School funding report: State ‘can do better’

A new study that represents a collaboration between the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities and federal reserve Bank of Boston adds a new voice to the longstanding argument that the way Connecticut funds its public schools is flawed.

“Measuring Disparities in

Costs and Spending across Connecticut School Districts” estimates that to put school districts across the state on an equal footing student performance-wise will cost at least an additional $940 million — or 12.3 percent more than is spent now.

“While the state and local governments now face great fiscal difficulties induced by the COVID-19 pandemic, they should remain committed to the investment in public education because it will affect Connecticut’s economic growth in the long run,” says the report co-written by Bo Zhao and Nicholas Chimenti.

Joe DeLong, executive director of CCM, which represents cites and towns across the state, said despite multiple court cases and effort to reform the state’s school funding formula, gaps in equity and adequacy in schools are growing.

“Connecticut can do better,” said DeLong, adding the new report adds the weight of the federal reserve bank behind a position he and many have. “This sheds a spotlight on an ongoing challenge.”

DeLong called the report another component that can be used to convince lawmakers that experts outside the state are saying it has an issue that needs to be addressed.

On Thursday, the report authors hosted a panel that included New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker, Hartford Schools Superintendent Leslie Torres Rodriguez and state Sen. Doug McCrory.

Stamford Mayor David Martin called in during the session.

“I am in agreement with the panelists,” Martin said. While the analysis compares what Hartford and New Canaan spends as an example of the funding inequities, Martin said it might have been better to focus on Stamford and New Canaan, which are neighbors.

“It costs more here to operate a district,” Martin said. And while what New Canaan and Stamford spend per pupil is similar, Stamford has way more needs.

The state is on a trajectory to spend about $39 million more each year over the next seven on its Education Cost Sharing formula.

McCrory, co-chair of the legislature’s education committee, said he would love to see that amount greatly increase but he is not sure it will happen.

“It is not that it’s not the right thing to do,” McCrory said. “It’s that it’s a struggle to convince my colleagues.”

He deemed the 22-page report a good start.

The analysis attempts to predict what it would cost to get good student outcomes when factors such as poverty are factored in.

Similar studies were the basis of the Connecticut Coalition for Justice in Education Funding case that was championed by CCM and which pitted municipalities and school districts against the state. The state Supreme Court ultimately ruled in favor of the state in 2018.

Zhao, one of the report’s authors, said he determined that Hartford would have to spend 54 percent higher than the state average for students there to rise to average student performance. The same, he said, with other large urban districts like Bridgeport, New Haven, New London and Waterbury.

The report finds that more than half of Connecticut public school students attend districts where spending is insufficient to meet the predicted cost to achieve the statewide average student test performance level.

He recommends the state create a new funding formula that is scientifically grounded, equitable and gives more to districts with higher costs.

Eliker, from New Haven, said he likes the study’s structured approach and its realization that it costs much more in some districts to get equivalent results.

“We need to spend more if the issues are bigger,” Eliker said.

Kids in New Haven, he pointed out, have fewer resources and support than kids in New Canaan.

Eliker added that while it is true New Haven gets a lot of support from the state, the funding formula’s reliance on property taxes, coupled with the cost of teacher retirement plans, makes the system inadequate.

DeLong said until there is the political will to deal with the funding inequities, educational inequities will continue to be an issue.

“I do think there is just enough studies and information out there to demand some level of action,” DeLong said.