Ridgefield School District Superintendent Dr. Jenny Rodriquez shared her thoughts as schools across the state are bracing for “tremendous impacts” if the state continues the trend of reducing education funding, implementing unfunded mandates and simply not covering the full cost of basic education after the McCleary decision.
The state Legislature’s short session ended on Thursday, March 12. In the session, a budget was approved that increased spending by the state by over $2 billion. However, education received a massive blow. The state budget cuts transitional kindergarten costs. Running Start is also impacted, and so are bus depreciation schedules.
The impacts are actively felt in classrooms and on district balance sheets already, Rodriquez said. Districts are faced with shrinking contributions from the state while covering rising costs, with local taxpayers increasingly asked to fill the gaps…