Across Connecticut’s 1,322 public and private schools, the great divider of access and opportunity is not location or education standards: it is unfair, unequal funding for an education that should be accessible to all.
Amidst government shutdowns, threats to the Department of Education, and attacks on teachers’ instructional discretion, those suffering the brunt of the harm from recent attacks on the school system are some of our most vulnerable: students.
An analysis by the School and State Finance Project found that the Trump administration’s freeze of federal education funds leaves Connecticut schools losing $53.6 million in federal education funding for the just the 2025-26 school year. With threats of more cuts to federal funding continuing to target schools across the country, now is the time for our state legislature to show up for our students where our national government won’t.
Addressing this divide requires more than empty promises; it demands the legislative action found in Senate Bill 7, which proposes a long-overdue increase in state education aid for high-need school districts.
However, much of that additional help offered through preexisting systems in this state is outdated. The Education Cost Sharing (ECS) grant serves as Connecticut’s central state education funding system, originally formed to equalize educational opportunities by distributing funding based on student need and town wealth. But the original allocation of $11,525 offered per student has been frozen since 2013, while students across the state wait for a needed update that has yet to arrive.
According to the Economic Policy Institute, without clear help from this state legislature, teachers have to fill the gap in funding. This has resulted in an average of $460 spent per teacher to support students without receiving any reimbursement. In addition to this loss of income, Connecticut’s students have been paying a price. Without investing in their education, access to advanced placement classes, technology, bus transportation, and classrooms becomes out of reach.
This makes S.B 7’s focus on public schools crucial to address the needs of Connecticut’s education system, especially as decreased funding results in worse academic performance. Looking beyond the classroom, a lack of attention to public schools between the public and private school systems further widens the gap in achievement and future success.
The average student achievement in Connecticut remains more than half a grade level below 2019 levels in math and reading, with chronic absenteeism rising by 14% over five years. Long term, a failure to even the playing field causes college readiness, upward mobility, and job earnings to continue to favor wealthy students rather than those in need.
S.B 7, however, takes a critical first step to offering a chance at revival for our public schools. Outlined in the bill, once passed, public schools in Connecticut will see a much-needed increase in state funding. This occurs by increasing the ECS funding allocation from $11,525 to $15,500 over four years, adjusting it to align with state budget spending over time. In the process, state education aid will also be increased. Additionally, continuous studying of the effectiveness of the ECS and other state public education funding will be done to ensure that neglecting much-needed updates stays in the past.
Research from the Learning Policy Institute suggests that better access to improved resources and teachers allows for student achievement to skyrocket. The same research reports that high-need districts like those across Connecticut that receive larger funding allocations see greater improvements in subjects like math and reading, along with providing tutoring and summer school programs. In the long term, the benefits of investing in students show up in their future success by giving them the tools to learn how to prevail in higher education or the workforce.
Our students’ needs aren’t stationary, so their funding shouldn’t be either. Each step legislation like S.B 7 takes to give back to the education system provides more opportunities for today’s students to succeed tomorrow.
Gagnado Diedhiou is a member of the Yale College Democrats.