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State's School Funding Plan Subject of Hearing

Posted on: Tuesday, 11 April 2006, 09:00 CDT

By Donna Porstner, The Stamford Advocate, Conn.

Apr. 11--STAMFORD -- State legislators are expected to get an earful tonight from city residents who believe they are short-changed by the state on education funding.

Stamford received $384 per student in Education Cost Sharing Grant funds this year, compared with the statewide average of $2,857.

The public hearing, hosted by the General Assembly's Education Committee, starts at 7:30 p.m. at the International School at Rogers Magnet at 83 Lockwood Ave.

"This is a huge first step," said State Rep. James Shapiro, D-Stamford. "We've never had the chance before to talk to decision-makers face-to-face."

Shapiro and state Sen. Andrew McDonald, D-Stamford -- the only two members of the Stamford delegation on the Education Committee -- requested a public hearing when they learned others would be held in other cities. Similar hearings have been held in Meriden, Bridgeport, Hartford and Ledyard.

Stamford gets a fraction of the amount received by other large cities because the formula measures wealth by the size of the Grand List. Stamford's $11 billion Grand List is the second-largest in the state, next to Greenwich's.

Bridgeport receives $6,224 per pupil, New Haven $6,463, Waterbury $5,524 and Hartford $7,246.

In Stamford, 60 percent of city tax dollars are spent on public education.

The hearing is a chance for Stamford residents to tell legislators that the formula is unfair and offer suggestions for changing it, Shapiro said.

At previous meetings, participants suggested measuring wealth by the percentage of students receiving free or reduced-price lunch or factoring in the percentage of pupils attending English as a Second Language classes, Shapiro said.

"One of the things we should talk about, and I expect people in Stamford to talk about, is ECS defines wealth almost entirely by property value," Shapiro said. "We have a large number of apartment dwellers . . . we have people in homes worth $700,000 or $800,000 who bought them 30, 40 years ago for $30,000. They are land rich, cash poor."

McDonald said it's important to debunk the myth that all people who live in lower Fairfield County are wealthy. Part of the reason incomes are higher than upstate is because the cost of living is much higher in lower Fairfield County.

The problem, McDonald said, is that all upstate residents see on the evening news from this area is stories such as the slaying of Andrew Kissel in Greenwich, where the victim was found in his mansion.

"They don't show you stories about families with multilingual children receiving free or reduced-price lunch," McDonald said. "Those stories aren't told."

Members of the Board of Education, Board of Finance, Board of Representatives, taxpayers and parents of school-age children are expected to attend.

Mayor Dannel Malloy will not attend because of previous commitments, but plans to have Director of Administration Ben Barnes submit written testimony on his behalf.

Malloy, who is seeking the Democratic nomination to run against Gov. M. Jodi Rell in November, is scheduled to be campaigning upstate all evening. He is participating in a debate sponsored by the Legislature's Latino and Puerto Rican Affairs Commission at 6 p.m. followed by a meeting with the Portland Democratic Town Committee at 8 p.m.

Malloy said legislators should be familiar with his position on ECS funding, since he has been at the forefront of the debate on how state money for public education is allocated.

Stamford is one of a half-dozen cities in the Connecticut Coalition for Justice in Education Funding that are suing the state over the way it doles out education funds. The families of 15 students are also part of the lawsuit. The lawsuit, filed in November, claims the ECS grants are unfair, irrational and have been under-funded since they were created in 1988.

"It's not as if my position is not well-known," Malloy said. "This is really an opportunity for the public to be heard."

The mayor said his office has been receiving phone calls from residents inquiring about tonight's hearing and he expects it will be well-attended.

But he's not sure many legislators will attend.

"As of last week, it did not appear a good number of committee members are going to make the trek down here," Malloy said.

McDonald said it could be a problem if the legislative session that starts at noon tomorrow does not end by 5 p.m.

Shapiro said he expects at least one-third of his fellow committee members to show up.

"We'll probably have at least one-third to one-half of the members, which is a good number," he said. "We often don't get that many at the Capitol."

Rell appointed a task force, the Governor's Commission on Education Finance, to study the ECS formula.

The commission does not expect it to produce a report until next year.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Stamford Advocate, Conn.

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Source: The Stamford Advocate, Stamford, Conn.

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