Mayor, Supt.: Dire School Cuts, Layoffs Likely In $55B Proposed Budget

NEW HAVEN, CT – Tuesday, the Connecticut General Assembly Appropriations Committee unveiled its proposed $55.5 billion state budget.

Following the proposal, Mayor Justin Elicker and School's Superintendent Madeline Negrón issued the following joint statement:

The Appropriations Committee’s proposed budget is a step in the right direction and includes an additional $40 million in much needed funding for special education. However, we need Governor Lamont and the State Legislature to loosen the state’s fiscal guardrails so that Connecticut can properly fund our public schools.

There is something fundamentally wrong with the way our state funds our public schools when school districts all across Connecticut – from New Haven to Bridgeport to East Hampton to Hamden to Hartford to Meriden to Milford to Norwalk to Stamford and many more – are all looking at massive cuts to education.

The reason is straightforward: the state’s well-intentioned fiscal guardrails have now become unintentional fiscal roadblocks that are holding our state back from adequately funding critical priorities like public education.

The state’s baseline per student contribution of $11,525 in the Education Cost Sharing formula has not increased in over a decade. Meanwhile, every conceivable cost to educate our children has increased over the last decade. Further, the state provides no additional financial weight for students with disabilities and inadequate financial weights for students living in poverty and multilingual learners – all of whom we know have more diverse and complex learning needs.

Meanwhile, municipalities have been steadily increasing their local contributions to support their school districts. The City of New Haven has increased its local contribution to New Haven Public Schools by over 50 percent over the last five years, with another proposed increase in this year’s budget. Despite this, New Haven Public Schools is currently looking at a $17 million budget gap in the upcoming school year, just to do the basics. Without additional state funding, painful cuts and significant layoffs will be unavoidable, which will be devastating to our schools.

Municipalities cannot and should not make up the difference for state’s chronic underfunding of our schools, especially in light of seven – soon to be eight – consecutive years of state budget surpluses and a $4.1 billion rainy day fund with another $1.8 billion surplus projected at the of this fiscal year.

Public school families, teachers, superintendents, and mayors from across the state have made it abundantly clear that we are facing a funding crisis in public education, and we urge Governor Lamont and the State Legislature to work together to loosen the state’s fiscal guardrails so that Connecticut can make the collective investment we need to support our students and their future.