H.B. 7111 –  An act concerning the restraint, seclusion and placing in time out of students by school employees

This bill clarifies the difference between time-out and seclusion and prohibits the use of seclusion as part of Individualized Education Programs (IEP, for special education students).

Why is it important? Both are positive changes that will restrict exclusionary discipline practices in schools.

How to testify:

Sign-up for the hearing will begin at 9:00 AM in Room 2A of the LOB and will be first come, first serve.  Bring 30 copies of your testimony. For written testimony, email  KIDtestimony@cga.ct.gov.

S.B.2 An act concerning the development of a more equitable cost-sharing formula

This is a vehicle bill (see below for more about what that means) to introduce changes to the Education Cost Sharing (ECS) Formula. The bill in its current form does not include any details on possible reforms.

Why is it important? The Education Cost Sharing (ECS) formula provides state funds to localities to help ensure that schools have sufficient funds to provide an adequate education for all students. The ECS formula has not been followed nor fully funded since 2013.  

Changes in the ECS formula should be based on research identifying how much money is needed to adequately educate all children in Connecticut. Therefore, we need a costing out or adequacy study that will tell us how much a quality education will cost. Also, the ECS formula should be based on the principle that some students require additional funds to achieve an adequate education. An improved ECS formula would allocate additional funds to students in poverty, English language learners, and special education students. If we are making dramatic changes in the ECS formula, we need to identify the true cost of an adequate education, gather appropriate data, and hear from school boards, superintendents, parents, and national education funding experts.

The Governor's budget proposal also includes changes to the ECS formula. We describe them in our Children´s Budget report.

H.B. 7035 An act implementing the Governor's budget recommendations concerning education

This bill translates the Governor's budget proposal regarding education into law. You can read about the specifics in our Children's Budget report.

Why is it important? As we mention in the Children's Budget analysis, the Governor's proposal includes several key changes to the ECS formula that reduces the amount of funds allocated based on student economic need, eliminates the special education excess cost grant, and adopts an imprecise measure of poverty.

While this bill proposes increasing the amount of money dedicated specifically toward special education, the elimination of the Special Education Excess Cost Grant means that students with particularly high needs might not get essential services and small districts might suffer.

H.B. 7035 also proposes using HUSKY A as a measure of poverty in the ECS formula. This not an accurate estimate of the number of students in poverty. Among children below 200% FPL in Connecticut, 76% are on public health insurance, 19% are only on private insurance, and 5% of children have no health insurance. Therefore, 24% of students in poverty would not be counted by using HUSKY A as a proxy for poverty. Read our notes on K-12 education funding in our Children's Budget report for more details.

S.B. 711 Minimum budget requirements for education for districts with enrollment declines

A Connecticut law known as the Minimum Budget Requirement (MBR) currently mandates that towns spend no less on education than they did the previous year within a set cap based on the percentage of students living in poverty. This bill would let most districts cut education spending even more if enrollment declines.

Why is it important? Given the importance of adequate school funding for a quality education for all students, we are concerned that these changes might lead to lower levels of funding and quality. Please note that the Governor's proposal also relaxes the MBR, but using a different criterion.

S.B. 912 Revisions to the staff qualifications requirement for early childhood educators

Currently, 2020 is the deadline for every early childhood educator in a center receiving state funding to obtain a bachelor's degree in an early childhood-related field. The only approved institutions are in Connecticut. Many centers will not meet the staffing requirements in time. This bill would allow staff to qualify with a bachelor's degree in any major from an approved school if they earn at least twelve credits related to early childhood or childhood development.

Why is it important? The bill would expand the number of people that are considered qualified to be early childhood educators. Although this would help alleviate the state's shortage of early childhood teachers, it also dilutes present efforts to professionalize the early childhood workforce.

Voices supports the Early Childhood Alliance proposal to allow staff to qualify as early childhood educators through a bachelor's degree in early childhood education from any regionally accredited institution, whether in or outside Connecticut, which may help attract qualified teachers from outside the state.

All bills – how to testify:

Speakers will be determined by a lottery system; lottery numbers will be drawn from 8:00 A.M. to 9:00 A.M. in the First Floor Atrium of the LOB.  Speakers arriving after the completion of the lottery should report to Room 3100 of the LOB and will have their names placed at the end of the speaker list.  Bring 55 copies of written testimony if you are not able to email your testimony in advance.

Written testimony must be submitted no later than 9:30 A.M. on Wednesday, March 1, 2017 to the committee staff via email at EDtestimony@cga.ct.gov in Word or PDF format no later than 5:30 P.M. on Tuesday, February 28. 

H.B. 7040 An act implementing the Governor´s budget recommendations for human services programs.

This bill translates the Governor's budget proposal regarding human services into legislative language. Our Children´s Budget analysis has the full details.

Why is it important? The Governor's proposed budget cuts several key programs, including HUSKY eligibility for parents and Medicaid dental coverage. We oppose many of these cuts, and encourage those affected to testify against them.

How to testify:

Sign-up for the hearing will be from 10:00 A.M. to 11:00 A.M. in the Second Floor Atrium of the LOB.  Please email written testimony in Word or PDF format to HStestimony@cga.ct.gov.

Legislative Arcana: Vehicle Bills

It is not rare during the session to run into "vehicle bills" like S.B. 2. Here is the full text of the bill as of today:

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Assembly convened:

That section 10-262h of the general statutes be amended to develop a new formula for equalization aid grants that distributes funds more equitably among towns.

That is, the bill really is not saying much at all. This is what legislators call "vehicle bills," basically empty legislative shells with little or no language that might be used at a later date to introduce legislation via an amendment.

This is done for two reasons. First, all bills must originate in a committee. Legislators might want to introduce legislation after the committee's deadlines for a new bill, so sometimes vehicle bills are used to do this.

Second, in some cases legislators simply do not know yet what they want to include in a bill. The contents might depend on negotiations with the Governor, discussions with leadership on specifics, the product of merging several bills in one, or what is included in the budget. A vehicle bill allows lawmakers to continue working on its language without as many time constraints, leaving debate for the House or Senate floor.

This might make sense from a lawmaking perspective, but often translates in complicated, extensive legislative proposals that never receive a public hearing. Vehicle bills make the legislative process more opaque, restricting input from the general public. We understand that they have a role, but they make our job as advocates harder. 

Two bills increasing the minimum wage were up for a vote last week in the Labor Committee: one from the Senate, one from the House.

The Senate bill failed after one of the chairs asked to split the committee for the vote (we explained what that means here); the House bill was approved in a 7-6 vote. CT News Junkie has more details. 

• Three new reports about the effects of school vouchers on education describe the outcomes as "very negative." It is very unusual to see such strong effects in education reform studies.  The Upshot has more details.
• The CT Mirror has a seven-part series on education and poverty in Connecticut that provides context to the current education funding debate. 
• Sales fall again in Mexico's second year of taxing soda. A soda tax is part of our revenue options proposal.
• The General Assembly is debating using toll on highways to raise money for transportation. A state-commissioned report providing a range of revenue estimates for toll roads is available here.