🔒Pressed for immediate aid, Lamont launches study on education

Gov. Ned Lamont’s executive order creating a commission on education funding and accountability drew appreciation Thursday for confronting a perennially difficult issue and skepticism over whether the exercise will produce change in how Connecticut pays for its public schools. The public signing of the Executive Order 26-3 comes in the final three weeks of a legislative session that has yet to resolve how much of the $500 million informally earmarked for addressing affordability issues will go to aid for municipalities facing sharply higher education costs. More broadly, it invites attention during a gubernatorial election year to Connecticut’s success in providing public education near the top of state rankings and its failure to equalize education opportunities in a state of great extremes in wealth and poverty. Lamont named Natalie Wagner, his deputy chief of staff, to chair the commission, a choice he says was intended to demonstrate “the importance we put upon this program” and a commitment produce a blueprint for change, not just a report that “ends up sitting on a bookshelf.” Its members will include legislators chosen by the Democratic and Republican leaders, the state commissioner of education and a broad range of interested parties such as teachers, parents, students municipal officials and state and national experts in school funding. “Education funding has never been without significant challenges, and finding a path forward rarely involves a simple solution. The governor is bringing us all together to work on these challenges,” said Wagner, who noted the broad group of stakeholders present for the signing ceremony. Some have previously clashed with Lamont over his fiscal policies. The governor said the commission will explore how to provide education more affordably, as well as funding levels. "This commission is going to be figuring out what's the best funding formula going forward for the next foreseeable future. Now we can make sure that money makes the biggest difference in our kids lives," said Lamont, who has urged school systems to work cooperatively on purchasing and other back office functions. Lamont, a Democrat seeking a third term, promised in February to create the commission as part of a proposed budget that makes no significant changes in the Education Cost Sharing formula for distributing state aid, which has not been adjusted for inflation since 2013. While the formula has not kept pace with inflation, the governor said that overall state spending on K-12 education through ECS has increased by about $445 million during his two terms, and there is other increased spending on local schools, such as aid for special education. There is broad support for assessing the formula among stakeholders, including municipal officials and educators who witnessed Lamont sign the order — so long as it does not become a substitute for action on education aid before the legislature reaches its constitutional adjournment deadline of midnight May 6. Typical was the response of Lisa Hammersley, executive director of the School and State Finance Project, who said the group will “always welcome thoughtful and collaborative examinations of our state’s education finance system.” “But make no mistake about it, the establishment of the Blue Ribbon Commission should not be treated as a hall pass to not take meaningful, sustainable action this legislative session,” Hammersley said “As legislators have heard from thousands of students and taxpayers this session, Connecticut’s school districts and municipalities need help now.” The Lamont administration invited to the signing ceremony Hammersley and others who have been critical of Connecticut’s longstanding inadequacies in education funding, which have been the subject of litigation over decades, as well as the current governor’s fiscal moderation. Lamont has defended the state’s spending caps, though he has agreed to sidestep them to a degree in recent years, and he insists that any changes to state aid for education formulas be economically sustainable. But he did not impose limits on what the commission can explore or recommend. The leaders of the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities and the largest public teachers union, the Connecticut Education Association, said no one expects major reforms to education formulas in the waning days of the current session. “That’s not a ‘this session’ issue,” said Joe DeLong, the executive director of the group representing municipalities. “But I've said all along, until the system changes, we have to adequately and appropriately fund the system that we have now.” Kate Dias, the president of the CEA union, had a turn at the microphone during Lamont’s press conference. She took the opportunity to confront him with two statistics: Connecticut ranks near the top in overall per pupil spending and near the bottom in the state’s contribution to that spending. “My parents told me that if you ever wanted to know what somebody valued, all you have to do is look at their checkbook,” she said. The remark was a clear dig at the governor, but it did not keep them from chatting amiably after the event. Dias said later it was important to make the point at the outset of the commission’s work about education. “It’'s important for me in the presence of the governor to say we have to do more than just say we value it. We have to do more than say we're going to continue to throw band aids. We really do need a significant, meaningful shift that reflects the values,” Dias said. DeLong said the level of state support for local education has contributed to inequities from district to district, as well as a reliance on municipal property taxes that ranks second only behind New Jersey. Connecticut’s support for distressed districts is about 40% what Massachusetts provides, he said. “That is a massive disparity,” he said. House Minority Leader Vincent J. Candelora, R-North Branford, said property tax reform also must be pursued. “I appreciate that Gov. Lamont has formed this commission, and our caucus will participate, but I worry this will be more pageantry than progress,” Candelora said. “This commission exists because of the property tax crisis gripping our towns and cities, which makes it all the more striking that taxpayers were barely mentioned during his news conference today.”

Lamont’s pledge creates spending cap challenge

The commission will not issue its report until January, the start of a new term for Lamont or whomever is elected. But he faces immediate challenge in making even relatively modest increases in education fund. His pledge to assist cities and towns now will test his allegiance to the state budget caps he’s already suggested bending to assist his reelection bid. The governor wants to take $500 million from a special savings program that builds reserves and reduces pension debt and redirect those funds to finance a $200-per-person tax rebate in late October — less than a week before Election Day. Lamont suggested Tuesday that about $100 million could be peeled away from the rebate program to increase aid to cities and towns. A rebate would not be an official expenditure as far as the budgetary spending cap is concerned, but $100 million in extra education grants to towns next would year would be. And the $28.7 billion budget the governor proposed in February for the next budget cycle falls under the cap — which is designed to keep spending in line with household income and inflation — by just $1.1 million. Lamont could work around that problem by shifting additional funds for schools outside of the formal budget and around the purview of the spending cap. He and the General Assembly went that route one year ago when they ordered an extra $40 million in special education grants for local districts. They also created a new off-budget endowment last June with $300 million to expand affordable child care. But the fiscally moderate governor generally has decried such accounting maneuvers, urging lawmakers to make tough choices to keep spending within the budget and under cap limits. Lamont and his legislators also could include additional education aid in a budget that legally exceeds the spending cap. State law allows an exception provided the governor declares a fiscal emergency and the budget is adopted with a 60% majority in both the House and Senate.

Bipartisan push for aid

The governor’s call to enhance education grants comes one month after Democratic legislative leaders suggested peeling $150 million away from his rebate program to counter funding crisis in local schools. Lamont’s statements also come two days after the House Republican Caucus released a budget proposal that would expand education aid more than $335 million next fiscal year. The failure to reflect inflation in the ECS aid formula is approaching a crisis, educators said. Many districts have seen real costs rise year after year while state aid remains effectively stagnant. To make matters worse, special education and health insurance costs have skyrocketed in the last year alone. Schools’ only option is to ask their towns to pay those higher prices, meaning higher property taxes for communities that may not have much more to give. The School and State Finance Project has asked legislators to increase the ECS foundation amount — the number on which the formula is based — to $16,000 per student. It has been $11,525 since 2013). This would bring schools up to where they would have been if ECS had had regular inflationary updates every year. It would  cost just under $150 million — the minimum many legislators are seeking.