By Elizabeth Benton

The state Board of Education will convene a new committee this year to examine a comprehensive overhaul of state education funding, including money for magnet, charter and traditional public schools.

The ad-hoc committee will be asked to draft recommendations by September, in time to make formal recommendations to the state legislature for the 2011 session.

The board acted Wednesday to authorize Education Commissioner Mark McQuillan to draft an official charge for the group.

The board did not discuss potential members Wednesday, but suggested the panel should include state Education Committee co-Chairmen Sen. Thomas P. Gaffey, D- Meriden, and Rep. Andrew M. Fleischmann, D-West Hartford, as well as representatives from the multitude of groups that testified before the board recently on changes to charter school funding.

Fleischmann said Wednesday he had not been contacted regarding the committee, but said the school funding system must be revamped.

“It’s a bit of a crazy quilt that we have right now, and we should have a better designed system,” he said. “What makes sense is having dollars follow students so the state doesn’t end up with too many situations where it is paying more than once for the education of one child,” he said.

Public schools in Connecticut are paid for through a patchwork of state, federal and local funds, which vary significantly across the array of public schools, from charters to magnets to traditional public schools. Even within the sphere of magnet schools, funding differs based on the region of the state and type of magnet school.

Charter school advocates had pushed for reform this year, claiming immediate action was needed for the state to be eligible for millions of dollars in federal school reform grants.

The state board last week reviewed a proposal from charter advocates Connecticut Coalition for Achievement Now that would have transferred state money from local districts to charters based on student enrollment. The board did not adopt the “money follows the child” proposal, and instead has recommended increasing per pupil grants to charter schools. That recommendation, which would cost the state an estimated $5 million in the upcoming fiscal year, will now go to the legislature for review.

School board member Theresa Hopkins-Staten said the ad-hoc committee will be asked to recommend a “balanced and coherent system” for education funding. She advocated particularly for a reduced role of local property taxes in education funding.

“It’s ineffective, inefficient and it hasn’t worked for many years,” she said.