A bill to allow cities and towns to cut school budgets when enrollment declines--opposed by educators but backed by municipal leaders and Gov. Dannel P. Malloy--won key approval from the legislature's Education Committee Friday.
Local governments are currently barred by state law from cutting the amount they spend on education, even in towns where enrollment has dropped, such as Meriden, New Britain and Bridgeport, where numbers have fallen between 6 and 9 percent.
"We'll certainly address this," Sen. Andrea L. Stillman, co-chairwoman of the Education Committee, said before committee members unanimously voted in favor of a bill that would allow towns to cut $3,000 for every one-student drop in enrollment.
"It addresses problems raised by several communities that indicated a straight minimum budget requirement [districts must spend] with no acknowledgement of changes of student census is a problem," said Rep. Andy Fleischmann, D-West Hartford, the other co-chair.
Sen. Andrea Stillman
But education officials say allowing towns to cut based on enrollment declines would be disastrous, since many of the costs are fixed for schools.
"If you lose only one student you will have no savings. We have to hit that critical mass before savings are achieved," said Patrice McCarthy, general counsel for the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education. "You still have to pay for teachers... for just about everything."
She said a formula must first be developed to accurately determine what a district saves as enrollment declines, and then school boards may be able to back a reduction in spending.
State funding does take student enrollment figures into account when allocating education aid to cities and towns, but towns are held to a different standard.
"That doesn't work," said Rep. Timothy J. Ackert, R-Coventry, of the prohibition on towns' cutting spending. He also urged the committee to go one step further and allow towns to cut the "actual amount" towns realize in reduced costs, which he expects is more than $3,000 per student.
Current spending for public education statewide is about $10.4 billion this year and almost 70 percent of all municipal spending goes to pay for education, according to the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities.
"We are requiring towns to pay for students that aren't in their schools. That is taxpayers paying for that," said Stillman during an interview. She said last year a handful of towns brought up this problem, and lawmakers responded by carving out a one-time exception that allowed towns to reduce the amount they spend on education.
But lawmakers are considering making it the rule and not the exception, so towns don't have to plead their case in Hartford when they want to make cuts.
Malloy -- who proposed the change the committee unanimously approved - said last month he supports allowing towns to reduce their spending, but only when towns experience "a sizable reduction" in enrollment.
This proposal has no qualifying threshold in the amount of students that a district must shed before cutting $3,000 per student.
And even then, McCarthy said $3,000 is way too much to allow towns to cut.
Jim Finley, executive director of CCM, acknowledges if state lawmakers untie town officials hands and allow them to reduce education spending, tensions between school and town officials will undoubtedly arise.
But he says it's a battle that worth having.
"It's not cutting their budget. It's allowing towns to pay what it is realistically costing to educate a child," he said. "Why should the education side of their budget be immune from cuts?"
Bart Russell, executive director Connecticut Council of Small Towns, said he thinks towns will get through the tension.
"It will create some tensions... But there is an understanding that we are in it together. I think that conflict is going to be minimal," he said.
Finley and Russell also said only allowing towns to cut when enrollment declines doesn't go far enough -- they want towns to be able to cut whenever they find savings.
"We are blind to the opportunity to get some savings," Finley said.
But McCarthy said the impact of that would be harsh on schools.
"What you'll have is a smaller pool of resources for students," she said.
More money has never equaled better results. If that were the case, Connecticut would still provide the best public education in the nation. It doesn't.
It is critical that towns be able to adjust to the realities facing them in their own communities -- be it lower enrollment, or changing demographics of level enrollment.
For example, one or two high need special education students can cost a town $100,000 or more to educate. If such an outlier student moved into or out of a town, a school district should be able to meet the cost as it happens, and
Read MoreMy town - 50,000 people- middle of the pack income- spends $14731 per pupil. 2/3 are grammar school students (no labs, sports) at $10k per year so the high school costs 18K a year. If we cant agree that $3000 is varialble and $11731 is fixed than we may as well say ALL cost are fixed The mayor just indicated that we need 100m(or 1/10 of a billion) for building renovations. We dont pay for pension(state) or health care(pay as you go) so God knows what the real fully weighted cost of schooling really is. If you
Read MoreArt, at middle of the pack income, your town is spending middle of the pack for per pupil. I don't understand what you are complaining about. The per pupil costs are about right.
Most costs are fixed: heat, electricity, administrative staff, maintenance staff, maintenance costs, etc. There is a variable with teacher staffing, but it doesn't reduce costs so much to reduce, for example, from 50 teachers to 49 (if the town is able is eliminate one class due to 25 kids leaving the district who are all in the same class). I imagine your town is paying an average
Read MoreYes, the MBR is flawed, but not as flawed, unfair, and seriously underfunded by the State as the ECS itself. Gov Malloy's proposed ECS task force (on which will sit numerous municipal representatives) will have to tackle the MBR along with the broken state aid formula. That's scheduled to happen over the coming year, and there's no sound reason that the new formula can't begin to be phased in as of July 2012 -- with an immediate switch to the new MBR. Making MBR changes now, based on enrollment figures -- even though the State isn't funding
Read MoreAbolish all public state funded schools into fully non-subsidized private schools. In other words, let the parents pay the full cost of education of their own children. Period. This most important reform WILL IMMEDIATELY STOP THE FREE LUNCH AND OTHER FREEBIES BEING ENJOYED BY ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS. Because parents (each family) have to be responsible for the education and welfare of their own children, at their own cost, they will take real and direct interest in such education and the educational standards and achievements in this country will rise. If necessary, make changes in our constitution.
Not Born, your more complex solution for a more complicated problem may short circuit some brains that max out with bumperstickers.
Art, how do you arrive at 3000 as the variable cost? So if it is not 3000 we give up? I am always amused at those who deride government while they reap the benefits. Given that only 10% of community college students graduate perhaps your adjunct position could be eliminated to provide savings since the students aren't graduating. Or is that too simple of a solution for a more complex problem?
ThrowingCurves, money may not solve education problems
Read MoreThe $10.4 billion in public education spending includes many items (eg. Teacher Retirement Fund) that are never counted in budgets at the municipal level. Total Board of Education General Fund budgets at the municipal level in CT amount to $6.89 billion (FY 2010-11 adopted) out of $12.06 billion for the total of town General Fund budgets. The $6.89 billion does not include General Fund bonding for school construction (except for Regional School Districts) as well as certain Federal education funding kept separate from the municipal budget.
The MBR's sole purpose is to support the teachers unions and force an increase in spending no matter what; it can be rational only in government. It acts like a jack without a release, always moving up even as enrollments are declining.
When are you all going to wake an realize that the fiscal policies of the last several decades have finally exceeded the ability of the state to support itself. We have already driven most of the manufacturing jobs out of state with taxes, utility costs that are out of sight, and regulation. Spending more money
Read MoreJulie, While one student who leaves a system doesn't mean you can cut a classroom, heat, or even a teacher, how about if you lose 1,700 kids? There are about 1700 students who live in New Haven but who have chosen to attend one of the public charter schools in town. New Haven still gets paid through the ECS formula for those kids PLUS the state pays the charter school a stipend of $9k per kid.
1,700 (kids) x $10k (est. excess cost) = $17 million.
Doesn't it seem to you that
Read MoreDon Goncalves has pointed this out and my numbers may be a little off, but Fairfield has gone from 14000 students to 8000 students but the staff has gone from 800 to 790 so there no oversight or scrutiny at all. And if the high schools in my town cost 18K plus pension and bonding- and supposed exclusive schools like Fairfield Prep and Lauralton are 15K- and we somehow think this is peachy keen then we have bigger problems that we thought. In any event as a 1980 grad in engineering i made 12K and teachers made about
Read MoreJeff, is it that simple? State charter schools get state funding and local charter schools are funded by the district. NH has magnet schools that attract suburban kids. How is that funded? 1700 kids in a district with 44 schools means each school loses 38 students. That is Julie's point, you don't shut down an entire school and save the total cost - the fixed costs are still in place.
Again, this problem is not solvable with a solution that fits on a bumper sticker.
Dave, manufacturing jobs have left the COUNTRY. The U.S. is much more of a financial
Read MoreIf we are talking taxes, then it is interesting to note that although many middle income people are screaming abouth their tax rates, federal taxes are actually pretty low at the present time. For high wage earners, tax rates are at record lows, just about matching the rates in 1929 (which obviously weren't sustainable). For low income earners, the rates are moderate-that is, about 1/2 way between the lowest they have been and the highest. The federal government is also not collecting the taxes they should from large corporations. GE is in the news at the moment because they
Read MoreHere is a benchmark against which to compare Fairfield County public schools:
• The FY 2009 cost per pupil expenditure is $13,340—which ranks 5th when
compared to other local area districts. Per-pupil costs were cut in FY 2010 by $442 to $12,898.
• Over 70 percent of high school seniors took the SAT in 2008. FCPS’ average total SAT score was 1664—an overall improvement of 10 points from 2008 to 2009.
• On the Standards of Learning (SOL) tests, all subgroups improved in English and math performance, with pass rates of 93% in English and 90 %
Read MoreJane, you are suggesting that the comparison of other districts to those in Fairfield County is a valid and meaningful apples to apples comparison!?!?
As a high school student I increased my verbal score by 70 points simply by working a couple practice tests on my own in a book bought for me by my parents. How is that increase a product of my school? You don't think that AP students in Westport getting private tutors or their parents paying for them to go to Sylvan factors into this?
The resources needed in Hartford schools is nothing compared to what's
Read MoreWhy do we tolerat such waste? It is indeed verified, that more money has never equaled better results with public education. More money often produced worse results. See the Kansas City experiment for one example.Limiting discussion to these platitudes precludes having long overdue discussions. How do we determine what the true cost of educating children is? We have no objective metric. We simply accept and add to last year amount with a hope and a prayer for better results. Is this any way to run public education or pay for it? Far too
Read MoreSammy, respectfully, my comparison was not between schools in CT (Hartford vs. Westport), but between two similar counties in two different states that have different regulatory and entitlement climates, and consequently different mixes of public vs. private employees. My observation had more to do with the bubble in public sector employment, which feeds on private sector tax dollars and therefore forces up family fixed costs while producing decreasing marginal returns. As a consequence, people and companies in the private sector who are able to leave, do so. At some point, I fear CT's remaining wage earners will be public sector
Read MoreJane, to be honest I didn't really understand your earlier post. Now you said that you were comparing Fairfield County to a county in some unnamed state. Frankly, I still don't understand the comparison. It isn't clear which numbers you mention are for Fairfield County and which are for the unnamed (but equal) comparison. Also, you don't mention F/R lunch stats, the cost of living stats, average class size stats....there is so much missing.
ThrowingCurves may not understand special education funding.
Schools are permitted and do misdirect special education funds to non-special-ed uses. While one exceptional special needs student can cost over $150,000 per year, this is a very exceptional circumstance having a minimal effect on the district’s budget. However, schools do not pay this amount. The reality is districts receive a major portion of all special-needs expenses. In addition, for these exceptional costs, the federal and state governments reimburse all excess costs of students when the district spends in excess of two and a half
Read MoreWithout passage of this legislation the taxpayer in this state will never have the opportunity to have his property tax lowered. As I understand the current state mandate a towns education budget can never be cut only increased. It means that there is no way an individuals property tax can ever be reduced. Its forcing seniors and other people on fixed incomes to sell their homes and move. Education costs increase along with teachers/administrators salaries, while fixed income property owners are forced out on the streets. Is there something wrong with this picture?
"If the state does not change its demographic trajectory, it faces a bleak future."
A Connecticut Center for Economic Analysis report, "Recovery Stirring, But Will Connecticut be Too Old to Compete?"
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