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

Malloy would reduce, dramatically redistribute school aid in October

  • Education
  • by Keith M. Phaneuf and Jacqueline Rabe Thomas
  • August 18, 2017
  • View as "Clean Read" "Exit Clean Read"

CtMirror.org

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy releases his revised executive order

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy would reduce grants to school districts by 28 percent in October — if no state budget has been adopted —  and would dramatically shift funding away from wealthy and middle-income communities and into poorer ones.

Absent a new two-year budget, the governor’s plan would eliminate Education Cost Sharing funding entirely for 85 school districts and reduce funding somewhat for another 54. Grants to the 30 lowest-performing school systems, also known as Alliance Districts, would remain unchanged.

The governor, who released an updated plan Friday for running state finances by executive order, also announced he is in the process of restoring $40 million out of $100 million in reductions made since July 1 to private, nonprofit social services.

Malloy affirmed an earlier warning that hundreds of millions of dollars in non-education grants won’t be released this fall unless the General Assembly adopts a new budget for this fiscal year and next.

But the governor added he would issue education grants on Oct 1 — 24 days earlier than last year — to help Hartford, West Haven and other communities struggling to avoid fiscal insolvency.

Shifting funds to the lowest-performing schools

“In the absence of an adopted budget from the General Assembly, my administration is reallocating resources to pay for basic human services, education in our most challenged school districts, and the basic operation of government,” Malloy said. “The municipal aid that is funded as part of this executive order reflects the nearly impossible decisions Connecticut must make in the absence of a budget. It will force some of our municipalities — both large and small — to make similarly difficult choices of their own.”

Click to find out how your town fares under Malloy’s revised plan

Of the 54 districts that would face a reduction in ECS aid in October, but not lose it entirely, the cuts would range from 40 to 90 percent.

Faced with these cuts in state education aid, the Malloy administration said districts will be able to cut their spending beyond what they historically have been allowed to. State law in the past has required districts to spend at least as much from year to year on education, however, districts have been able to cut spending if they are granted a waiver from the state because they enroll fewer students or are able to prove they would be able to realize savings without harming instruction. But towns have been capped in how much they could cut. With no state budget in place, the administration says, it will not be holding town to minimum spending requirements.

The governor has been pressing for the past year to redistribute how Connecticut distributes its education aid.

Hartford Superior Court Judge Thomas G. Moukawsher ruled last September that Connecticut’s method of distributing local education aid is irrational and violates the state Constitution.

The state Supreme Court is scheduled to hear an appeal of that decision on Sept. 28.

“I am concentrating on our constitutional obligations,” Malloy, a democrat, told reporters, pointing out that the towns that will receive nothing or will receive much less are in a better fiscal position to makeup for those cuts.

“The deep cuts in state aid called for today by the governor would have a severe impact on towns – but they are not unexpected,” said Joe DeLong, executive director of the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities. “Local governments would not be in this position if the General Assembly had done their job earlier and put forth a state budget that protected the interests of cities and towns and their property taxpayers.”

The state’s largest teachers’ union – the Connecticut Education Assocation – called the cuts “draconian”

Related links

When poverty permeates the classroom

Troubled schools on trial: A 7-part series

A broken formula for school aidBuilding boom & pensions lock in big costsWho’s in charge: State vs. local controlWhat does a high school diploma prove?Special education driving costs and controversiesWill a scathing court decision lead to action?

“This plan would be devastating for students and emphasizes the critical need for legislators to pass a state budget that protects and invests in public education,” said Sheila Cohen, the president of the union. “These draconian cuts would undermine the ability of our schools to provide quality educational opportunities for all children, and our ability as a state to remain a leader in education.”

The president of one of the other major teachers’ union said “There are always better choices than the governor’s failed austerity policies which would further gut local public education resources.”

AFT-CT President Jan Hochadel added that “public education is the great equalizer” and that state leaders “need to recognize that only by generating new revenues and investing them in our communities’ shared assets — like our public schools — can we protect Connecticut’s quality of life.”

The Democratic governor’s plan drew mixed reactions from legislative leaders.

“While we appreciate the Governor’s focus on our neediest municipalities, his proposed cuts would have a devastating effect on many school districts across Connecticut,” said Senate President Pro Tem Martin M. Looney, D-New Haven.

“Our priority is making sure that our schools are provided with the necessary resources to deliver a high-quality education for Connecticut students,” House Speaker Joe Aresimowicz, D-Berlin, said.

“Instead of adopting a fair education funding formula, Governor Malloy’s executive order exacerbates the very same education funding system deemed unconstitutional by the Connecticut Superior Court,” Senate Republican leader Len Fasano of North Haven said, adding Malloy“ is continuing to follow a system that is unpredictable and based entirely on the decisions of those in power, and not on the true need in towns and cities across the state.”

Fasano’s comment drew a sharp response from Malloy spokeswoman Kelly Donnelly.

“Senator Fasano seems to forget that he holds an equal number of votes in the Senate and that, to date, the governor has not received a single budget on his desk,” she said. “Despite his big talk over these many months about co-leadership and a new dynamic in his chamber, the senator is showing that he remains much more comfortable taking cheap shots from the cheap seats.”

Democrats hold a 79-72 edge in the House while the Senate is divided 18-18 along partisan lines.

“Municipalities that have exhibited fiscal restraint, have relied less on state aid than others, and have built up relatively large fund balances pay for that responsible financial approach under the governor’s plan,’’ House Minority Leader Themis Klarides, R-Derby, said.

The Connecticut Council of Small Towns, which represents about 110 communities with populations under 30,000, wrote the governor a letter this week questioning whether towns were being unfairly penalized for managing their finances better than the state has.

Related links

The state of cities and towns in charts

But Malloy responded that many cities and towns have grown local spending and public-sector employment in recent years faster than the state has, adding that some of these communities get as much as 40 percent of their budget revenue from state grants.

‘None of these (changes) are permanent’

“None of these (changes) are permanent because we still have to get to a budget,” Malloy reminder Capitol reporters, urging legislators to reach consensus on a new spending plan that does not rely predominantly on tax hikes to balance the books.

Malloy’s challenge is to operate state finances which, if unadjusted, would run massively in deficit.

The administration originally projected the General Fund would run $2.3 billion in the red in 2017-18 without revisions, which presumably would be made through a new state budget adopted before the fiscal year began on July 1.

That new budget hasn’t arrived yet, but the legislature did ratify a union concessions deal Malloy struck with state employees. That plan is expected to whittle the potential deficit down by $700 million from $2.3 billion to $1.6 billion.

That still means, however, that Connecticut doesn’t have nearly enough resources to fund all of its existing programs. And large, contractually mandated increases in spending for retirement benefits and debt service, coupled with shrinking revenue projections, leave the governor with little flexibility.

Malloy already has been forced to withhold aid to cities and towns. A $30 million road repair grant normally paid in July and a sales tax revenue-sharing grant that was worth $78 million to communities in August last year both didn’t happen this summer.

And if no budget is in place, property tax relief grants that provided communities with $303 million in aid last September and October would provide just $40.6 million this fall.

The Education Cost Sharing grant, the state’s largest program for funding local school districts, releases aid to communities in three installments, provided in October, January and April.

That grant will be released on Oct. 1, but it will involve significantly less money if no new budget is in place.

The governor’s October ECS payment plan provides $365 million in aid.

This plan is based on the assumption that $1.46 billion would be available for ECS if Connecticut were to operate for the entire 2017-18 fiscal year without an approved budget. Last fiscal year communities received just over $2 billion through the program.

Scaling back cuts to nonprofits

The governor also acknowledged that private, nonprofit social services have been under particular strain since the new fiscal year began more than seven weeks ago without a new budget in place.

Connecticut spent about $1.3 billion last fiscal year hiring community-based nonprofits to provide the majority of social services offered to the disabled, the mentally ill, abused children, the poor and others.

And while administration officials have called this work critical, they also note that funding for many programs are limited by available resources.

“We talk about municipalities having fragile finances,” the governor said. “The vast majority of the not-for-profits we’re dealing with have far less ability to respond” to the financial crisis.

Malloy said that while resources for nonprofits were reduced by $100 million shortly after July 1, his administration is restoring $40 million of those funds.

“If we don’t make these adjustments a number of them will go out of business or cease to perform” services for those most in need, he added.

The administration found the $40 million for nonprofits, and another $60 million to show up a variety of other programs and accounts in the budget, by redirecting funds from education and special education grants for school districts.

Gian-Carl Casa, president and CEO of the CT Community Nonprofit Alliance, said the social services safety net has been under-funded for more than a decade, “causing layoffs and directly impacting people with developmental disabilities, mental health problems, substance abuse issues, people returning to their communities from prison, and others. But while the restored funds will help buffer or delay some of the most devastating impacts of the budget stalemate, it is not a substitute for a biennial budget. … Connecticut’s residents are in this together and we all need a budget that fully addresses the state’s budgetary needs, including human services and education.”

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

Keith M. Phaneuf A winner of numerous journalism awards, Keith Phaneuf has been CT Mirror’s state finances reporter since it launched in 2010. The former State Capitol bureau chief for The Journal Inquirer of Manchester, Keith has spent most of 31 years as a reporter specializing in state government finances, analyzing such topics as income tax equity, waste in government and the complex funding systems behind Connecticut’s transportation and social services networks. A former contributing writer to The New York Times, Keith is a graduate of and a former journalism instructor at the University of Connecticut.

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
Current K-12 students could claim religious exemption to vaccines under amended bill
by Jenna Carlesso

The legislation, which is expected to pass the House, would remove the religious exemption beginning in September 2022.

There’s a plan to get rid of property tax on cars. But how would towns make up the difference?
by Keith M. Phaneuf

Adjusting the 70% assessment ratio on homes is one option

New Haven’s school challenge: How to spend all that federal money
by Thomas Breen | New Haven Independent

How does it spend $136 million in federal pandemic relief without getting hooked on the short-term dough?

Feds will not be placing migrant children in Connecticut
by Mark Pazniokas

The closed Juvenile Training School had been under consideration as a shelter

Lamont closed the restaurants. Now he is their promoter.
by Mark Pazniokas

A year after Gov. Ned Lamont banned indoor dining due to COVID-19, the industry has welcomed him as its savior.

Support Our Work

Show your love for great stories and outstanding journalism.

$
Select One
  • Monthly
  • Yearly
  • Once
Artpoint painter
CT ViewpointsCT Artpoints
Opinion Biden is right to think big on infrastructure
by Jim Cameron

Hurrah! It was finally “infrastructure week” in Washington. In his first 100 days as President, Joe Biden has delivered a plan that his predecessor just kept teasing us with for four years:  a complete rehabilitation and expansion of the nation’s infrastructure.

Opinion My life and every other Black life matters
by Eugene Bertrand

"My life and every other black life matters." This is every black person's motto in the United States of America. In the past few months, we've seen an increase in deaths among the Black community.

Opinion Send us the children
by Kellin Atherton

Send us the children, President Biden. Send us the children, Governor Lamont. But not just the children. Move heaven and earth to find their families. Find mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins. Children are coming here alone. Find someone to ease their loneliness and bring them too.

Opinion Lobbyist uses seniors and people with disabilities to protect drug company profits
by Ellen M. Andrews

Reading William Smith’s opinion (Connecticut must protect vulnerable populations from biased and discriminatory healthcare practices, April 13, 2021), I was worried that my state had passed draconian laws that were harming the health of seniors and people with disabilities. Thankfully, that isn’t the case. Our anti-discrimination laws are still in place and functioning.

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