Posted on March 21, 2024
Hartford – The Appropriations Committee received numerous requests from legislators for funding during this budget adjustment session. The leaders of the committee, Senators Osten and Berthel and Representatives Walker and Zawistowski, sent the requests to the subcommittee with jurisdiction, including the six for the Elementary and Secondary Education subcommittee. Among those requests is $1.375 million to fund the Danbury Charter School. Sponsors were encouraged to follow up with subcommittee leaders to discuss their request. Rep. Rachel Chaleski wrote to follow up on her requested bill proposal, H.B. 5060.
“Danbury’s charter was approved in 2018 along with Norwalk’s after the same rigorous process that all other large cities have opened their charters. In the current biennium budget, Norwalk will receive $2.4M for its second charter school and New Haven will receive about $1.2M for its seventh charter school, but Danbury did not receive any funding to open its first,” wrote Chaleski.
Danbury remains the only large city in Connecticut without a charter school and home to the largest high school in the state, with nearly 4,000 students currently enrolled. She is encouraging her colleagues to put children before politics and fund the Danbury Charter School.
Read Rep. Chaleski’s full letter about Bill Proposal H.B. 5060 here.
“Opponents of funding the Danbury Charter School argue the public school system would ‘lose’ $10 million in ECS dollars over the next six years. This ‘loss’ is now woefully outdated due to ECS formula revisions. That figure comes from a 2022 Office of Fiscal Analysis report, when the ECS hold harmless provision for Alliance Districts was different than what it is now,” noted Chaleski.
OFA says from a 2024 perspective, the impact shown in the report to Danbury in FY 29 and FY 30 is not possible.
Here’s a visual showing how Connecticut funds traditional public school districts and how public charter schools are funded:
(schoolstatefinance.org)