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WHAT IS ECS?
ECS, Educational Cost Sharing, provides the bulk
of state education aid to towns. It employs a
formula based on a standard amount per pupil
(the Foundation), adjusted for each town’s
property wealth, resident income, and student
characteristics. Over time the formula has been
manipulated for both fiscal and political reasons,
never operating as originally designed, rarely
updated to reflect actual education costs, never
fully funded.
WHAT WAS THE ECS CAP?
The ECS cap was in effect from the early ‘90’s
through fiscal year '07. Though it varied in size
and scope from one budget cycle to the next, the cap
basically limited the amount by which a town’s
ECS grant could rise year to year, regardless of
changes in need as measured by the formula.
Conversely, if a town’s formula aid decreased, a stoploss provision prevented its grant from
dropping.
WHAT’S HAPPENED LATELY?
In late 2005 the CT Coalition for Justice in
Education Funding filed suit against the state,
alleging that the way it funds education violates
the right under the CT constitution to a suitable
and substantially equal public education. (See
www.ccjef.org.) In early 2006 the governor
convened a Commission on Education Finance,
which a year later recommended major revisions to
the ECS formula. A version of these revisions
became law in mid-2007, most notably a large
increase in the Foundation. This revised ECS
formula would generate a $900 million increase
in the overall grant for 2008 if it were fully
funded, but the state chose instead to phase
in only 17% of the increase in 2008 and just an
additional 6% in 2009. In a variation on the
stoploss idea, every town is guaranteed a minimum
increase of 4.4% each year, and that 4.4% minimum
increase is all that was funded for 2009.
WHAT DOES ECS COST?
ECS is the most expensive state program in
Connecticut, totaling over $1.8 billion for
2008—fully funded it would cost $2.7 billion.
But Connecticut contributes a lower percentage to
K-12 public education than the vast majority of
states, about 40% in recent years, and the
state’s contribution to total education spending has
never attained the 50/50 state/local cost share goal
set years ago by the CT Board of Education when ECS
was launched.
WHAT IS WEST HARTFORD’S SITUATION?
The ECS grant historically has covered less than 10%
of West Hartford’s education costs. This year, it
contributes $15.4 million (13%) of our $122
million gross budget and is up 35% from 2007’s $11.4
million allocation.
In years past, the ECS cap had a severe effect
on
West Hartford because it did not allow increases in
aid to keep pace with the town’s changing
demographics. From FY ’97 through ‘07 it reduced
West Hartford’s ECS grants by a total of $45 million,
making the town one of the 10 most hurt by the ECS
cap. And now, because of the phase-in, West
Hartford’s $15 million grant is $20 million below
the $35 million we would receive if ECS were fully
funded. Among the 22 towns underfunded by $10
million or more this year, our funding percentage
(44%) is the second lowest, and our loss to
underfunding since ’97 now totals nearly $65
million. Next year, unless the state raises and
funds the
phase-in percentage, that shortfall could rise
another $19 million to over $83 million.
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