Last week I posted on my Political Capitol blog that new Democratic Governor Dannel Malloy, a longtime critic of the state’s formula for distributing education aid when Stamford’s mayor, would not be proposing changes to the Education Cost Sharing formula in his first budget.
His budget czar, Ben Barnes, just told members of the press during a budget briefing that the goal is to study the matter and come up with an ECS shake-up by 2012.
Fairfield County officials have long complained the ECS formula penalizes their wealth without taking into full account the challenges their school systems face.
“Unfortunately we have not been able to put such a formula together in five weeks,” Barnes said, referring to Malloy’s being sworn-in on January 5.
Barnes noted state officials for years have struggled over altering ECS.
UPDATE: Malloy during his budget speech provided more details. He said he will be forming a committee of legislators and relevant stakeholders and charge the group with issuing a report by October 1. He will then use that report to propose ECS legislation during the 2012 session.
“It’s broken and we all know it,” Malloy said, adding later, “We need to fix this formula once and for all. And we will.”