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Advisors urge indexing Connecticut’s school foundation to inflation; estimate $134.4M first-year cost
Summary
Experts from the Connecticut School Finance Project recommended tying the Education Cost Sharing (ECS) foundation amount to the state's spending-cap inflation metric to restore purchasing power; presenters estimated a roughly $12,210 foundation and a $134.4 million first-year cost under current projections.
Fran, co-chair of the subcommittee on education funding, convened members and outside experts to discuss short-term and structural changes to Connecticut’s Education Cost Sharing formula.
Patrick of the School and State Finance Project said the group’s first priority is to update the ECS foundation amount and to put in place a durable indexing mechanism tied to the state’s spending-cap inflation metric. “We are advocating for tying that foundation amount to the rate of inflation that is used in the spending cap,” he said, noting that next year’s adjustment would be roughly 6 percent under current projections.
The presentation laid out the rationale: the current foundation figure ($11,525) is more than a decade old and does not reflect 40 percent cumulative inflation since its last meaningful update. Applying the spending-cap adjustment would increase the foundation to about $12,210 and, according to presenters’ estimates, cost the state approximately $134,400,000 in the first year. Presenters emphasized that indexing creates a mechanism for predictable annual adjustments; a separate, larger “catch-up” payment would add to initial costs.
Members pressed for implementation details and fiscal trade-offs. Alex suggested revisiting statutory spending-cap guardrails, saying changes to the cap could alter available options for funding education. Kate and others raised concerns about how catch-up indexing would move Connecticut within national comparisons of state versus local shares of school funding.
The subcommittee discussed practical constraints for this short session: several members noted HB 5002 (House) and SB 7 (Senate) as incoming vehicles for education finance changes but warned that an off-year budget cycle could limit large near-term appropriations. Fran asked members and outside experts to submit bullet-point recommendations by Feb. 24 for inclusion in a draft response ahead of the next meeting, tentatively March 10.
The proposal to index the ECS foundation and the fiscal estimate are technical recommendations presented for policy deliberation; no formal vote or policy adoption occurred at the meeting.
