While we appreciate the attention the governor is giving to special education with today’s proposal, our students can’t afford to wait years for the crisis to be resolved. Teachers are disappointed that the governor’s proposal doesn’t address special education for this school year or the next. An additional $40 million toward districts’ special education costs in 2026-27 will help our schools but it falls far short of what is needed. For the 2023-24 school year, the state allocated $181 million for special education, far below the $261 million in costs districts incurred that were eligible for state reimbursement. This year the shortfall is even greater, and due to inflation, costs will only continue to rise. Special education is in crisis today, yet we continue to push off remedies to truly tackle the problem.
Letting this crisis continue has significant long-term impacts. We already have a shortage of more than 500 special education teachers in Connecticut while more and more continue to leave the profession. Our young people are not choosing special education as a career because they see how overworked and underpaid teachers are. If we wait until the 2026-27 school year to take any measures to address the problem, who will be left to teach our students?
Our students must have access to educators who can support them and offer the planned, individualized special education services they need and deserve. If we aren’t paying educators a wage that enables them to live in the communities where they work, they’re going to leave the profession. The governor’s proposal does not address our urgent need to attract and retain special education teachers.
As a state we need to take bold, immediate action. We call on the governor and legislators to invest in the children and educators who are learning and teaching in our classrooms today.