‘All Politics is Local’ is an opinion column written by John Lyons, a member of West Hartford’s Democratic Town Committee.

By John Lyons

Each month I examine national issues and offer my thoughts on how West Hartford ‘s residents are impacted. You’ll be surprised at how much seemingly small out-of-sight issues have a big impact on all of us.

This month I am preempting my normal column with a call to action and to send an appeal to Gov. Ned Lamont and our local West Hartford legislative delegation. We have an immediate crisis with respect to the school budget. Here is some background on the concerning issue facing West Hartford Public Schools and why I am discussing it this month:

West Hartford has long been a desired school system for people with children that have special learning needs. Lots of families have moved to town knowing that their child will have the best educational opportunity in West Hartford and many more send their kids to West Hartford schools from out of town. Some West Hartford kids have very specialized health and educational requirements and as a result, must attend out of town schools including expensive private schools that specialize in what their students’ needs are.

For students on an individualized education program (IEP) or on a 504-accommodation plan, the district must provide for tuition and transportation for West Hartford residents to and from the school that the child attends whether across town or out of town, regardless of distance.

The state has laws on the books pertaining to transportation of these students and ostensibly is supposed to be funding the tuition and transportation once a certain threshold is met. But like many things in government, it is only a partially funded mandate. This means the state says West Hartford must do it but isn’t reimbursing our town fully for it even though they are making towns provide these important services.

Out of district tuition and transportation are both massive expenses as very highly trained transporters are required, and private specialized school tuition is extremely expensive. The state is supposed to pay up to nearly 90% of these expenses once the threshold is met but for the school year of 2024-2025, only a little over 60% of these expenses are being covered which has created an over one million dollar shortfall in the schools budget for THE CURRENT year – catching off guard everyone from the mayor to the town manager, superintendent of schools, and the board of education. Actual funding this year (the 24-25 school calendar) is currently looking like it will be 62.1%, resulting in this shortfall.

As I alluded to earlier, people move to West Hartford because of the town’s leadership in working with students who have special needs, so we have a much higher number of students with unique learning needs than just about every other town in Connecticut. The state is not recognizing that West Hartford has the higher proportion of these kids in allocating funds and hurting West Hartford in the process!

The state also assumes West Hartford is “rich” and can handle these costs without assistance. This is untrue and it is incumbent on our elected officials at the state level to inform the governor’s office during the budget process and implore those that need to be convinced that this is a crisis for West Hartford and must be corrected.

Adding to this burden for West Hartford is the loss of other funding from the state and federal level.

The American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) was a legislative effort as a consequence to the COVID pandemic and the associated shutdowns that occurred in 2020 and 2021 in an effort to stop the spread. To keep people in their homes and employed, ARPA was a nearly 2-trillion-dollar Biden era funding bill that offered money to communities to help navigate the slowdown caused by the COVID crisis. It followed the 2.2-trillion-dollar CARES Act that had been signed nearly a year earlier by then-President Trump in his first term, both bills intended to combat the economic slowdown caused by COVID.

These spending initiatives not only provided relief for unemployed individuals, but it also gave money to municipalities to spend on an array of things that ranged from public works to education to community improvement and much more. The West Hartford Public Schools benefitted from these.

ARPA funds ended in 2024 and only qualifying projects to which funds were already approrpriated can be paid for with remaining funds. The BOE has navigated this loss of funding as well as possible doing everything they could to reduce the budget and avoid extra costs which translate into higher taxes on residents. I should also point out the West Hartford Town Council under Mayor Cantor’s leadership did a fantastic job of utilizing these funds efficiently, effectively and to maximum community benefit!

Given the timing of the loss of ARPA funding and the governor’s budget not including enough reimbursement for our Board of Education, we are in a bind. We need the West Hartford delegation to work with the governor to properly fund this mandate and avoid further tax burden on West Hartford homeowners and residents.

What can we do to alleviate this?

The Board of Education is already being proactive. They are currently lobbying to have the funding increased and they deserve a lot of credit for leading the fight on this issue. The mayor has also leveraged her strong relationships at the Capitol to alert them to this crisis. Helping Gov. Lamont and Lt. Gov. Bysiewicz see the urgency of this is critical and you can aid in this effort.

So what can we do? West Hartford parents and residents – you can help by emailing your state representative and state senator.  I’ve attached a district map to this column where you can easily see what district you live in. You can see who your state rep is (and how to contact them) via this link: https://www.cga.ct.gov/asp/menu/hlist.asp

Please be kind but passionate in your conversations with our representatives. You don’t have to be perfect in understanding the details (I really don’t), they will understand the urgency of this simply by hearing from you.

To better understand the shortfall, I encourage you to read this We-Ha.com article which goes into much greater depth and detail.  Then call or email your state representative or senator.

NOW is the time to act.

The views expressed represent the opinion of John Lyons, and are not intended to represent the opinion of We-Ha.com or the West Hartford Democratic Town Committee.

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