Politics & Government

Groton Wants Relief From State-Imposed Minimum Budget for Education

Local lawmakers said Tuesday they would try to help, but didn't know how successful they would be.

State lawmakers from Groton, along with dozens of other legislators, are expected this year to seek relief from the state’s minimum budget requirement for education imposed on local districts.

The requirement demands that a community spend at least as much on its public schools as it did the year before. If it fails to do so, the state may withhold cost-sharing education money as penalty.

Groton receives $26.27 million from the state in education aid, and has a budget of $72 million for its public schools.

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Town councilors said the bulk of the burden falls on local taxpayers.

“We need some relief,” Town Mayor Heather Bond Somers told local legislators at a Town Council Committee of the Whole meeting Tuesday. She said Groton needs leeway on the minimum budget requirement and other state unfunded mandates.

Find out what's happening in Grotonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

School districts can sometimes spend less than the minimum if enrollment declines, as it has in Groton. The district enrolled 5,844 students in the 2001-02 school year, and enrolled 4,965 in 2010-11, a decline of 15 percent, according to the state department of education.

But there’s an exception: If a district fails to make adequate yearly progress or have a relatively high poverty index, the requirement remains because it’s believed the spending is needed.

Groton falls into both categories. At the elementary level, 44.87 percent of Groton students receive free or reduced lunch, according to 2012-13 data compiled by the consulting firm Milone & MacBroom.

State Rep. Elissa Wright said the minimum budget requirement is looked at every two years.

“I think it is reasonable for towns that aren’t performing well or for towns that have high needs or high poverty, for the state to say to towns, ‘You can’t cut too deeply’,” she said.

Town Manager Mark Oefinger said the problem is that when the town looks at its budget, two-thirds of it are off limits, so it stifles the creative process when looking for savings.

State Sen. Andrew Maynard said he would fight the minimum requirement, but he didn’t know how much it would help.

“We’re not unsympathetic,” he said, but added, “I don’t think it’s going to produce miraculous savings.”


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