Education Package May Bring More Special Ed Funding To Newtown

By Steve Bigham

US Congressman Jim Maloney was in town Monday afternoon to spread a bit of good cheer in the way of new legislation coming out of Washington. The congressman was particularly excited about an education package that could provide some major financial assistance to Newtown.

Congress finally wrapped up its budget work in December and, according to Mr Maloney, one of the most important changes was an increase in federal funding for special education by 25 percent. This is a substantial increase at the federal level, according to Mr Maloney, who points out that this money would be passed on directly to the municipalities.

Under the state’s Educational Cost Sharing (ECS) formula, lesser-income towns stand to receive more state funds than towns like Newtown. However, a town’s special education needs have nothing to do with a town’s wealth. Therefore, the ECS formula is not used in distributing these funds.

“What the Newtown legislative delegation has to do is make sure Newtown gets its fair share of that increase,” Mr Maloney explained during a press conference at Edmond Town Hall. “The special education money is dealt with differently than the ECS money, which is influenced by the economic and social needs of the community. Special education money is more influenced by the existence of children with special education requirements.”

And, as Mr Maloney points out, the Town of Newtown needs to be ready to take advantage of that money as it comes along from the federal government to the state. In the coming years, Newtown should expect a further increase in special education funding from the federal government.

“When special education funding was created at the federal level, the government had intended to pay about half of it. At the current time, it is paying only 12 percent. This past bill brought it from 12 percent to 15 percent, so that’s the 25 percent increase, but there is much more to go,” Mr Maloney said.

First Selectman Herb Rosenthal welcomed the news and said he hoped the State of Connecticut would do its part to ensure that Newtown and other communities received their fair share.

“I would hope that the governor and the legislature would do what they had to do to make sure that these funds can get passed out to the communities. The town did much better when special education was funded as a categorical grant than it has since it was made part of the ECS formula 4-5 years ago. We get hurt by the ECS formula. It doesn’t make a difference whether you’re a wealthy town or a poor town. You either have the children who need the services or you don’t,” Mr Rosenthal said.

Mr Maloney has also notified town and school officials about a federal grant program designed to help towns reduce classroom sizes. Newtown has received grants the last couple of years for $35,000, but following the passage of December’s education funding bill, that amount stands to double. This is a direct grant from federal government to the towns, Mr Maloney said.

“Newtown is the type of community for which the grant is designed. It is a town that is growing. The population is growing, the school census is growing,” he said. “I know there has been a tremendous amount of pressure on the school system. The whole purpose of this federal program is to provide some relief so that the towns can keep their classroom sizes down.”

Studies have shown a correlation between lower class sizes and student performance.