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CAPSS 2025 Legislative Proposals
This document outlines specific legislative proposals for consideration during the 2025 legislative session. It serves as a complement to the first-year action steps of the long-range CAPSS plan for public education – ELEVATE, FUND, IMPROVE: CAPSS Priorities for Connecticut Public Education: Looking Forward.

1. ELEVATE THE EDUCATION PROFESSION

To elevate education as a profession, there is a need to attract and retain educators, diversify the educator pool, improve the quality of educators’ professional experiences, improve educator autonomy, and eliminate mandates that impact educator morale.

Recommendations

  • Establish a Blue Ribbon Commission to enhance and elevate the profession through a comprehensive two-year study of compensation, locally focused high-quality professional development, educator diversification, recruitment and retention efforts, and educator preparation programs.
  • Create livable and competitive pay for educators, provided by the State, to ensure a widely diverse and highly-skilled workforce.
  • Develop a committee that includes the Connecticut State Department of Education (CSDE), the Department of Labor (DOL), the Teachers Retirement Board (TRB), educator preparation programs, educators, and other key partners to create a long-term workforce plan to address educator shortages and retirement trends.   
  • Provide grants for districts to invest in high-quality, ongoing professional development to enhance teacher skills and knowledge.
  • Allocate $3.5 million to continue professional learning for districts’ leadership teams in the Science of Reading.
  • Restore autonomy to educators by reducing legislative decisions and mandates that deprofessionalize the profession while preserving the autonomy of the CSDE.

2. FUNDING AND FINANCE

Under the current funding model for the States’ ECS Grant, 89 districts will receive increased support, while 70 districts will see reductions. Some districts are facing significant cuts to their state aid, affecting financially struggling communities the most.

Recommendations
•    Revise the Education Cost Sharing (ECS) formula to ensure equitable funding distribution and address the growing needs of districts.
•    Hold harmless all districts for the 25-26 school year while the formula is reworked so that all districts remain whole.
•    Increase the foundation from $11,525, established in 2013 (10-162f), to reflect the impact of inflation on services provided to students and the education workforce.
•    Fully fund Excess Cost Funding for Special Education to meet the needs of students with disabilities.
•    Incentivize the creation and maintenance of high-quality locally and regionally created educational programs for students.
•    Monitor and review the impact of the Magnet School Tuition cap on district budgets and student access.

3. SUPPORTING EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION

Significant research has established a direct and causal relationship between a quality preschool experience and later successful student achievement through school and higher education.  CAPSS supports financial assistance for universal preschool for all three- and four-year-olds in Connecticut, focusing initially on the communities and families with the greatest need for preschool programs.

Recommendations

  • Consolidate efforts and increase funding for pre-kindergarten programs for all three- and four-year-olds whose parents are seeking access to high-quality early education programs across the state.
  • Eliminate the kindergarten parent waiver so that all children have equitable access to kindergarten education across the state.
  • Support marginalized families by studying the programmatic and financial needs in each community and offering tiered support to families close to the free-and-reduced lunch eligibility cutoff.
  • Provide grants to Boards of Education to establish and implement partnerships to expand access to early childhood education by fostering partnerships with childcare providers and other districts by establishing pathways among the CSDE, Boards of Education, Office of Early Childhood, and the Department of Children and Families (DCF) to more effectively support the needs of young children and their families.