|
CAPSS Position Statement on Funding Public Education
CAPSS believes that the time has come to reassess how public education and other governmental services are funded in Connecticut. Beyond a doubt the current system has resulted in sharp inequities in our state.
Therefore, CAPSS supports the formulation of a legislative blue ribbon task force made up of representatives from the relevant stakeholder groups to address the following questions:
- Are current local property valuations determined by state standardized assessment standards, requirements and practices, or are city and town valuations based on a variety of assessment standards and processes? If not, what provisions are being considered by the executive and legislative branches to assure that property valuations are equitably balanced among the municipalities?
- What are the specific failings of the current ECS formula (beyond being under funded) to meet educational adequacy standards for all students according to state education funding litigation decisions over the last five years? Does the current Education Cost Sharing (ECS) formula meet the legal standards of Sheff v. O'Neill, or the more recent claims of the Johnson v. Roland plaintiffs?
- In view of the current public opinion polling on the ever growing burdens of the local property tax to support a growing share of public K-12 expenditures the Blue Ribbon Commission on Property Tax Burdens and Smart Growth Incentives Report poses (Oct. 2003) a more unsettling long term problem for the state of Connecticut and its current inadequate attempts to address the present and future requirements of funding its public schools. Not addressed by the Commission's report is the question of whether or not the continued funding of public K-12 education is really within the fiscal capacity of not only Connecticut, but all the nation's states?
When one couples the possible return of the "Tax Payers Revolt" of the 1970's, most recently a probable contributing cause of the Johnson v. Rowland lawsuit, with the increasing fiscal demands placed on local districts and their states by new federal mandates, the changing demographics, and the ups and downs of virtually unpredictable national and state revenue streams, one has pause to question the current methods and sources for funding the future education of our children. If this be the case, a new funding paradigm may be needed to replace the traditional inequitable dependence on the local property tax. The far more culpable and responsible party for the current public education funding dilemma is the federal government.
N.B. The intent of the Policy Committee is to develop strategies to reach out to other groups including legislators, candidates, editorial boards, community organizations and others to make this an important dialog across the state.
Approved by the CAPSS Board of Directors
10 September 2004
|
