Every school district in Connecticut is expected to meet the state’s minimum spending requirements, reports the state Department of Education.

Bridgeport’s education budget is currently $3.6 million under the $219.5 million the district must spend, but the chief financial officer for the state education department said district officials have assured him that they will meet that requirement.

While no districts are expected to be in violation of spending requirements, 11 towns and cities spent the bare minimum required to be in compliance with the law. Those districts are Bloomfield, Bristol, Groton, Hartford, Meriden, Montville, New London, Putnam, Sprague, Waterbury and Winchester.

Several districts spent significantly more than the law requires, Stamford and West Hartford most notably spending significantly over the required minimum.

Last school year, 11 school districts budgeted too little for education and were notified by state officials that they would need to spend more or be in violation of state law.

Avatar photo

Jacqueline Rabe Thomas

Jacqueline was CT Mirror’s Education and Housing Reporter, and an original member of the CT Mirror staff, joining shortly before our January 2010 launch. Her awards include the best-of-show Theodore A. Driscoll Investigative Award from the Connecticut Society of Professional Journalists in 2019 for reporting on inadequate inmate health care, first-place for investigative reporting from the New England Newspaper and Press Association in 2020 for reporting on housing segregation, and two first-place awards from the National Education Writers Association in 2012. She was selected for a prestigious, year-long Propublica Local Reporting Network grant in 2019, exploring a range of affordable and low-income housing issues. Before joining CT Mirror, Jacqueline was a reporter, online editor and website developer for The Washington Post Co.’s Maryland newspaper chains. Jacqueline received an undergraduate degree in journalism from Bowling Green State University and a master’s in public policy from Trinity College.

Leave a comment