As talks on the next state budget hit a new phase, local officials are ramping up their push for more education aid.

New Haven officials made a public plea Thursday, asking the state to give more help as the city’s education budget faces a $23 million shortfall.

“The governor and the state legislature are sitting on a huge pile of money and there’s an obsession by the governor with protecting the fiscal guardrails,” Mayor Justin Elicker (D-New Haven) said.

Other school officials are leaving the fiscal guardrail debate to lawmakers, but agree education aid should be the top priority.

Connecticut Association of Boards of Education President Leonard Lockhart said school districts are doing their part to keep costs down.

“At the same time, there’s a lot of unfunded things that are in there as well as just not enough funding to do the basic job of the school district,” said Lockhart, who is also on Windsor’s school board.

Gov. Ned Lamont’s budget proposal would add $85 million next year for Education Cost Sharing Grants, the state’s primary form of aid to school districts.

“One of governor Lamont’s top priorities is ensuring that our children have access to the best possible educational system,” Office of Policy and Management spokesman Chris Collibee said in a statement.

Collibee also noted that New Haven’s per-pupil ECS funding has increased by 17.8% since Lamont (D-Connecticut) took office because those grants have increased as enrollment has dropped.

Still, Democratic lawmakers say they want to do more.

The proposal they advanced out of the Appropriations Committee Tuesday included another $26.2 million above what Lamont suggested for ECS. It also includes an extra $124 million for a separate pool of aid for special education.

Sen. Matt Lesser (D-Middletown) said the state will also need flexibility in the fiscal guardrails, a package of rules meant to limit state spending.

Lesser and other Democrats are also worried about additional cuts in federal aid as Republicans in Washington, D.C., have expressed a desire to slash federal aid.  

Meanwhile, Attorney General William Tong (D-Connecticut) filed a lawsuit Friday to block President Donald Trump’s efforts to put conditions on education aid.

“We know that there are a lot of challenges coming to us from the federal government, including attacks on education funding, and so what we really need is just more flexibility,” Lesser said.

Republicans remain opposed to the increased spending or to changes to the guardrails.

Rep. Vincent Candelora (R-Minority Leader) said many schools are facing shortfalls because they used pandemic-era aid to cover ongoing operating expenses.

He also said the guardrails created the same surplus others want to utilize, so those budget constraints should remain in place.

“They’re there for a reason,” Candelora said. “It’s not just to restrict spending, but it’s actually to allow us to pay down on unfunded liabilities and not get government into crisis.”

Firefighters rescued a group of ducklings stuck in a storm in Westbrook on Thursday morning.

The Westbrook Fire Department said the ducklings were spotted in a storm drain on Rintoul Road.

Firefighters said they gently and swiftly rescued the ducks.

“Yes, you read that right — we don’t just fight fires, we rescue ducks, too!” the fire department said.

Hundreds of people gathered to protest a visit by a controversial Israeli government official in New Haven Wednesday night.

Itamar Ben-Gvir was met with boos from protesters as he entered an event hosted by the Shabtai Society, a group not affiliated with Yale University but has student members.

Mitchell Dubin, a member of Shabtai, said in a statement that hosting Ben-Gvir is not an act of endorsement.

“Shabtai does not seek to legitimize or delegitimize world leaders. Instead, it provides a space where ideas are interrogated with rigor, policies are challenged with integrity, and civil discourse is preserved even under strain,” the statement reads.

Dubin said Ben-Gvir was invited to speak “in the spirit of open discourse and out of a deep love for the State and People of Israel.” It’s his first visit to the U.S. as Israel’s national security minister.

Pro-Palestinian protesters said he’s not welcome in New Haven.

“If you want to engage in that kind of conversation, choose someone less controversial,” Andrew Rice, of Milford, said. “Do not choose someone who is actively pushing the button to slaughter innocent Palestinian lives.”

Ben-Gvir is part of the Zionist movement which advocates for a Jewish state in Israel. He has been convicted for supporting terrorism and inciting anti-Arab racism.

A group of Jewish people from New York made the trip to New Haven to protest Ben-Gvir’s visit.

“He puts a yarmulke on his head and he says that he’s religious, as if he’s speaking in the name of a godliness, of some Jewishness,” Yisroel Dovid Weiss, a rabbi with Neturei Karta International, said.

Eric Woodward, the rabbi of Beth El-Keser Israel synagogue in New Haven, was also part of the protest. He said the event is divisive, as many are hoping for an end to the Israel-Hamas war that started in October 2023.

“He is a dangerous person who does not represent Jews,” Woodward said. “And we do not want him in this country.”

The protest started on the sidewalk but spilled into the street, so police closed off the street to traffic. The event also had security and police dogs in and around the building.