Hartford City Hall 101 Workshop, Part 2: Hartford Public Schools Budget Intro

Posted on Author Robert Cotto Jr.

Last Saturday, I* participated in former Hartford Councilman Luis E. Cotto’s** Budget Workshop entitled, Hartford City Hall 101, at the Hartford Public Library. The workshop featured an innovative “human library” approach where small groups rotated to ask questions of different experts for about 20 minutes.

For this workshop, I discussed Hartford Public Schools budget and Carlos Rivera spoke about the Department of Health and Human Services budget. Regarding the HPS budget, I created two simple charts as an intro to discussion. You can see the questions and charts below.

Finally, check out the upcoming budget workshop on Saturday, April 20 @ 2 p.m. Here’s the link to the Facebook event page for the future Hartford City Hall 101 workshops: https://www.facebook.com/events/527265627679303/?event_time_id=527265634345969

Workshop questions:

  1. What are the sources of revenue for the Hartford Public Schools? 70% State funds (CT income taxes and other taxes fees), 23% local funds (city taxes, fees, etc.), 5% federal funds.

2. In which categories does Hartford Public Schools spend its funds on? Largest categories are instructional staff and support (45%), student tuition to out placements, magnet, and charter schools (18%), and administration and support services (13%). 

 

*Cotto from Caguas, Puerto Rico

**Cotto from Cidra, Puerto Rico

Views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Trinity College.

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Robert Cotto Jr.

Robert Cotto, Jr. is a Lecturer in the Educational Studies department. Before his work at Trinity, he was a Senior Policy Fellow in K-12 Education for CT Voices for Children where he published reports on Connecticut’s testing system, public school choice, and K-12 education data and policy. He taught for seven years as a social studies teacher at the Metropolitan Learning Center for Global and International Studies (MLC), an interdistrict magnet school intended to provide a high-quality education and promote racial, ethnic, and economic integration. Born and raised in Connecticut, Mr. Cotto was the first in his family to go to college and he earned his B.A. degree in sociology at Dartmouth College, his Ed.M. at Harvard University Graduate School of Education, and an M.A. in American Studies at Trinity College. He is currently completing his Ph.D. in education policy at the University of Connecticut Neag School of Education. Robert lives with his wife and son in the Forster Heights area of the Southwest neighborhood in Hartford. Views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Trinity College.