Passed last night, HB 6880 establishes a task force to study the per pupil equity of funding the teachers’ retirement system.
The task force is borne out of 2021 research condcuted by ERN CT and Equable Institute, which showed how the state reinforces educational inequities by fully funding local teacher pension obligations—which are largely based on the disparate salary schedules set by districts in this manner.
The report found that, on a per pupil basis, more teacher pension dollars are allocated by the state to the higher performing, more affluent, and less diverse districts that already pay significantly higher salaries and tend to retain their teachers for longer.
It's a pension financing system that puts the districts with the greatest need at a systemic disadvantage in terms of compensating their teaching workforce.
The legislative task force in the legislation that passed last night will analyze this financing system, with an eye toward fairness and pension sustainability. Connecticut is now the first state in the nation to consider this new policy idea.
We are thrilled that this long-term effort will commence in Connecticut, bringing stakeholders to the table to work out a deeply entrenched and complex resource equity challenge.