Saturday, January 1, 2011

Connecticut funding overhaul

Looks like there's some question of Connecticut tackling their state education funding formula, now that their new governor is a former plaintiff in the 2005 lawsuit that called for an overhaul.
As mayor of Stamford, Malloy was among the original plaintiffs in the lawsuit, which calls for major changes in the ECS formula.
"It's time now for people of good will to sit down and resolve this issue. We can't lose another generation of young people to an unequal and, in some cases, an inadequate education system," said state Rep. Christopher Caruso, D-Bridgeport.
The ECS formula has been tweaked regularly since it went into effect in 1988, a hybrid of two earlier plans intended to ensure more funding equity between wealthy and poor communities. It uses a complicated equation that considers the number of students, a town's wealth or poverty and other factors.
Its intention is to split school costs 50-50 between the state and municipalities, a goal that's never been reached. The closest the state got was 45 percent in 1989, and it's around 42 percent now.
Malloy says his first concern is avoiding ed cuts for this year.

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