Mona Mahadevan photo
City teachers union prez Leslie Blatteau (right) and other protesters lead school-funding sit-in at guv's office in May.
(Updated with comments from the superintendent and the governor’s office) Teacher layoffs and program cuts to the city’s public school district are now “unavoidable,” Mayor Justin Elicker said Wednesday in light of a newly passed state budget. He put the blame on Gov. Ned Lamont.
Elicker offered that critique in a comment provided to the Independent in response to the state legislature’s approval of the new $55.8 billion, two-year budget.
He said the budget doesn’t include enough money to mitigate New Haven Public Schools’ (NHPS) expected multi-million-dollar deficit.
And he argued that the governor’s “obsession with the state’s ‘fiscal guardrails’ and belief that urban school districts don’t need additional funding is causing real harm to our students in New Haven and students across the state.”
The state House of Representatives and state Senate approved that funding package in separate votes on Tuesday, thereby sending the budget to the governor, who is expected to sign it into law. If approved, the biennium budget would take effect July 1.
In a press release sent out at 11:57 p.m. Tuesday, New Haven State Sens. Martin Looney and Gary Winfield celebrated the two-year budget for including a total of $637 million in state aid for New Haven.
“This budget delivers unprecedented support for New Haven, ensuring our city has the resources it needs to thrive,” Looney is quoted as saying in the release. “From funding PILOT to making major investments in education, infrastructure, and core municipal services, this funding reflects our deep commitment to equity and economic stability for our city and its residents.”
Elicker praised New Haven’s delegation for being “fierce advocates” for the city and for delivering “several important local wins.” But, he made clear on Wednesday, the funding levels in the state budget leave New Haven’s school district in the lurch.
“As a result, in the coming weeks, like other municipalities and school districts across the state, New Haven will have to make difficult decisions and painful choices,” Elicker said, “as New Haven Public Schools faces a deficit of $16.5 million dollars — and, regrettably, staff reductions and program cuts will be unavoidable.”
Over the past few months, Supt. Madeline Negrón has said that 129 school employees — primarily teachers, paraeducators, librarians, and math and reading coaches — may be laid off if the district’s expected $16.5 million shortfall next fiscal year is not closed, even with the alders’ recent approval of a $5 million local increase to the city schools budget.
Update: On Wednesday, Negrón confirmed that layoffs are coming, though she did not specify how many. “We have no choice but to pursue layoffs,” she said. “91% of our general fund costs are in personnel, out-of-district tuition, transportation, or utilities. Almost all of our staff are part of collective bargaining agreements with wage increases slated for next year. At this time, we have little ability to limit expenditures in out-of-district tuition, transportation, or utilities.”
Negrón said that, in the next few weeks, the district will “will work to identify how many and who specifically will be affected by staffing reductions.” She added that central office will eliminate “several needed but vacant positions including a Board of Education labor attorney, a science resource center program manager, a security supervisor, and three administrative assistant positions.” And she said that all “personnel reductions” will be effective with the new fiscal year, which starts July 1.
The mayor, superintendent, and city teachers and students and other public education advocates have spent all legislative session traveling to Hartford and pressing for state government to significantly increase its funding to city school districts.
On Wednesday, city spokesperson Lenny Speiller told the Independent that New Haven will receive around a $1.65 million increase in funds under this budget through the Education Cost Sharing (ECS) formula grant, which is the primary mechanism the state uses for funding municipal public education.
New Haven’s estimated ECS-Non-Alliance funding would stay the same at $142,509,525, while the city’s ECS-Alliance funding could increase from this year’s $26,729,271 to $28,380,517 for each of the next two years. (Speiller stressed that these figures are all estimates and preliminary, and that the final amounts for these grants from the state Department of Education will depend on enrollment and demographics.)
Elicker, a fellow Democrat and longtime ally and supporter of Lamont, was direct in his critique of the governor for being responsible for this schools-funding shortcoming.
“Governor Lamont continues to say the state is providing ‘historic levels of support’ for education,” Elicker said. “However, the only thing ‘historic’ about the state’s K to 12 education funding is the ongoing record Connecticut is setting for not increasing the state’s allocation level of per student funding, which hasn’t increased from its stagnant amount of $11,525 since 2013. It is irresponsible for the state to continue to fund public schools at the same per pupil level as it did over a decade ago.”
He added that only 36 percent of education funding in Connecticut comes from the state, “the sixth least of any state, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.”
And he said that Connecticut is “woefully behind other states when it comes to state education funding and equitably funding its highest needs students and school districts. Connecticut has among of the highest proficiency gaps between white students and students of color in the nation, according to the Nation’s Report Card.
“Public school families, teachers, superintendents, and mayors from across the state have made it abundantly clear that we are facing a funding crisis in public education. Disappointingly, that message was not heard by Governor Lamont this legislative session.”
Update: In response to a request for comment for this story, Lamont spokesperson Rob Blanchard said, “We agree with Senators Looney and Winfield — this biennium budget delivers unprecedented support for New Haven that ensures it has the resources it needs to thrive. Despite New Haven student enrollment decreasing by roughly 9%, this budget increased per-pupil ECS funding by nearly 18%. Additionally, the Governor will sign a budget that makes economic investments in New Haven, funds PILOT, provides significant municipal aid and infrastructure upgrades. We’re proud to bring meaningful resources to the community while also ensuring working families see some tax relief.”
What else is in the state budget?
Click here to read a full breakdown by the CT Mirror’s ace budget wonk Keith Phaneuf.
According to Looney’s and Winfield’s press release, New Haven is slated to receive a total of $637 million in state aid over the course of this two-year budget.
They said that represents an increase of $17,844,708 in Fiscal Year 26 and $18,378,077 in Fiscal Year 27, totaling $318,689,043 in year one and $319,222,412 in year two.
The city’s two state senators — Looney is also the president pro tem of the state senate — provided the following list of specific aid amounts en route to New Haven:
• $101,078,558 in Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) in each year of the budget
• $4,045,204 each year in motor vehicle reimbursement rates
• $19,421,822 each year from the Supplemental Revenue Sharing Grant
• $5,503,352 from the Mashantucket Pequot & Mohegan Fund Grant
• $1,710,403 in each year for Town Aid Road (TAR)
• $2,537,896 in Local Capital Improvements (LoCIP) each year
• $10,214,643 in Municipal Grants-in-Aid each year, an increase of $8 million
• $170,824,330 in Education Cost Sharing (ECS) each year
• $2,852,835 and $3,386,204 in Adult Education for FY 26 and FY 27, respectively
“Throughout the state budget process, members of the NHPS community have advocated for the very real needs of our students,” Negrón concluded in her Wednesday statement. “We are grateful to our teachers and students for using their voices and to all the staff and families who wrote or called our representatives to let them know what our students deserve. We pledge to continue our efforts to improve the funding streams on which this community depends.”