Governor Ned Lamont signed an executive order creating a blue-ribbon commission to study Connecticut’s K-12 education funding system on Thursday.
The commission is headed by Lamont’s Deputy Chief of Staff, Natalie Wagner, and Education Commissioner Charlene Russell-Tucker.
The move comes as lawmakers consider legislation to provide short-term relief to school districts this year.
He said the goal is to develop a strategic plan to reform ECS – the state’s education cost-sharing formula – and other streams of funding and submit a report next year.
“It builds on the investments we’ve made in K-12 and the ECS formula over the last. We are up by about a $445 million increase since then,” Lamont said.
In the meantime, Lamont is considering using more than $100 million from his $500 million contingency fund to boost education funding this year.
“We are working on those numbers right now. Whatever is going to be real and sustainable and make a difference for our towns,” he said.
Education funding advocates welcome the governor’s commission but say it should not be treated as a hall pass to not take sustainable legislative action to reform the state’s ECS formula this year.
Senate Democrats say that’s still a priority for them, with less than three weeks left in this year’s legislative session.
