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Just when you think you’ve seen it all… Big City Mayors Speak Out

Mar 24

jonpeltoAchievement First/ConnCAN, Charter Schools, Education Reform, Malloy, Stefan Pryor Achievement First, Big City Mayors, Charter Schools, ConnCAN, Education Reform, Malloy 4 Comments

Three of Connecticut’s “Big City” mayors had a commentary piece published in today’s CTNewsjunkie.  They should have remembered the quote “It is better to be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt” before they put their names on to today’s piece entitled “Small Investment, Big Payoff”.   (also linked below as well)

Unless of course what they are referring to the price whoever wrote this piece paid to get them to sign it.

It would be far better to believe that this piece was ghost written by the charter school lobbyists and the mayors didn’t read it before they signed it than to think they would ever be so dismissive and insulting to the needs of their constituents.

Mayors Pedro Segrarra (Hartford), Bill Finch (Bridgeport) and Neil O’Leary (Waterbury) not only represent three of the poorest cities, but with the Education Cost Sharing Formula so underfunded, they also represent cities whose property tax rates are proportionately some of the highest.

Connecticut’s State Education Cost Sharing Formula is at least $800 million underfunded and more like $1.5 billion when the numbers are correctly calculated.

The biggest losers are the local property taxpayers of Waterbury, Hartford and Bridgeport.

These mayors have not only promised to develop school systems that provide their cities with a quality education, they have a legal and Constitutional duty to do exactly that.

However, since the state of Connecticut – year after year – fails to pay its fair share of education costs, the extraordinary burden of funding those schools falls disproportionately hardest on the middle-income and working families of Hartford, Bridgeport and Waterbury (as well as on the local taxpayers of our state’s other cities and larger communities).

These three mayors begin their “editorial” by saying “We fully support Governor Dannel P. Malloy’s education-reform package, especially his proposal to increase funding for public charter schools.”

Malloy’s proposal is the biggest change in Education Policy in their lifetimes – and that’s all they can think of starting with?

Malloy’s charter school proposal is that each charter schools student be given an extra $2,600 ($1,000 of which would be shifted from the city’s existing school budget).

Malloy’s solution gives 7,000 charter school students $2,600 more per student while the 222,000 students in the 30 poorest towns in Connecticut get an increase of an average $150 per student.

Achievement First, the large charter school management company that Malloy’s Commissioner of Education, Stefan Pryor, helped form and manage for the eight years before he became Commissioner will receive an extra $6 million to educate their 2,440 students.

Waterbury with its 17,656 students would get $4.4 million or $249 more per student.

Hartford with its 20,774 students would get $3.7 million or $178 more per student.

Bridgeport with its 21,054 students would get $2.7 million of $130 per student.

Words cannot easily convey the disbelief that these mayors would sign such a letter.

Elected to speak out and fight for their constituents, these three mayors have instead endorsed a policy in which their constituents will end up paying significantly higher property taxes.

What the mayors agreed to sign is so incredibly absurd and outrageous that beyond making them appear the fools, it begs Friedrich Nietzsche’s famous words – “Every man has his price…for every man there exists a bait which he cannot resist swallowing.”

Perhaps they are hoping that when Governor Malloy and his administration take over their city’s schools he will make them their own city’s “Special Master”.  That way each one of them can run their schools and make far more than they would ever make as their city’s mayor.

You can find their piece at: http://www.ctnewsjunkie.com/ctnj.php/archives/entry/op-ed_small_investment_big_payoff/

And here is the financial impact of Malloy’s “Education Reform” proposal on Connecticut’s 30 poorest communities.

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