The legal fight over the future of the Bridgeport Board of Education in the long term and presumably school board elections in the short term could be decided by the Connecticut Supreme Court.
A battery of lawyers met in Waterbury Superior Court this morning to try to iron out the litigation process to settle several legal issues arising out of the state takeover of city schools requested by the Bridgeport Board of Education and Mayor Bill Finch. Jason Bartlett, campaign manager for Democratic mayoral candidate Mary-Jane Foster, a plaintiff in the matter, says state education officials erred when training was not provided to local school board members as is required by the state statute that governs state control of school municipalities. Foster also claims the law that state education officials followed is unconstitutional because it disenfranchises voters.
Finch has stated democracy doesn’t always work and state control of city schools is best for the students and city as a whole.
“The mayor tried to trick people into thinking there wasn’t going to be an election for Board of Education seats,” says Bartlett. Foster is running a full slate of BOE candidates after the Bridgeport Democratic Town Committee failed to endorse candidates citing the state takeover that has created a state-appointed board whose members have been selected by acting State Education Commissioner George Coleman. The DTC has intervened in the matter to try to preserve its candidate rights in case the court overturns the takeover decision.
The Foster campaign is pressing forward as though Foster BOE candidates will appear on the ballot for the September 13 primary.
The sacking of the entire elected members by Finch and Ramos was pure and utter bullshit. This was and is an attempt by Finch to take over the BOE and to get more money from the state.
Finch claims the members of the BOE could not get along and the three members of the BOE who asked the hard questions and opposed certain dumb-ass plans the other six members came up with made the board nonfunctional. Someone please explain to me when you have a voting majority of 6 to 3 why you can’t get the things done you want to get done.
We cannot forget Finch’s statement that democracy can be suspended because Bridgeport has a lot of illegals and criminals is a sin.
So Mr. Coleman the state BOE person appoints five and soon to be six people to his special board. Two are from Bridgeport, the rest are from out of town. With the exception of the college professor none have experience in any form of education.
It is time for the parents to say enough is enough. Here we are again with out-of-towners with no stake in Bridgeport making decisions for 140,000 residents. Enough of this bullshit.
It’s time for every parent with a child in the Bridgeport School system to get out and vote their feelings on September 13 , 2011. That is the day Bridgeport will start moving forward and it’s the day our kids will see the light at the end of the tunnel.
The light at the end of the tunnel …
Is a train!