Thursday, July 20, 2006
Citizens Group Takes on Public Education Funding
Responding to the rising challenges of paying for public education, the Citizens Network of the Capitol Region, Inc. hosted a community conversation on Thursday,
Picking up only 38.5% of the bill, no state pays a lesser share than Connecticut when it comes to state funding for public education. In a typical Connecticut town, more than 60% of the costs of public education are paid for through local property taxes. For a variety of reasons that go beyond the usual complaints about salaries, benefits and bloated bureaucracies, public education costs are our towns’ largest and fasting growing expenses. Yet Connecticut towns have no choice but to fund them mostly through our slowest growing source of revenue – the property tax.
Public education in Connecticut cannot continue down this path. We must take action now to ensure suitable and effective financing that will give our children excellence in education. By doing so, we will in turn provide a healthier and more stable economy for Connecticut in the future.
“Finding a better, fairer way to finance public education is critical for the future of our children and Connecticut’s economy,” states Courtney Bourns, President of the Citizens Network of the Capitol Region, Inc. “Undue reliance on local property taxes to fund education is causing a host of severe, rapidly growing and intensified problems for our communities. Major concerns include budget compromises that do not serve our children well, tension between older residents and younger families, and pressure to increase local property tax bases by competing with other municipalities for both residential and commercial growth. The result is sprawl and ill-conceived, costly developments that strain town infrastructures.”
These challenges, possible solutions and steps everyday citizens can take to advance the debate and catalyze meaningful change will be the basis of the June 8th community conversation – a modern-day twist on the traditional New England town meeting.
A panel facilitated the meeting, including Lyle Wray, Ph.D., Executive Director of the Capitol Region Council of Governments, who will lead the interactive discussion and present the Citizens Network report entitled “Fair Funding: Let’s Find a Better Way to Finance Local Public Education in Connecticut.” The full report is available online at http://www.citizensnetwork.info/CommitteeReport.pdf, and is the product of a Citizens Network study group composed of 45 citizens from 25 towns across the region. (For the report summary, see http://www.citizensnetwork.info/ReportSummary.pdf.)
Co-sponsors of the forum include the League of Women Voters of Greater Hartford, West Hartford Town Council, West Hartford Board of Education, West Hartford Public Library, West Hartford Parent-Teacher Council, and the Interfaith Coalition for Equity and Justice.
