HARTFORD—The Connecticut Conference of Municipalities (CCM) today released its legislative priorities, putting the future of education reform solely on the shoulders of significant increases in school spending. The bulk of CCM’s recommendations on school finance focus on increasing state funding for education without addressing the deep structural problems within the system.

“We keep hearing folks from CCM, the Connecticut Coalition for Justice in Education Funding, and others say that all we need to create a ‘first-rate education system’ is significantly more money.” said Patrick Riccards, ConnCAN’s CEO. “Let me be very clear: if the goal is to fix education in our state, simply adding more money to an unfixably broken system is not the answer. ‘Fully-funding’ the Education Cost Sharing (ECS) formula with more money is not in and of itself education reform, and it certainly isn’t school improvement. It is an exercise in futility.

“Demanding more money in our schools is the easy way out – who’s going to disagree with it? But when we play such politics, the big losers are our kids. It is true that thousands of students across the state, especially in our most vulnerable communities, have been shortchanged by the broken ECS formula. But that still doesn’t mean that putting more dollars into a broken formula results in better schools. Since 2003, Connecticut has increased both education spending, by 20%, and the number of full time employees in the school system, by 15%. Over the same period, enrollment has dropped and student achievement has been flat. That is not a recipe for success, and it’s hardly a wise recommendation given the state of the economy,” Riccards said.

“Our state leaders must focus on doing what’s best for students by connecting policy change to student outcomes. We must address the deep inequities in ECS not by tweaking around the edges and dumping more money into a broken system, but by fundamentally reformulating our school funding system to meet the needs of all students, not school districts. That means guaranteeing equitable funding to all students in their school, no matter what public school they go to, and using existing school dollars to drive student achievement.

“If CCM is serious about improving public education and ensuring all students have access to great public schools, we ask them to join with us to make the policy changes necessary to guarantee that our most vulnerable students benefit immediately. There is no need to wait for more money. If we wait, children will continue to suffer under this unfair funding system, and Connecticut’s adults will have no one to blame but themselves. It’s time for our leaders to courageously confront the realities of our funding system and fix it by putting students front and center. There is no other option.”