Council Wants More State Funds for Norwalk Schools

The crisis over the Norwalk Public Schools' budget is leading one Common Council member to ask the state for more money. Doug Hempstead says the school district does not receive its fair share of state funding, and he has drafted a resolution that he will put forth at Tuesday's Common Council meeting.

"The Norwalk Common Council respectfully requests, on behalf of the citizens of Norwalk, that Connecticut Education Cost Sharing Grants be reviewed and appropriately revised to reflect recent changes in sociological, economic and demographic information; and adjusted favorably to account for such changes," the draft resolution says.

"The purpose of the resolution is to bring about awareness about how Norwalk has been shortchanged," says Hempstead. "We want to send our state and legislative bodies a message and get them on board to help fix the situation."

The Education Cost Sharing Grant is money from the state to an individual school district with the purpose of acting as an "equalization aid program." According to Hempstead, the grants are devised through a "complicated" formula that puts emphasis on a district's property values, as opposed to relative poverty, English proficiency and test scores.

Norwalk is receiving less and less money from the state, despite its rising free and reduced lunch rates and number of students from non-English households, says Hempstead. His resolution states, "When compared with other Connecticut municipalities of similar sociological composition, the ECS grant allocation to the City of Norwalk is substantially smaller."

According to the resolution's data, Norwalk receives 11 percent of its revenue from the state, compared with Danbury, which receives 69 percent of its revenue from ECS grants.

"We have a governor who was the mayor of Stamford, so he understands the situation," Hempstead says of Gov. Dannel Malloy, who has been critical of the ECS formula. Hempstead also acknowledges the state's troubled financial situation. "I'm not saying fund it more, I'm saying distribute what is in the pot fairly."

Do you think Norwalk schools are shortchanged by the state?

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