Several education advocates, mayors and legislators across Connecticut are calling on the state to update its Education Cost Sharing (ECS) formula for the first time in over a decade.
They say over the years the funding gap between low-income and wealthier school districts has only widened.
Danbury High School senior , Zuzana Barnovsky, said updating the ECS formula would be most beneficial to her fellow students.
“With this funding, students stop being a statistic, our classrooms could finally gain the resources they deserve,” Barnovsky said.
Barnovsky is one of several dozen Connecticut students who testified before the state education committee Wednesday.
Barnovsky studies at a district which, along with other cities across the state, are championing a new state bill modeled after the state’s minimum wage law which, if passed, could increase state funding per student for local districts.
Supporters say the current formula has not kept up with inflation and costs, which includespecial education.
State Rep. Tina Courpas, a Republican, is among those lawmakers who question how increased funding would lead to better academic outcomes, citing poor performance by several school districts.
Republican State Rep. Tina Courpas expressed the same concern.
“We have one of the highest per student funding numbers in the country, and we, like other states, struggle with the outcomes for our students; how those dollars translate into excellence in education,” Courpas said.
State Majority Leader Bob Duff, a Democrat representing Norwalk and Darien, said increasing the formula, which as of now is at around $11,000 per student, would lead to tangible results.
“There's not enough Paras (paraprofessionals),” Duff said. Not enough para educators in our classrooms. I think teachers sometimes have too big of classrooms. I don't think that they adequately get all the materials that they need.”
If the bill passes, the increases would then be tied to either inflation or personal income.
The bill comes as local school districts in Connecticut have called for greater state aid over the past few years, complaining of cuts to funding, which they say, hurt lower income communities the most.
