Ed Board Advocate To State: Local Schools Need More $

There’s one thing the state could do that would trump any other support they might give to improve public school education across Connecticut. 

And that is: increase funding.

That’s according to Patrice McCarthy, who is the executive director of the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education (CABE). McCarthy recently joined the Municipal Voice, a collaboration of the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities and WNHH 103.5FM, to discuss the ongoing concerns for our public schools — including what the state can be doing to help.

McCarthy stressed the importance of state government increasing funding for public education.

Whether by removing the caps on grants like education cost sharing or simply giving more funds to boards of education is the best solution, McCarthy said that ​“we definitely need more state support.” 

One topic of concern that has been present for the past three years is the air quality in public school buildings. 

While Covid-19 did not create these poor conditions, it did highlight the need for improvements. Schools that are 70 years old don’t have the same infrastructure as newer buildings and may not have air conditioning or they may have faulty windows. Even newer buildings have maintenance costs associated with HVAC systems that are difficult to maintain. 

The state did recently announce a one-time grant fund of $150 million dollars to help schools with repairing or maintaining these systems. But ultimately, these funds are finite and McCarthy cited a $30 million bill for one medium-sized suburban district to bring their HVAC system into the 21st century. 

“There will need to be ongoing appropriations,” she said. ​“And districts need time to do studies for appropriate changes.” 

Recently CABE joined with CCM and the Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents (CAPSS) to urge the administration to allow municipalities to use federal funds like those from ARPA to match for the state grant, as well as delaying the application for these funds, which are set to expire in 2025. 

McCarthy noted that some departments can be shared across the town and school system, but in the future they have to ask if there are additional opportunities to share programs in a more cost-efficient manner.

Still, for McCarthy, ​“funding is always the top of the list.”