Matt Lesser - Political Positions

Political Positions

Lesser has stated that he plans to shift the burden of education from the taxpayers to the state, as the state legislature had already agreed to pay for 50% of the costs of education. However, this is a contested claim since the supposed state “promise” of 50% funding comes from a 1979 report of the Connecticut State Board of Education (SBE) and the Connecticut School Finance Advisory Panel called A Plan for Promoting Equal Educational Opportunity in Connecticut and is viewed as outdated and misinterpreted by opponents.

In order to lower the cost of education further, Lesser has supported a controversial "pooling" bill that would have allowed municipalities, small businesses and nonprofit organizations to join the state's health insurance plan until it was vetoed by Governor M. Jodi Rell on June 13. Lesser has also called for switching schools over to renewable alternative sources of energy and for funding of the PILOT and ECS programs to lower education costs further still.