Education Funding, Reforms Among Leading Legislative Priorities

by Hugh McQuaid

January 14 @ 9:35 am

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Legislative leaders from the House and Senate signaled Monday their intent to bolster funding for Connecticut schools, assist municipalities with the growing need for special education services, while enacting reforms to ensure state dollars are spent in Connecticut classrooms.

Leaders of the Democratic majorities in both legislative chambers offered a glimpse of their top priorities during a rare joint news conference in the Legislative Office Building. School funding — particularly support for special education services — represented a leading priority for both.

“We all know that we need to do all that we can to increase the resources for our entire education system,” Senate President Martin Looney said. “We need to work on preparation for quality preschool and daycare, for our K-12 system, for higher ed and for special ed. So there will be a focus on education throughout the entire spectrum of age from childhood into early adulthood and college graduation.”

Looney was joined by House Speaker Matt Ritter, the majority leaders of the House and Senate, as well as the co-chairs of legislative panels education and special education. The event signaled consensus between the two chambers, which often have distinct priorities.

Connecticut has made consistent and deliberate strides to increase its support of education over the last several years. State budgets adopted by the General Assembly have boosted funding for education by a total of $364 million since fiscal year 2023. The legislature supplemented this support with an additional $150 million dedicated to Education Cost Sharing Grants.

Lawmakers said they would seek to build on that progress during this year’s session by continuing to bolster funding for Connecticut schools. However, those investments will be paired with reforms to enhance state oversight of boards of education and improve transparency in how education dollars are allocated and spent, legislators said.

“We’re going to enact reforms to ensure that these dollars are spent in the classroom on the children directly,” said Sen. Doug McCrory, a Hartford Democrat who co-chairs the Education Committee, “on the children — our resources should be directed towards the children, whose families are looking for a quality education.”

The Monday press conference followed the session’s first meeting of the Education Committee, where lawmakers raised legislative concepts including Senate Bill 1, a priority bill that will eventually contain many of the ideas discussed at the news conference.

The growing need for special education services will be a primary focus, leaders said.

Senator Doug McCory, D-Hartford, discusses education policy during Jan. 13, 2025, press conference on legislative priorities. Credit: Joe Hamann / Senate Democrats

 

Special education programs are essential but costly, placing a significant financial strain on municipalities. The enrollment of a student with special needs can create unexpected challenges for local budgets.

The state helps to offset the cost of special education services, in part, through an initiative called Excess Cost Grants. These grants are designed to reimburse towns and cities for special education costs when costs associated with a special needs student exceeds 4.5 times the district’s per-pupil expenditures.

In 2022, the legislature amended the Excess Cost Grant program to create a tiered reimbursement structure to ensure that the state’s poorest municipalities were given funding priority. Since then, state budgets have increased funding for the grants by $50 million over the last two fiscal years.

On Monday, legislators said those efforts had not been enough to keep pace with the rapid increase in the need for additional special education funding experienced by Connecticut towns and cities. From fiscal year 2022 to fiscal year 2023, the estimated cost of fully funding the Excess Cost Sharing Grant program surged from $175.7 million to $203.8 million, according to legislative estimates. That number climbed to $255.1 million in fiscal year 2024.

“At some point there’s a moral obligation in the state of Connecticut,” Ritter said. “We need to help towns, also to support these families so they’re not forum shopping from town to town on where they can get the best services, when they’re already dealing with the fact that they have a child going through, probably, some serious intellectual and physical disabilities and their struggle to get a public education.”

Violent Crime Dropped in Connecticut’s Five Largest Cities in 2024

By Lawrence Cook

January 13 @ 4:15 pm

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Number of Violent Crime Incidents in Connecticut, 1986-2023. Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)

 

Connecticut continues to be among the safest states in America, according to new data from the National Incident-Based Reporting System, which found that violent crime and a variety of other crimes dropped in Connecticut’s five largest cities from 2023 to 2024.

While violent crime continues to trouble many Republican-led states with less stringent gun laws, FBI statistics indicate that Connecticut has been among the top-three safest states in the country for several years now, with violent crime rates substantially lower than the rest of America, and even lower than many New England states.

According to data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, violent crime in America decreased overall by 3% from 2022 to 2023. Incidents of murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and larceny all dropped.

In Connecticut, violent crimes like murder, assault, kidnaping, and statutory rape all declined from 2022 to 2023, while larency, burglary, robbery, forgery and arson also declined. Over the past few years, Connecticut has consistently ranked as one of the top three or four safest states in America when comparing violent crimes per capita to other states.

Now, according to new data from the most recent data available from the NIBRS, we can see that violent crime and many other offenses dropped in Connecticut’s five largest cities between 2023 to 2024.

According to the NIBRS – which collects real-time crime data from local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies – Bridgeport, Stamford, New Haven, Hartford and Waterbury all saw significantly less violent crime in 2024 — and some types of other crimes, too — than they did compared to 2023.

In Connecticut’s largest city of Bridgeport, murder, manslaughter, kidnapping, rape, aggravated assault, burglary, forgery, welfare fraud, identity theft, robbery, shoplifting, and the theft of motor vehicle parts were all lower in 2024 than they were in 2023.

In Connecticut’s second-largest city of Stamford – where overall crime dropped 14% in 2024 compared to 2023 – murder, aggravated assault, simple assault, vandalism, ATM fraud, identity theft, robbery, shoplifting, and thefts from motor vehicles were all down compared to 2023.

In New Haven, homicide, robbery, motor vehicle theft, larceny and weapons violations all declined over 2023. According to a Tuesday report by the New Haven Independent, Mayor Justin Elicker highlighted the progress at a recent press conference.

“I would say big picture, we should feel proud because we have made a lot of progress, and it is not time for us to celebrate because we have a lot more work to do,” Elicker said, according to the Independent.

In Hartford, where overall crime dropped 1 percent, murders were down 37% compared to 2023, rape was down 25%, burglary decreased 26%, and auto theft was down 8%.

And in Waterbury, crime was down 13.5% overall in 2024 compared to 2023, including drops in murder, kidnapping, aggravated assault, simple assault, burglary, vandalism, identity theft, thefts from motor vehicles, and motor vehicle thefts.

The new statistics come as the General Assembly has just its 2025 legislative session to consider new laws and create a new, two-year state budget.

Legislative Leaders Condemn Utility Company Efforts to Intimidate Public Officials

By Hugh McQuaid

January 10 @ 3:45 pm

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Democratic leaders of the Connecticut State Senate denounced on Thursday recent efforts by state utility companies to silence and intimidate Sen. Norm Needleman, an Essex Democrat who co-chairs a legislative committee that oversees energy policy.

The statement from Senate President Martin Looney, D-New Haven, and Majority Leader Bob Duff, D-Norwalk, followed a series of letters to Needleman from executives at Eversource Energy and United Illuminating’s parent company, Avangrid.

The legislative leaders expressed concern that the letters, which can be found here and here, were crafted to silence Needleman’s calls for stronger utility regulation amid an environment in which Connecticut ratepayers have been hit with significant spikes in their energy costs.

“Let’s be frank,” Looney and Duff said. “Connecticut utilities enjoyed 20 years of a virtually free and lightly regulated market, and during that time, state power costs spiked while emergency response faltered. Now that the focus is turning toward the best interests of ratepayers, and not exclusively shareholders, there’s a full-court press in place against any progress. It’s disappointing, and we hope that state residents are paying attention.”

The letters began last July, when Avangrid Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary Kenna Hagan wrote to Needleman and accused the senator of defaming United Illuminating, when he stated that Connecticut utility companies were seeking the dismissal of Marissa Gillett, chair of the state’s utility regulatory agency.

Shortly after Needleman’s reelection in November, Steve Sullivan, Eversource’s president of Connecticut electric operations, sent the senator another letter, this one accusing Needleman of “bullying” the multi-billion corporation through campaign literature that focused on his efforts to reduce ratepayers’ energy bills. Sullivan’s letter suggested Eversource employees were afraid for their safety as a result of campaign mailers.

In late December, Eversource mailed another letter to Connecticut municipal leaders including Needleman, who serves as first selectman in his hometown of Essex. The letter indirectly sought to build municipal support for future rate increases by claiming that recent regulatory decisions would deter the company from making infrastructure investments and impact its ability to serve municipalities.

Needleman responded this month with an op-ed in the Connecticut Mirror as well as his own letter to his municipal colleagues, noting that Eversource had not applied for a distribution rate case decision from PURA since 2018, meaning the company had threatened to reduce its budget and quality of service based on its regulatory expectations rather than a decision from the agency.
“When you get scary sounding letters like the one earlier this week, ask yourself questions about the underlying motive and do a gut check,” Needleman wrote in response to the Eversource letter. “Despite their recent insinuations that the walls are caving in financially, Connecticut utilities are still seeing record earnings, an 82% increase in the dividend payouts to shareholders over the last 10 years and record salaries for top CEOs.”

On Thursday, Looney and Duff said they were troubled by the severity of the rhetoric directed at Needleman by the utility companies.

“Senator Needleman receiving these letters is unusual, to say the least, and is indicative of a continued campaign from state utilities disturbed by the prospect of tougher regulations on their business and greater demands for accountability,” Looney and Duff said. “Instead of working alongside legislators to shore up the stability and efficiency of the state’s electric grid, the utilities are universally opposing any effort that could pull funds away from their shareholders and bottom lines.”

Senate Democrats to Prioritize College Affordability

By Hugh McQuaid

January 9 @ 3:45 pm

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Connecticut would boost funding for needs-based scholarships under priority legislation announced Tuesday by Senate Democrats, intended to address the affordability of attending four-year colleges and universities in the state.

The proposal will seek to expand the Roberta B. Willis Scholarship program, which currently awards an average of between $4,500 and $5,200 based on the needs of applicants. Only about 31% of eligible students obtained the scholarship in fiscal year 2022, meaning about 16,000 qualified students did not receive state assistance.

In a press release, leaders of the newly expanded Senate Democratic Caucus said supplementing the program would complement the state legislature’s recent history of funding workforce development initiatives like debt-free community college.

“Increasing funding to our scholarship program will provide significant assistance to financially struggling students and their families, allowing them to take on less debt while furthering their education,” Senate President Martin Looney said.

Currently, Connecticut’s investment in needs-based scholarships ranks among the lowest in the country, according to the National Association of State Student Grant and Aid Programs survey, which found that 43 other states spent a greater percentage of state funding on higher education than Connecticut.

Sen. Derek Slap, a West Hartford Democrat who serves as co-chair of the Higher Education and Employment Advancement Committee, said that funding shortfall had contributed to the state’s loss of around 40% of its young adults to colleges and universities in other states.

“Connecticut’s lack of investment into our students and young people has created a brain-drain, we are losing highly educated and skilled workers to our surrounding states,” Slap said. “Now is the time to fully fund our state’s scholarship program and send a strong message to students: we are willing to invest in you if you choose Connecticut for college.”

Democrats, who now hold 25 of the state Senate’s 36 seats, plan to prioritize expanding the Roberta B. Willis Scholarship program during the legislative session, which began Wednesday and will run through June 4.

Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff said the increase in funding would help ease the financial burden of college for students and their families.

“Connecticut has some of the greatest public institutions of higher education in the country and we need to ensure that Connecticut students have access to these schools,” Duff said.