Branford Educators Seek Fair Share of Public School Funds

Hartford— Branford’s top education leaders went to the State Capitol last week seeking ways to fix an inequitable educational funding system that has severely short-changed the town.

Lonnie Reed, the chairman of RTM education committee, was the moving force in setting up a meeting with State Senator Ed Meyer, who in turn, introduced Reed and her group to a dozen or more state legislators, some of whom find their own towns in the same bind as Branford.

The fact-finding mission, pictured above, included Reed, Frank Carrano, the president of the Branford Board of Education, Bob Babcock, president of the Branford Education Foundation and David Baker, a member of Reed’s committee. Cheryl Morris, the First Selectwoman and John Smith, the RTM​’s majority leader tagged along at the last minute. BOE members John Prins and Marie Watson came later in the day.Beginning in the 1970’s, courts across the nation began to examine how cities and suburbs funded public school education. In state after state, school funding was found to be unequal and declared unconstitutional. ​“Horton vs. Meskill,” decided in 1977, is the landmark lawsuit that changed how Connecticut distributes education aid to cities and towns. Horton II, decided in 1985, sought fifty percent funding from the state in order to remedy funding disparities among towns. The Supreme Court turned that down.Over the years, the legislature has tweaked and re-tweaked its education cost formula, so that some towns now face the same educational disparity in funding that prompted Horton thirty years ago. Not surprisingly, the same ECS formula is now back in Superior court, the subject of a major state lawsuit that seeks to change the Horton distribution. Branford is one of the towns seeking redress.About 43 of the state’s 169 towns know they are victims of this broken financing formula that perpetuates itself year after year, Meyer said. The formula has never been fully funded. It is based on a town’s grand list, a record of all taxable and tax-exempt property. Shoreline towns are penalized because of, well, the shoreline, but that has little to do with the true wealth of the population or the ability of a shoreline resident to pay steep property taxes.It has become a disgraceful system that legislators seem unwilling to fix perhaps because the chairs of several key legislative committees represent cities and they are determined to send as many educational dollars back to them without regard to how towns fare. The cities — -Bridgeport, Hartford and New Haven receive upwards of $6,000 in state funds per year (Hartford is up to $7,245) while Branford gets a measly $349.00 per pupil. Property taxes make up the difference, with home owners forced to foot the bill for the remaining $10,151. per child per year.Senator Meyer, who has tried for the past three years to increase the state’s contribution to a minimum $1,000 per pupil, says the problem is ​“they view Branford and the other towns as gold coast towns. We are not gold coast towns.” The reason for this misconception is that prices for houses along the shoreline soared during the 2002 revaluation. What is forgotten is how many homeowners were forced to sell because they could not afford the astronomically high property taxes.Meanwhile, towns like Branford are getting a pittance given what they are sending the state, Meyer said.According to figures for 2005-06, Branford sent Hartford $37.3 million in income taxes. Its 1,601 businesses generated $32,564,741 in sales and use taxes for Hartford. Meyer said that for fiscal 2006-07 Branford got back in state, federal and gambling money for education, roads and other expenses, a measly $2.267 million, from which the town received that $349 per pupil.This year Governor M. Jodi Rell has sought change, making education reform her top priority, but the Democratic leadership has been stubborn and largely unresponsive. Under Rell’s proposal, Branford would do far better than it would under the Democrats plan, a fact Meyer acknowledges with sadness.Governor Rell wants to increase the amount the towns receive for education.The Democrats, who control the legislature, appear more interested in health care than in education this year. Gov Rell wants a property tax cap, and she is right in seeking one. Forty-three states have imposed some sort of limit on property taxes. For two hours, Reed, Carrano and the others buttonholed state senators outside the caucus room and inside the then empty Senate chamber. They had only a few minutes. At one point Meyer, Carrano and Reed met briefly with State Senator Andrew Maynard, (left) who represents the 18th District in the area of Stonington. He told them he was familiar with the serious disparity in funding because one or two of his towns face the same problem every year.“I chair the Education committee of the RTM,” Reed said. ​“And this formula is flawed. We need to try to get $1,000 per child. We have to try to make it happen.” Maynard agreed with Reed and Meyer that the ECS formula ​“is really the problem.” After a few minutes of discussion, and a moment for a snapshot, Maynard said to them both: ​“Let’s work together.” Several other legislators, including Senator Bob Duff of Norwalk, agreed to help form a coalition in which the towns do not try to take money that is allocated for the cities but seek additional funding to make the formula more equitable.“We are misperceived; we are much more diversified than you think,” Reed told one of the senators. Carrano told another senator that part of the problem is that the ECS formula has never been fully funded. Cheryl Morris said the formula was inequitable and that the towns needed their rightful share.In general the response from Senators was positive. The Assembly side needed more prodding. Rep. Peter Panaroni pressed the idea for coalitions to form, but seemed to offer not much more. Pat Widlitz, now the Assistant Majority Whip, noted that funding for nursing homes, health care and energy had yet to be decided. From her point of view, education funding was not her number 1 priority though she conceded the ECS formula ​“was archaic.”Mrs. Morris was extremely gracious to the African-American legislators she met up with in the hallway or caucus areas. She smiled, introduced herself, extended her hand and invoked her husband, Bruce Morris, once one of the state’s most powerful black leaders and still a formidable behind-the-scenes player.“Do you know Bruce Morris of New Haven,” Mrs. Morris asked of each one. They smiled and said they did. ​“I’m his wife,” she said proudly ​“and I am the First Selectwoman of Branford.” Then they would chat briefly.Reed said the group’s mission was to explain the truth behind the town’s image. She said that a report from the University of Connecticut Center for Population Research reclassified Branford from suburb to ​“urban periphery,” noting that over the last ten years, Branford’s poverty rate has increased from 3.5 percent to 4.1 percent, placing Branford below the median for the state ​“They need to know we have trailer parks in Branford and a number of kids with autism in the schools and we have all those unfunded mandates, too. We have gotten screwed and what we need for starters is a minimum $1,000 per kid. We don’t need double digit mill rates. We need to have a conversation about this,” she told the Eagle.At days end, Meyer said a number of his colleagues were impressed with the group’s message, and they were going to seek ways to work together. Reed, who has worked on the Broadwater issue and is good at building coalitions across party lines, said she would seek support among legislators connected to small towns.One of the senators the group wanted to meet was Tom Gaffey of Meriden, a city of 60,000. He has chaired the Senate’s education committee for years and while he touts change, he routinely manages to keep certain towns from getting their fair share of the ECS dollar. The group hopes to meet with him next week. They want to tell him that towns have kids who go to public schools too. ###