The Truth About Special Ed. Funding Bill

Dear Reader:

Mayor Nelson, Deputy Mayor Pyznar, and Representative Hall are misleading you on Special Education funding. Let me remind you, these are the same people who less than a year ago supported slashing $9M from our education budget, laying off over 120 teachers and staff, suggested we can solve our Special Ed problems with slaps, and by sending kids to “military academy” type schools.

Today, they are accusing me of voting against more funding for Special Education. Let me be clear, my vote last night guarantees approximately $300,000 will come to Enfield this year, to cover the shortfall in the town’s cost for Special Education. During the debate on the House floor, Republicans proposed an amendment that called for $108M in additional funding for Special Education – nearly two and a half times the $40M being proposed.

The $40M proposal is being funded from a portion of a budget surplus received from interest on ARPA funds. There was sufficient money in that surplus to direct funds to cities and towns to help pay for Special Education costs in this year’s budget. There are not sufficient monies in that surplus to cover the Republicans' $108M proposal. Had their amendment passed, it would have impacted our spending cap and would have been vetoed by the Governor, and Enfield would have gotten nothing.

For that reason, I voted against the amendment, ensuring Enfield would receive these much-needed funds. So did Representative Hall. Yet after the vote, she took to social media to call me a hypocrite for not voting for more. If she doesn’t understand the implications of her choices, it’s not my job to educate her. But Enfield would have lost. That is not what we need from our representatives in Hartford. Representatives whose “principles” get in the way of results. Representative Hall put our funding in jeopardy.

I stand by my vote.

I stand by my commitment to the fiscal guardrails.

I stand by our Democratic leadership in the House and Senate and

I stand by my commitment to Enfield Public Schools and our kids.