A Sobering Take On The BOE Takeover–‘Selling Dreams To A Desperate People’

Glover “Sonny” Gardner has commented on numerous city issues for many years. He grew up in the PT Barnum Housing Complex and has lived in the North End for the past 30 years. He is a Vietnam veteran that was part of the ‘can’t vote, but can be drafted.’ He shares his assessment on state control of city schools, local politicians, voter fatigue and George Coleman, the state education chief supervising the school takeover that is being challenged in court. Grab a cup of joe. This is an interesting read from Sonny Gardner:

Government is supposed to derive its just powers from the consent of the governed. However, when Government becomes so powerful that it makes a law that tramples the rights of those citizens that elected a candidate and starts to appoint those of the government’s choice to replace elected officials, then the citizens have the right to alter or abolish that law.

When elected officials fail at their jobs or appear to be failing, it’s not the right of the government to replace the elected officials with people appointed by a government bureaucrat. I don’t recall when martial law was implemented in Bridgeport.

I can only imagine the frustrations that the board members felt. I believe that it was the extreme differences in the interpretation of the goals of the board that it caused the board to become disjoint and adversarial. The members separated into two separate factions, the group of six and the group of three with each accusing the other of being the culprits that caused the board to become dysfunctional and to fail in reaching its goals.

One question is who are the actual culprits that caused the board to become so adversarial that it became dysfunctional or does that matter? I think that it does matter how and why the board became dysfunctional and adversarial. I believe that the group of three felt so strongly that the majority were being manipulated by the mayor and the superintendent that to them, their goal became to prevent the group of six from doing anything that they deemed inconsistent with their group’s view.

The board had very few issues that they agreed upon and very little if any compromise was ever successful. My disagreement with the board members being replaced is the process that was used to turn the board over to the State Board of Education. It’s incredible that our electoral process can be circumvented by a very new law that dismisses elected officials. Is this to become a law that overrides another law that overrides another law? This very well might be the case.

There was the need to create a Voters Rights Act to counter a state law created by some states that didn’t allow some American citizens to exercise their right to vote. In 1857 the authors of the constitution ruled in the Dred Scott case that African Americans had no rights which the white man was bound to respect and that law had to be repealed. Women weren’t allowed to vote and neither were eighteen-year-olds even though an eighteen-year-old could be forced into the Armed Forces. So we must be very careful when the government makes laws that violate the civil rights of the voters by ignoring the right of a group of citizens to elect not select whomever they feel are the right people for the job.

The BOE is not a corporation and the officials can’t be terminated as can be done in a corporation when a group fails to reach its goals. Not being able to terminate an elected official oftentimes causes prolonged inefficiencies which negatively affects powerless groups. Such are the dangers in a democracy. Just truthfully ask yourselves about the Bush Administration or the Nixon Administration. In a democracy, the administration is hopefully voted out of office as in this last presidential election.

Mayor Finch was arrogant, inconsiderate and insulting when he made the statement about Bridgeporters not voting. However, just as you can look at the records and see that the school system is failing, you can also look at the voting list and see how many people in Bridgeport voted. Finch knows the facts, it was his choice of words that were very poor. I too know the facts, Black Bridgeporters don’t vote in large numbers unless an Obama is seeking office or if Obama comes to town. Had Obama not come to Bridgeport, Malloy would not have won Bridgeport.

Were Obama and Ms. Sonia Sotomayor were to come Bridgeport before each election, Bridgeport would have a Black or Latino Mayor and most city council members would be either Black or Latino. Since that’s not going to happen, the city council will continue to have a majority of Black and Latino in the city council, but can’t come together to elect a Black or Latino President of the City Council. The city council is factionalized, but so is congress.

Black Bridgeporters don’t vote in large numbers and Mayor Finch knows it as well as he is aware of the facts about the other statements that he made about Bridgeport. I don’t want to just pick on Finch. Ninety-five percent or more of Blacks that are leaders and other citizens that are financially able or barely able, send their children to private school. And we’re angry with Finch. Finch sends his children to public school in Bridgeport.

That doesn’t say much for me. I’m Black and I live in Bridgeport and I didn’t send my youngest to a Bridgeport High School and neither did Black state representatives, neither did Black state senators, and neither does the Black clergy and neither did the president of the NAACP. Were the leaders of Bridgeport and the Black Clergy to send their children to public school, we would have better public schools because we would have people that know how to fight injustices, but instead, we have all run away. We all follow the old adage, I’m going to look out for number one. We are quick to talk about White flight, but we hide the fact that we are in Black flight.

A side note, were Bridgeport to have better high schools, we would have the most powerful athletic teams in the state. But upfront and personal, despite the financial hardship placed on my family, I would make the sacrifice again, I would still send my child to a private school. If my grandchildren have to live in Bridgeport and have to attend public school, I would make the sacrifice and not send them to Bridgeport public schools.

And since I’m putting it all on the table, it’s not that numerous teachers are failing the children of Bridgeport. There are many great teachers in Bridgeport public schools. They are hampered because they fear the principal, the principal is afraid of the superintendent, the superintendent is afraid of the mayor who finally kicked out the BOE and the children aren’t afraid of anyone.

Something has to be done other than have the state take over the BOE. These are drastic times and call for drastic measures. The mayor in my opinion took the wrong drastic measure and I believe violated the civil rights of its citizens, but something has to be done.

I, like Bill Cosby, will be vilified after making the following statement, but let the chips fall where may. I am angry with a large number of our children, I am angry with a large number of the parents. Men and women fought, were water hosed and some died for a better life for me and all other Black families. It is not excusable that many children need better discipline. Have no fear, it is fixable were we to have administrators who take strong stands and make moral decisions. Not religious decision, but moral decisions. Were moral decisions made by state representatives, state senators and the gold coast powerbrokers, Bridgeport would get the same amount of money as all other schools in Connecticut; but the citizens of Bridgeport have no rights that are bound to be respected by the ruling classes in Connecticut.

Despite my sometimes optimistic views, Bridgeport will never get its just due. We are not a part of the gold coast and as a whole, we don’t have much in disposable income. What Black Americans do have is the vote and we don’t even use that.

The State BOE is not the answer despite the plan so beautifully laid out by Mr. Coleman, Interim Commissioner of Education. Oh what a beautiful spin he placed into the dreams of the Bridgeport parents that gathered at Mt. Aery Baptist Church. It was so appealing that it captured even me and almost everyone else. It was what we wanted to hear coming from a very educated Black man. His dark skin and white hair gave him the appearance of a savior coming to save the Bridgeport school system from itself. We so wanted to be saved that we believed this eloquent spokesman from the state.

It wasn’t until I got into my car that I realized that he was selling dreams to a desperate people. I’m glad that he wasn’t selling Movado watches for $7 as on 42nd street. I would’ve bought one and also would’ve bought the Brooklyn Bridge. I hope that he will enjoy his upcoming retirement after placing the parents in a field of dreams. Mr. Coleman’s experience is with Head Start and elementary schools. I don’t believe that he has any idea of what goes on in any High School, whether it’s inside or outside of Bridgeport.

Call me whatever you want, but if the city can’t find a Joe Clark soon, there will be additional years of children suffering because of a top heavy overpaid group of administrators and consultants. Now EMOs (currently at Harding and Bassick) are a part of the mix and Mr. Coleman didn’t know what an EMO was when I asked him after his speech at Mt. Aery Baptist Church. If an EMO is running Harding and Bassick, what is the quarter million dollar man doing (Ramos)?

If this new BOE is unaware of what an EMO is and how it’s functioning at two high schools in the city, what else will they not know about the city?

It seems that no one in power knows the answer. The State BOE doesn’t have an answer, the superintendent (quarter-million dollar man) doesn’t have the answer and neither does the mayor. Ask the people who work within the schools. Even though they have no power to influence, they will say, just enforce the rules that are already in place and stop worrying about how many kids might get suspended. Some students need to be suspended, but finally the rules and regulations will be in effect. To all local and state politicians, look the problem in the face and make a moral decision. Not a safe decision but a moral decision.