A Letter to Greenwich Voters: It Is Time to Modernize Connecticut’s Education Funding
Dear Greenwich Voters,
Connecticut’s system for funding public education needs to catch up with the realities facing our schools, communities and taxpayers today.
Two formulas deserve particular attention: the Education Cost Sharing (ECS) formula and the school construction reimbursement formula.
Both are designed to distribute state resources based in part on student needs and municipal wealth. Those are important considerations. But we should also be asking a basic question: Do these formulas still reflect the actual costs of educating students, building schools and maintaining strong public education in Connecticut today?
There is good reason to ask.
For FY2025–26, Greenwich Public Schools has an operating budget, (not including the Capital Budget) of approximately $253 million. This year Greenwich’s primary state ECS entitlement is approximately $1.02 million. In 2014 Greenwich received $3,418,642
With more than 8,000 students in Greenwich Public Schools, that amounts to roughly $123 in ECS funding per student.
ECS is intentionally designed to direct greater state resources toward communities with higher student needs and lower fiscal capacity. That principle is important and should remain. But Greenwich taxpayers are left funding the overwhelming majority of our school operating costs locally while also contributing substantially to Connecticut through state taxes.
School construction presents another challenge.
For FY2026, Greenwich’s statutory state reimbursement rate is 20% for general school construction and just 10% for new construction, the minimum rates under Connecticut’s reimbursement system. Certain projects or portions of projects can qualify for additional reimbursement under state law, but Greenwich begins at the bottom of the reimbursement range.
That matters when school construction projects can cost tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars.
A formula can be uniform on paper while producing very different practical consequences for different communities. And high property values do not mean that taxpayers have an unlimited ability to absorb rising education and construction costs.
This is not simply a Greenwich concern. Connecticut itself has recognized that its education-funding system needs another look.
Earlier this year, Governor Lamont established the Blue-Ribbon Commission on K-12 Education Funding and Accountability, calling for a comprehensive review of how Connecticut funds its public schools.
Greenwich needs to have a strong voice in that conversation.
We should ask Connecticut to:
- Update the ECS formula so its underlying assumptions reflect the current cost of educating students.
- Regularly review education funding to account for inflation and changing educational requirements.
- Examine whether the measures of municipal wealth used in the ECS formula accurately reflect a community’s fiscal capacity.
- Review school-construction reimbursement rates and the assumptions used to calculate them.
- Provide greater transparency so taxpayers can understand how their municipality’s state education aid and construction reimbursement rates are determined.
- Recognize that high property values do not necessarily mean taxpayers have unlimited capacity to absorb additional education and construction costs.
This is not an argument for taking resources away from students or communities with greater needs.
It is an argument for making sure the formulas used to distribute billions of dollars in education funding are current, transparent and fair to every Connecticut taxpayer.
Greenwich residents contribute substantially to Connecticut. We should expect a seat at the table when the state determines how education dollars are allocated and how much of the cost of our schools must be borne locally.
Connecticut is already reconsidering how it funds education.
Greenwich should help shape what comes next.
Michael Mason
Candidate for the 151st district