives is determined by a complex formula, which most educators and legislators agree needs to be reformed. Earlier this year, Governor Malloy established a task force to look into the formula.
Orlando Rodriguez, senior policy fellow at Connecticut Voices for Children says the first problem is that ECS uses outdated data. "We’re currently using income data from 1999. The income data in the formula is based on Census 2000 which is 1999 data, resulting in towns getting a higher proportion of funding than they would if we were to update the formula with new data."
And when reporting population totals, towns include prisoners, if there’s a jail in town – or college students if there’s a university in town. Rodriguez says those should be removed from the calculations.
Another problem, says Rodriguez, is that enrollment in public schools is declining in Connecticut. "Right now state statutes specify what towns must budget for education local funding, but they don’t say what towns must spend."
And local towns may use they funds they collect for education for other things, "so you may have taxpayers believing that they’re paying for education and taxes being collected for education, but its being shifted to non-education purposes."
Rodriguez recommends that towns be required to report their local education spending to the state.
The ECS Task force must submit an initial report on its findings by next January. A final report is due in October 2012.
