Now that the stimulus bill has become law, and the estimates of each State’s revenues under the various education components of the act have been published, the next obvious question is: How much will my town get?

If the answer to this question is out there somewhere, I’m not aware of it, at least not at a level of reliability I would be comfortable with if I were putting together a local spending plan. Speed kills, and nowhere is that more true than in mathematic computations. So we need to be a little patient as the state sorts through the various provisions and calculates entitlements town by town.

A couple of things are clear enough however. By raising the education earmark percentage of the Fiscal Stabilization allotment to 81.8% from the original 61%, Congress kept the dollars for education in line with the original proposal despite reducing the overall size of the Fiscal Stabilization Fund. That’s good news because it avoids a gap that would have been created in the Governor’s budget for Education Cost Sharing—where it was clear those funds were being counted on to avoid ECS cuts. So on that basis, it would seem reasonable that the proposal not to cut ECS in 2009-10 and 2010-11 is alive and well.

How much ECS will my town get? Most likely the same amount it received in 2008-09. Don’t expect more, but continue to lobby for it, because—as we all know—level funding in the face of increased costs is a reduction in spending power.

All towns should receive a share of the IDEA allocation, a long overdue infusion of federal support for special education. Most towns should receive a share of the Title 1 allocation. Connecticut receives $200 million combined ($100 million each year) for these two programs, most of which gets passed through directly to school districts. How much? Like I said, I haven’t seen the answer to this yet, but I’m working on it. Stay tuned.As more detailed information on these and other education components become available, I will be only too happy to pass them on.