State Increasing Education Aid by $8.6 Million Amid Low Schools Funding by Stewart

The State Educational Cost Sharing Grant for New Britain schools is to increase by an estimated $8,647,194, providing an apparent lifeline for the city’s school system, amid continuing low local funding for education under Mayor Erin Stewart (R).

The grant, already at $107,212,343 in the current state budget year, is set to increase to an estimated $115,859,537, an apparent increase of 8%.

The increases are part of a $10.1 million increase in state aid to New Britain announced by New Britain’s Democratic state legislators, State Senator Rick Lopes (D-6), Rep. Peter Tercyak (D-26), Rep. Manny Sanchez (D-24), Rep. Gary Turco (D-27) and Rep. Bobby Sanchez (D-25).

Legislators had announced that aid also included a one-time grant of $4 million for the city budget, about which Sen. Lopes said, “We worked hard to secure an additional $4 million in municipal aid, to protect New Britain residents from tax increases created by mistakes in last year’s city budget.”

Last year, Stewart and the then-Republican-controlled Council increased property taxes more than 12%, turning revaluation increases in the inflated real estate market into actual higher taxes for city residents, while overall local funding for schools continued to lag.

Mayor Stewart has proposed a city budget for the upcoming year that would increase property taxes again and would provide less funding, in the operating budget allocation for the city’s schools, after inflation. Stewart also decreased a vaguely-defined “non-operating” school grant line item from $2.7 million to $1.5 million, but has sought to portray the remaining $1.5 million as a budget increase for schools.

Stewart has been widely criticized for repeatedly flat-funding the city’s funding for the operating budget of New Britain schools. Over a decade of Stewart’s past city budgeting, the average amount of the city operating funding increase for schools has been a fraction of a percent. But, with inflation taken into consideration, that flat-funding has meant that the city’s funding for its local schools has significantly decreased.

Past research and reporting by the New Britain Progressive has shown a strong connection between low local funding for local schools, like Stewart’s budgeting, and low state standardized test scores, like New Britain has had.