Connecticut
Connecticut takes aim at the college affordability crisis — 'We're trying to do everything we can,' governor says
Hartford, Connecticut
Sean Pavone | Istock | Getty Images
When it comes to improving access to higher education, each state is largely left to its own devices. Some are trying a broader array of tactics than others.
Connecticut, for example, recently rolled out several programs to establish pathways to college and lower the debt burden.
Connecticut has also maintained one of the largest wealth gaps in the country for years. The state is hoping its college aid endeavors could help change that.
Getting a degree offers the best shot at social mobility, according to Anthony Carnevale, director of Georgetown’s Center on Education and the Workforce, which could help narrow the income divide.
Still, these plans have mostly flown under the radar. “We have these incentive programs, but nobody knows about them,” Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont told CNBC.
Here’s a closer look at three of those initiatives — and how they’ve fared so far.
Free college program
“We’re trying to do everything we can to make education less expensive to start with,” Lamont said.
Like a growing number of states, Connecticut recently introduced a free tuition program for students attending community college either full- or part-time. In Connecticut, students receive “last-dollar” scholarships, meaning the program pays for whatever tuition and fees are left after federal aid and other grants are applied.
Since the program started, in the 2020-21 academic year, nearly 34,000 students have participated.
Free college is one of the best ways to combat the college affordability crisis, some experts say, because it appeals more broadly to those struggling in the face of rising college costs, rather than the student loan burden after the fact. A federal effort has yet to get off the ground, although President Joe Biden continues to push for free community college nationwide and included it in his $7.3 trillion budget for fiscal 2025.
However, critics say that lower-income students, through a combination of existing grants and scholarships, already pay little in tuition to two-year schools, if anything at all.
Further, free college programs do not generally cover books or other expenses, such as room and board, that lower-income students also struggle with.
Automatic admission program
To make a four-year degree more accessible, Connecticut introduced an automatic admission program to some Connecticut colleges for high school seniors in the top 30% of their class.
The program, signed into law in 2021, aims to make it easier for high school students, especially those from underserved communities, to go to college. In the most recent application cycle, 2,706 students were offered direct admission through the program.
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Connecticut State Colleges and Universities Chancellor Terrence Cheng said the free-tuition program and the automatic admissions program “are just two examples of steps CSCU and the state have taken to remove barriers to higher education, particularly for first-generation college and minoritized students.”
And yet, for lower-income students, the cost can still be a deterrent, said Sandy Baum, senior fellow at Urban Institute’s Center on Education Data and Policy.
“Both admitting students and telling them how easy it is to pay for it is most helpful, but for students on the margin, they face so many expenses in addition to tuition they will still need to overcome,” Baum said.
Student loan payment tax credit
Next up, the state is rolling out a student loan repayment program to lessen graduates’ debt burden.
In 2019 Lamont signed Public Act 19-86, which created a new tax credit for Connecticut employers who help pay off their employees’ student loans. The tax credit was expanded in 2022 and will be implemented in the months ahead.
“It helps the student, it pays down their debt, makes it very predictable [and] gives businesses an incentive to hire, so it’s a great economic development driver,” Lamont said.
Still, some graduates already pay little or nothing through the federal government’s income-driven repayment plans, Baum said, so borrowers may be better served with a salary increase. “If employers paid more, that would be a lot more fair.”
Ultimately, these programs are all helpful to some degree, but successfully narrowing the wealth gap — in Connecticut and elsewhere — should include assistance for students while they are in college, Baum said.
Improving student outcomes by providing academic and social support in addition to financial aid is the best way to level the playing field, she said.
Many young adults start college, fewer finish. “Rather than focusing on getting people in the door … getting people through is going to have a much bigger impact,” Baum said.
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A backdoor cold front is set to move across Connecticut today from northeast to southwest.
Temperatures should be able to warm well into the 70s in Fairfield County, but the Northeast Hills will only top out in the lower 50s.
We’ll cool through the afternoon from northeast to southwest, but we’ll all be in the 40s this evening as rain chances return.
Temperatures will drop into the 30s and lower 40s overnight with scattered rain showers and the chance for fog to develop into Sunday morning.
Sunday will be cooler and cloudier for all of the state with highs near 50 degrees.
Monday should warm back into the 60s with more rain chances to end March.
Gov. Ned Lamont and the General Assembly’s highest-ranking leaders drew a political line in the sand late Friday.
If President Donald Trump continues to withhold huge blocks of federal aid for health care, education or other core programs, Connecticut’s done waiting to see if Congress or the courts will reverse the damage, leaders here wrote in a joint statement.
Connecticut’s piggy banks are large, and officials won’t hesitate to crack them immediately if vital programs are damaged, they indicated.
“Sound fiscal practices have positioned us better than most states in the nation,” Lamont wrote late Friday afternoon in a joint statement with House Speaker Matt Ritter, D-Hartford, and Senate President Pro Tem Martin M. Looney, D-New Haven. “If this pattern of devastating cuts continues, we will be prepared to exercise emergency powers. Although we hope that Washington reverses course, we must plan for the inevitable or unpredictable.”
Officials here also had expected to see deep cuts in aid from Washington, but not until late summer or fall with the congressional adoption of the next federal budget. Since taking office in January, though, Trump has used executive orders on several occasions to suspend grants, reclaim unspent dollars from states, or attach controversial new conditions to federal assistance.
The comments came hours after state Senate Democrats completed a closed-door caucus during which members vented frustrations about Trump’s latest unilateral move, the cancellation of $12 billion in public health grants to states this week, including $155 million for infectious disease management, genetic screening of newborns and substance abuse prevention in Connecticut.
“What no one could anticipate was how severe these cuts would be and how quickly they would occur to vital programs, sometimes without warning,” Lamont and legislative leaders wrote, adding decisions on when to restore funding would be made in the coming weeks on a case-by-case basis.
Their statement didn’t say, though, whether the fiscally moderate-to-conservative governor and his fellow Democrats in legislative leadership see eye-to-eye on which piggy banks are OK to shatter, and which can’t be touched.
Connecticut holds a record-setting $4.1 billion budget reserve, commonly known as its rainy day fund, an amount equal to 18% of annual operating costs.
But an aggressive series of budget caps, labeled “fiscal guardrails” by Lamont and other supporters, have generated roughly triple that $4.1 billion mark since their enactment in 2017. And what wasn’t deposited into the reserve, another $8.5 billion, was used to whittle down the state’s massive pension debt.
One “guardrail” alone, a provision that restricts lawmakers’ ability to spend certain income and business tax receipts, has forced them to save an average of $1.4 billion annually since 2017. Analysts say it will capture another $1.4 billion before this fiscal year ends on June 30, and closer to $1.3 billion in each of the next three years.
Though the governor and legislative leaders all have cited the rainy day fund as one coffer Connecticut may need to tap to mitigate impending cuts in federal aid, scaling back the budget caps that helped fill this reserve is another matter.
Lamont has been reluctant to tamper with this system, though he did express a willingness in February to scale back this savings mandate modestly by about $300 million per year.
Ritter and Looney, though, have been more direct about the need to reform this “guardrails” system, save less, and pour more dollars into core programs like health care, education and social services.
And the House speaker said Friday he believes these saved income and business tax receipts should be the first line of defense against Trump cuts.
It’s been 14 years since Connecticut has failed to make the full contributions recommended by pension analysts for its retirement benefits for state employees and municipal teachers, and Ritter noted the full $3.2 billion owed this fiscal year already has been budgeted.
And any “guardrails” savings Connecticut doesn’t need to reverse cuts in federal funding still could be sent into the pensions as well, Ritter added.
But cracking this piggy bank first would leave the larger, $4.1 billion rainy day fund available for later this summer or fall, when potentially more damage could occur.
With Congress aiming to find more than $880 billion in cuts to Medicaid — a cooperative health care program that sends $6.1 billion to Connecticut this year alone — officials here fear revenues that support nursing homes, federally qualified health clinics, hospitals and insurance programs for poor adults and children, could be in grave jeopardy.
And with recent tariffs ordered by the president increasing many economists’ fears of a looming recession, Connecticut may need its rainy day fund later this year or next to mitigate the big drops in tax receipts that often accompany a sharp national economic downturn, legislative leaders say.
Looney echoed Ritter’s comments, calling the president’s latest health care funding cuts “irresponsible, reckless and possibly disastrous” and showing Connecticut must have all resources ready to offset damage to its most vital programs.
“We can’t draw a line anywhere,” Looney added.
The Lamont administration opted not to elaborate on Friday’s statement after its release.
But the governor has warned on several occasions that Connecticut must understand it ultimately can’t offset all losses in federal funding if the cuts go as deep as some fear they will.
Connecticut will receive more than $10 billion in federal funding this fiscal year, a total that equals roughly 40% of the entire state budget.
“No state can restore every cut that comes from Washington,” the joint statement from Connecticut leaders adds.
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