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FAIRFIELD COUNTY, Conn. More than $50 million in additional funding would be provided to school districts across Connecticut including large percentage increases for Stamford and Norwalk under a revised Education Cost Sharing formula proposed Wednesday by Gov. Dannel Malloy.
But Fairfield County legislators, educators and school board leaders said some of the regions lowest-performing poverty-ridden schools in Norwalk and Stamford would still not be getting nearly as much funding as other districts across the state of comparable size and with less need.
What a bunch of nonsense, what a bunch of hype. I am tired of Norwalk being treated like a stepchild. Its an insult, its disgusting and grossly deceptive, said Jack Chiaramonte, chairman of the Norwalk Board of Education, who blasted the revised formula as leaving Norwalk and Stamford with just a bunch of crumbs yet again."
This a pathetic joke. If you compare Norwalk and Stamford to other schools districts with far fewer students who receive a lot more ECS funding, you can see this is just another example of our two cities being treated like the stepchild, he said.
While Malloy indicated Wednesday that additional ECS funds the state's major public education source would be targeted for the 30 lowest-performing districts, education leaders and lawmakers in Norwalk and Stamford said the new formula is deceptive. It shows big percentage increases that wont translate into much extra funding because of high pupil populations.
For example in Stamford, which has 15,127 students, with an overall 11.53 percent ECS funding increase, the actual amount would be still less than $9 million. In Norwalk, which has a student population of 11,165, with a percentage increase of 5.72 percent, the ECS funding would only be about $10.6 million.
Those amounts are far less than the more than $42 million being earmarked for cities like West Haven, said Chiaramonte.
State Rep. Gail Lavielle, R-Wilton, whose district also includes part of Norwalk and who is a member of the legislatures Education Committee, agreed that even with the revised formula, ECS funding would not be nearly enough in Norwalk and Stamford.
I am very disappointed that its not more in Norwalk, Lavielle said. I would like to change the formula. And I intend to bring this up are our first Education Committee meeting on Friday in Hartford.
However, Stamford Interim Superintendent of Schools Winifred Hamilton, praised Malloy for recognizing the need to earmark increased ECS funding in urban centers.
Weve been fighting for years to get more ECS funding, and any formula that provides us with additional funding for at-risk schools is going to help, Hamilton said. I know that when Gov. Malloy was mayor of Stamford he learned how important it to increase ECS funding in urban school districts.
Under Malloy's plan, 130 towns and cities would see their education cost-sharing grants increase during the next fiscal year, while 39 towns would have their grants from the state remain the same. No town would receive less aid in 2012-13 than it now receives.
It is critical that we get to the schools that are really struggling and do it quickly, said Malloy. No one is losing ECS funding which sends a clear signal to our children that we will make the investment and deliver on our promise of high-quality education for every student in Connecticut.
Malloys plan calls for an increase in the amount budgeted per child in the formula from $9,867 to $12,000.
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