Senator Gordon Responds to Governor’s ECS Funding Proposal, Calls for Sustainable Increases, Cites His Own Leadership Work

HARTFORD, CT – State Senator Jeff Gordon (R-Woodstock) released the following statement in response to the Governor’s recent announcement regarding education funding and the Education Cost Sharing (ECS) formula:

“I have been a long-time advocate for increased ECS funding, and I have continued to step up to work on it for our communities. Over the past several years, I have taken concrete action on this issue. I helped stop around $7 million in proposed education funding cuts to towns in our district. I also successfully fought to prevent changes to Alliance District designations that could have negatively impacted communities like Vernon and Thompson. These efforts protected critical funding for our schools and our students.

This year’s budget proposals did not do much to increase ECS funding. Although I appreciate the Governor now acting on proposals I have put forward to increase support for our public schools, it is critical that we ensure that any changes to the ECS formula are both meaningful and sustainable.

We do not need a blue-ribbon task force to tell us what we already know: our public schools need more state support, property taxpayers need relief, and the crazy ECS formula that shortchanges rural towns needs to be fixed. I hear this from many stakeholders on the issue. I hear this from constituents and town officials. I listen. I have been working with others to move things forward. This year there is political momentum in the legislature. If a task force could help break the political log jam around the ECS formula, which pits small towns against cities and suburbs, then that could be of help.

The base ECS funding is currently set at $11,525 and has not been increased since 2013. My proposal (Senate Bill 34) would increase that significantly to $16,075 to catch up with inflation and the rise in costs for public school districts. This proposal was incorporated into a broader Education Committee bill. This would bring in a lot of additional money to our towns. It is important that Governor Lamont’s proposal includes my proposal to tie annual ECS funding to the Consumer Price Index to reflect the continued inflationary costs school districts face.

Ensuring that our schools are properly funded is not just an education issue, it is a major affordability issue for hard-working people, their families, seniors, and businesses across our state. Without increased and reliable state support for education, the burden falls more and more on local property taxpayers. Connecticut is already facing an affordability crisis, and we cannot continue to balance education funding on the backs of our towns and taxpayers.

One-time funding efforts for this fiscal year may provide temporary help, but do not solve the long-term challenges facing our schools or our towns. We need a commitment to consistent, predictable funding that keeps pace with real costs and inflation.
This is work I have been involved with and will continue to work on. I remain committed to fighting for better and more fair funding of ECS, for our students, for our schools, and for the taxpayers who support them. Until we get this right, I will not stop pushing for the changes our communities need.”

Senator Gordon continues to work with colleagues, local leaders, and stakeholders to advance policies that strengthen public education while addressing Connecticut’s affordability crisis.

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