Free Daily Headlines :

  • COVID-19
  • Vaccine Info
  • Money
  • Politics
  • Education
  • Health
  • Justice
  • More
    • Environment
    • Economic Development
    • Gaming
    • Investigations
    • Social Services
    • TRANSPORTATION
  • Opinion
    • CT Viewpoints
    • CT Artpoints
DONATE
Reflecting Connecticut’s Reality.
    COVID-19
    Vaccine Info
    Money
    Politics
    Education
    Health
    Justice
    More
    Environment
    Economic Development
    Gaming
    Investigations
    Social Services
    TRANSPORTATION
    Opinion
    CT Viewpoints
    CT Artpoints

LET�S GET SOCIAL

Show your love for great stories and out standing journalism

Teachers union slams Malloy plan to cut aid to better-off schools

  • Education
  • by Jacqueline Rabe Thomas
  • February 14, 2017
  • View as "Clean Read" "Exit Clean Read"

The state’s largest teachers union has taken to the airwaves to blast Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s plans to redirect more of the $2.1 billion in state education aid to the state’s most impoverished communities.

“What does it take to secure the future of Connecticut?” the 30-second television advertisement released Tuesday begins. “It takes investment in our public schools and a state budget that works for all of us – especially our children. But that’s being threatened by a plan that would divide our local public schools into winners and losers.”

The Connecticut Education Association plans to spend $100,000 to air the advertisement over the next two weeks on stations throughout the state.

The union takes issue with the governor’s proposal, which rejects the long-standing practice at the state Capitol of shielding individual cities and towns from state cuts to education aid.

“Protect funding for public schools in every community. Every, single, one,” the 30-second ad demands.

Malloy, a Democrat, has said that protecting towns from education funding cuts as their school enrollment shrank or their taxable property increased has disproportionately impacted the state’s most impoverished communities, where enrollment has grown over the years.

“That idea that we held communities harmless while they were shrinking meant that we didn’t fund schools that were growing,” Malloy told reporters last week in New Britain while announcing the changes he proposes to education aid.

The governor tried to appeal to suburban legislators during his budget address last week to help out struggling cities.

“We are a small state, and our towns are interconnected,” Malloy said. “Growth in Hartford means growth in Bloomfield and Windsor. More jobs in Waterbury means more jobs in Cheshire and Beacon Falls… We can rise together, or we can fall together.”

Related links

The broken formula for state school aid

You control the purse strings for state education aid (Interactive graphic)Some education aid increases might not be spent on schoolsMalloy proposes shaking up state education aidSchool funding reform: Ideas and challenges aplenty

Malloy’s proposed budget would increase state education grants to 52 cities and towns with struggling schools by about $230 million. To pay for that he would drastically cut education funding to dozens of better-off towns, eliminating all funding for Greenwich, the state’s wealthiest community. (See how your town fares under Malloy’s proposal here.)

However, in many of the impoverished districts education aid increases he proposes would be wiped out by another one of his proposals, which would send municipalities a bill to cover one-third of the pension costs of their teachers.

For example, Hartford would get $12.2 million more in education grants under the governor’s plan, but the city would have to pick up $17.1 million in teacher pension costs that the state now covers.

The governor does propose allowing municipalities to levy a new tax on the property of hospitals. In Hartford, that tax could generate $57.1 million a year in new revenue for the city, though it would not be required to be spent on local schools. (See the bottom line for your town in the governor’s budget here.)

“We are all in this together,” said CEA Executive Director Mark Waxenberg when releasing the ad. “We have a lot of schools in need, but you don’t lift the boats of the poor by poking holes in the boats of the middle class. Legislators must find a solution that protects funding for every public school.”

Leaders of the state organizations that represent school boards, superintendents, school business officials and principals held a press conference last week to also blast the governor’s budget that cuts state education support for municipalities by $364 million.

“We have a pretty draconian system here,” said Dave Lenihan, of the Connecticut Association of School Business Officials.

Pressure to overhaul how schools are funded follows a superior court judge ruling last summer that the state is spending enough on education overall, but where that funding is going is irrational and unconstitutional.

“Too little money is chasing too many needs,” Hartford Superior Court Judge Thomas Moukawsher wrote in September, outlining huge disparities in achievement and spending between rich and poor towns. “If the egregious gaps between rich and poor school districts in this state don’t require more overall state spending, they at least cry out for coherently calibrated state spending” that factors in “the special circumstances of the state’s poorest communities.”

Sign up for CT Mirror's free daily news summary.

Free to Read. Not Free to Produce.

The Connecticut Mirror is a nonprofit newsroom. 90% of our revenue comes from people like you. If you value our reporting please consider making a donation. You'll enjoy reading CT Mirror even more knowing you helped make it happen.

YES, I'LL DONATE TODAY

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jacqueline Rabe Thomas is CT Mirror’s Education and Housing Reporter and an original member of the CT Mirror staff. She has won first-place awards for investigative reporting from state, New England, and national organizations. Before joining CT Mirror in late 2009, Jacqueline was a reporter, online editor and website developer for The Washington Post Co.’s Maryland newspaper chains. She has also worked for Congressional Quarterly and the Toledo Free Press. Jacqueline received an undergraduate degree in journalism from Bowling Green State University and a master’s in public policy from Trinity College.

SEE WHAT READERS SAID

RELATED STORIES
Report: Twice as many CT high schoolers are in danger of being held back
by Jacqueline Rabe Thomas

Research released Monday confirms what many parents and educators already suspected — more students than ever are falling behind during the pandemic, a problem especially present among those learning entirely from home in some of the state’s larger districts. The RISE Network tracked about 12,000 students in nine high schools in historically struggling districts to […]

State’s largest teachers’ union urges educators be prioritized in vaccine rollout
by Adria Watson

Educators said teachers should be able to receive the vaccine immediately when the next phase begins.

Lamont’s education funding plans under fire
by Frankie Graziano & Ahjane Forbes | Connecticut Public Radio

As Gov. Ned Lamont rolls out his budget for the coming biennium, education funding seems poised to become a battleground.

CT budget debate heats up quickly over equity
by Keith M. Phaneuf

Urban lawmakers on the Appropriations Committee charged Gov. Ned Lamont's budget largely ignores inequities in education and health care.

Miguel Cardona is one step closer to becoming next U.S. education secretary
by Jacqueline Rabe Thomas

In a swift meeting, senators voted 17 to 5 to forward Cardona's nomination to the U.S. Senate for final approval.

Support Our Work

Show your love for great stories and outstanding journalism.

$
Select One
  • Monthly
  • Yearly
  • Once
Artpoint painter
CT ViewpointsCT Artpoints
Opinion The historical basis of zoning begs for reform
by Lawrence Rizzolo

Discussions of race are fraught with emotion. Witness the zoning reforms being discussed in our legislature. I will attempt to advance a dispassionate argument that is based on government-sponsored racism that occurred during my lifetime and led to the structural problems that persist today.

Opinion Lamont must stop waffling on the Killingly power plant issue
by Tennyson Benedict

On January 19, Gov. Ned Lamont gave his bluntest comments yet regarding the controversial Killingly natural gas plant, saying, “I don’t want to build Killingly.”  Yet, Lamont still refuses to wield his executive authority to actually stop its construction, and instead offers vague suggestions that market forces will stop the plant’s construction.

Opinion Religious freedom is less than righteousness
by Spencer Hill

The CT Viewpoints opinion “Religious freedom is more than religion” shows just how entrenched is the sincerely held belief that one man’s notion of “freedom” dictates the liberty of others.

Opinion To boost economy, state should invest in the ‘last mile’ of broadband connectivity
by Thomas J. Peters, Ph.D

In his budget address on February 10,   Gov. Ned Lamont announced his intent to expand broadband connectivity in Connecticut, an effort to be lauded. Connecticut enjoys a significant competitive advantage for economic development in the Connecticut Education Network (CEN), “ a 2,500 route mile, all optical, high-performance internet network.”

Artwork Grand guidance
by Anne:Gogh

In a world of systemic oppression aimed towards those of darker skintones – representation matters. We are more than our equity elusive environments, more than numbers in a prison and much more than victims of societal dispositions. This piece depicts a melanated young man draped in a cape ascending high above multiple forms of oppression. […]

Artwork Shea
by Anthony Valentine

Shea is a story about race and social inequalities that plague America. It is a narrative that prompts the question, “Do you know what it’s like to wake up in new skin?”

Artwork The Declaration of Human Rights
by Andres Chaparro

Through my artwork I strive to create an example of ideas that reflect my desire to raise social consciousness, and cultural awareness. Jazz music is the catalyst to all my work, and plays a major influence in each piece of work.”

Artwork ‘A thing of beauty. Destroy it forever’
by Richard DiCarlo | Derby

During times like these it’s often fun to revisit something familiar and approach things with a different slant. I have been taking some Pop culture and Art masterpieces and applying the vintage 1960’s and 70’s classic figures (Fisher Price, little people) to the make an amusing pieces. Here is my homage to Fisher -Price, Yellow […]

Twitter Feed
A Twitter List by CTMirror

Engage

  • Reflections Tickets & Sponsorships
  • Events
  • Donate
  • Newsletter Sign-Up
  • Submit to Viewpoints
  • Submit to ArtPoints
  • Economic Indicator Dashboard
  • Speaking Engagements
  • Commenting Guidelines
  • Legal Notices
  • Contact Us

About

  • About CT Mirror
  • Announcements
  • Board
  • Staff
  • Sponsors and Funders
  • Donors
  • Friends of CT Mirror
  • History
  • Financial
  • Policies
  • Strategic Plan

Opportunity

  • Advertising and Sponsorship
  • Speaking Engagements
  • Use of Photography
  • Work for Us

Go Deeper

  • Steady Habits Podcast
  • Economic Indicator Dashboard
  • Five Things

The Connecticut News Project, Inc. 1049 Asylum Avenue, Hartford, CT 06105. Phone: 860-218-6380

© Copyright 2021, The Connecticut News Project. All Rights Reserved. Website by Web Publisher PRO