In the proposed budget he submits to the City Council in a few weeks, Mayor Joe Ganim will include an extra $5 million to the financially struggling school system with a promise to match that in the spending plan that follows, what he calls a historic two-year investment.
This is arguably the most Ganim has allocated in additional spending for schools in his more than 20 years as chief executive, with so many annual built-in increases.
Many education advocates and Ganim critics will argue this isn’t enough. The majority of school funding flows from the state via a dubious funding formula that doesn’t keep pace with inflation.
Joe Sokolovic, the most senior member of the Board of Education, has hammered home this appeal for more state funding in gladiator fashion in commentaries, letters and live testimony in Hartford.
Bridgeport’s nine-member legislative delegation has largely worked as one voice for modern school funding that often receives a tin ear from the larger-voiced decision makers.
This is also a tricky budget season for the mayor and City Council with state-mandated revaluation of taxable property. The good news is the mill rate, with Bridgeport one of the highest in Connecticut, will come down dramatically. Bean counters say the current 43 mills will reduce to roughly 30 mills, that’s suburban territory.
The coin flip is this: assessments have increased the property values of many homeowners leading to a mixed-bag of what reflects their tax bill for the fiscal year starting July 1.
Ganim commentary that also appears in the CT Post:
In Bridgeport, we tell our children that their potential is limitless and believe that classrooms are the engines of the American Dream. Our students show up with grit, and our teachers show up with a mission: to ensure that excellence in the classroom opens every door to future success. But for too long, we have asked them to build those dreams on a crumbling foundation.
In Connecticut, the promise of public education is dictated not by a child’s talent, but by their ZIP code. But dedication alone cannot bridge the immense funding gap the Bridgeport Public School District now faces. City and state government must work together to address the systematic underfunding holding our children back from reaching their full potential.
An education formula outpaced by reality
Connecticut’s Education Cost Sharing (“ECS”) formula was created decades ago after our state Supreme Court ruled that reliance on local property taxes produced unconstitutional disparities among communities based on their wealth. The formula starts with a foundation amount per student of about $11,525 — unchanged since 2013. From there, the formula increases funding for districts with higher percentages of low income students and English language learners.
On paper, that sounds fair; in practice, it falls short. The foundation amount has not kept pace with inflation or the true cost of modern education. Over the past decade, costs for special education, transportation, technology, school safety, and mental health support have surged. Urban districts in particular serve larger numbers of students who require additional academic and social supports. Bridgeport, for example, has more English language learners in one high school than some districts have in total. When the baseline is outdated, the entire formula no longer reflects reality.
While Connecticut consistently ranks as a national leader in education, that prestige masks one of the widest equity gaps in the country. Bridgeport, the state’s largest district, educates more than 19,000 students, while providing essential nutrition, mental health, and social services that extend far beyond instruction. These responsibilities carry a higher price tag, and yet we face a stark resource divide compared with neighboring towns whose greater property wealth allows them to outspend urban districts regardless of state aid.
This inequity is not theoretical or simply on paper. It reveals itself in poorer test scores and lower graduation rates, in crowded classrooms and aging buildings, and in limited student interventions for our most vulnerable students.
A call for state reform
Therefore, I join our Bridgeport State Delegation, Acting Superintendent Royce Avery, and our Board of Education, alongside the City Council and our dedicated parents and teachers, in calling for a fundamental transformation of the ECS formula. This reform must, at minimum, raise the foundation to adjust for inflation. Beyond that, it must account for the actual, intensive costs of special education and English language learners, while finally addressing the profound impact of concentrated poverty and family economic hardship.
We are not asking for a favor; we are demanding a funding system that rectifies decades of unconstitutional disparities and finally levels the playing field for our urban students.
Bridgeport must lead by example
Meanwhile, as we advocate for more state funding, we cannot simply rely on action from Hartford. City government must be an active part of the solution.
Therefore, as we implement the revaluation budget this year, I am proposing a significant local investment to jumpstart this progress: an increase of $10 million over the next two years to the city’s annual contribution to the Board of Education — a $5 million increase to take effect for this upcoming fiscal year, and an additional $5 million increase to take effect the year after.
In making this proposal, I am mindful that we are making up for historic underfunding over decades and that, frankly, we can never invest enough in our children’s future. However, this investment would represent the two largest single year increases in municipal education spending in the city’s history.
While protecting Bridgeporters from the unfair burdens of local property taxes has been a central concern during my tenure as mayor, I believe this proposed increase in local education spending is a worthwhile investment and I urge the City Council to support it during the upcoming budget process.
A commitment to our students’ future
Every child deserves access to the same quality of education, regardless of ZIP code. A solution to the inequity that characterizes school funding in Connecticut will not happen overnight, but local and state leaders have an opportunity right now to take big steps in the right direction. We need a funding system that recognizes the realities of an urban school district. If we believe education is the great equalizer, then we must fund it like it matters, because it does.
Systematic Underfunding of education by State with out-dated formulas and without linkage to inflationary stresses for too many years? What else has been systematically ignored in Bridgeport?
Housing!! I suggest you consider that the City fails to honor the Fair Rent and Fair Housing boards from more than 20 years ago, while Rep. Himes posts an advertisement on OIB honoring housing issues in Bridgeport under the direction and guidance of Bridgeport’s Housing Authority a/k/a Park City Communities who has been recognized by HUD as a HIGH PERFORMER.
How would a citizen of Bridgeport learn anything about Park City Communities other than a press release, as they are not formally part of the City infrastructure while providing 5200 or more rental units to citizens? Perhaps agendas, minutes of meetings, or notices of governance practices would be helpful but no such minutes are provided by internet at City PCC site or Park City Community site. This is info I cannot find for the past 12 months or so. But how has City failed to re-appoint current two expired term voluntary public servants and allow two other positions to remain vacant?
I refer to education and to housing as major public issues that are not addressed as whole issues to be dealt with and put on a track towards success, which in my mind is a lesson in CIVICS, the study of citizen rights and responsibilities. Perhaps the regular fumbling of appointments to Boards and Commissions in the City becomes the denial, by current powers that be, of welcome to training, evaluation, and oversight to citizen taxpayers who do serve their duty to the community. CASUAL CIVICS CONVERSATIONS will next present at URSA Cafe, 245 Fairfield Avenue, on Saturday, March 14, 2026 at 9 AM. Time will tell.
Ganim’s proposal to raise the city’s contribution to Bridgeport Public Schools by $10 million over two years is appreciated (all though long overdue) and reflects what educators, parents, and students have long known: our school system has been operating under a structural deficit for decades. Any serious local investment in education deserves recognition, particularly in a year marked by revaluation pressures and taxpayer anxiety.
I also want to be absolutely clear, I hope the city will do more, and I will continue to advocate that the city do more for our students in this and future budgets. The need in Bridgeport Public Schools exceeds any single two year increase. Still, this proposal represents movement in the right direction.
But recognition alone does not resolve the biggest issue.
This budget arrives at a pivotal moment for Bridgeport Public Schools. Under Senate Bill 7, the state has finally begun to confront the inadequacy of the Education Cost Sharing (ECS) foundation (because the pain is being felt by the majority of districts, not just poor rural and urban districts) by proposing substantial increases in future years. However, because those increases are phased in, and because Bridgeport is experiencing a enrollment decline approaching 2027 potential increase will be far less state support than was expected. I will break this down in another piece I will send to Lennie with a request to publish as a stand alone information piece.
That is why timing is not a secondary concern. It is the concern.
The Board cannot responsibly plan by cutting today in hopes of rebuilding tomorrow. Staffing layoffs, program cuts, and deferred student supports and potential school closures made this year will not or cannot be easily undone next year. These decisions disrupt classrooms, drive away teachers and will continue to erode the very enrollment stability we are trying to restore.
For that reason, I believe the city should front-load the full $10 million (or more) local investment in the upcoming fiscal year, rather than spreading it across two. This does not increase the mayor’s promise, it simply helps limit the upcoming damage.
Front-loading the $10 million (or more) would prevent some cuts, help stabilize staffing and student services while ECS t
funding ramps up, reduce avoidable costs associated with rebuilding lost capacity, this will strengthen Bridgeport’s credibility as we unite in demanding more from Hartford.
At the same time, the second year of this proposal should not be treated as automatic. The city should make a clear commitment to re-evaluate Bridgeport’s financial condition and the Board of Education’s actual needs in Year 2, based on updated enrollment data, state funding outcomes, and the real cost pressures facing the district and the city at large. That must include the possibility of additional local investment, not simply the continuation of a predetermined number be it $5 million or $0.
This local discussion does not occur in isolation. The Bridgeport Board of Education is actively seeking amendments to Senate Bill 7 so that districts like ours receive the full benefit of the new ECS foundation increases in year one, rather than waiting through a multi-year phase-in. Our advocacy position is clear: students’ needs do not arrive on a staggered schedule, and neither should the funding meant to support them.
That effort in Hartford makes local front-loading, and a good-faith Year-2 reassessment even more critical. It makes little sense to reduce services now based on a formula everyone agrees is flawed, while simultaneously arguing at the state level that those same cuts were unnecessary and harmful.
This is not a rejection of the mayor’s proposal. It is a call to strengthen it.
I appreciate this step forward, even as I believe it should go further. If Bridgeport is serious about leading by example about demanding a fair, modern school funding system from the state, then our local budget must reflect stability, foresight, and urgency. The amount matters. But when we invest and whether we are willing to reassess and do more matters just as much.
While I’m long time Board member and Current Vice Chair, the opinions above are my own and the facts, they belong to everyone.