Fixing the Education Cost Sharing Grant: Some Simple First Steps
By: Orlando J. Rodriguez, Senior Policy Fellow for Connecticut Voices for Children
To his credit, Governor Malloy has asked the Education Cost Sharing (ECS) Task Force to advance “a bold agenda for school finance reform.” While a comprehensive review of education funding is important to address potential shortcomings in the ECS formula, there are simple and common sense reforms that can be implemented in the short term to better match state funding to local needs and ensure that local education dollars are spent on their intended purpose.
What is the ECS Task Force?
The Education Cost Sharing (ECS) Task Force was created in legislation that passed during the 2011 Legislative Session. Over the last few months, the ECS Task Force has been studying how Connecticut distributes education grant funds across the state. The current formula is more than twenty years old, and has, by all admissions, become too complicated. The ECS Task Force's charge is to develop recommendations on ways to change how education funding is allocated to each municipality.
The ECS Task Force members have spent the last few months learning about the ECS formula and all of the changes, additions and compromises that have been made to it over time. Under