School board member Maria Pereira is urging education advocates to attend or issue testimony regarding the state legislature’s Education Committee’s public hearing Tuesday on Governor Dan Malloy’s proposed education spending. From Pereira:
I am asking everyone and anyone who cares about the academic and social well-being of our over 21,000 BPS children to either submit testimony or attend the Education Committee’s Public Hearing on Governor Malloy’s proposed Education Budget.
The hearing will be scheduled as follows:
Tuesday, February 21, 2017 in the Legislative Office Building located in Hartford.
It is scheduled to begin at 4:00PM, however sign-up begins at 9:00AM.
The BOE is providing a bus to Hartford which will depart 45 Lyon Terrace at 1:00PM.Please email me at mpereira0667@yahoo.com if you are interested in going to Hartford to testify. We need your full name prior to your arrival in Hartford so we can have legislative aids sign you up at 9:00AM. Based on the proposed budget that negatively impacts over 139 towns/cities, a large turnout is expected.
Public Hearings normally allow three (3) minutes in public testimony. Please prepare and time yourself for a three-minute statement.
The proposed budget is a disaster for our 21,000 students.
Here is the breakdown:
2017 ECS Funding = $181,105.4
2018 ECS Funding = $155,146.9
ECS REDUCTION = -$25,958.5
Elimination of Special Ed. Excess Cost Grant = -$4,886.0
TOTAL REDUCTION = -$30,844.5
Added Cost of 1/3 of Teacher Pensions = -$12,908.0
Total Reduction + Teacher Pension Costs = -$43,792.5
New Special Education Grant Allocation = $39,109.5
Net Loss = -$4,658,000Bridgeport was a plaintiff in the CCJEF lawsuit that took nine years to wind through the courts to finally prevail, but Governor Malloy has proposed a budget in which Bridgeport would LOSE almost $5,000,000 next year. However, Governor Malloy has budgeted $22,000,000 for new charter schools and charter school expansion.
Please help us stand up for our 21,000 true public school students.
Lennie, thanks for posting this so quickly. Can you possibly clean up the statistics/data?
Yes. While OIB is a great place to air our views and debate the issues, it is no substitute for putting our money where our mouths are. We need to come together and speak with one voice to get Bridgeport what it deserves from Hartford. Get on the bus.
We need ALL General Assembly (Bridgeport) candidates on one page and it should be clearly public. Even then, the suburban legislators (both Democratic and Republican) control the General Assembly. In the big picture, the Judiciary, through the Moukawsher decision (or maybe even others) may be the only arm of government in the State of Connecticut that will be able to rectify the economic segregation that exists in Connecticut. The 22 million for Charter Schools needs to be stopped. That may be the most important accomplishment right now. We need to go to a statewide referendum asking the people of Connecticut if they want to see the expansion of Charter Schools. Massachusetts had a referendum in 2016 and voters rejected expansion of charter schools. The issue of charter schools needs to be addressed because charter schools have a much greater impact upon urban school systems.
The state had an opportunity in the past to take over the Bpt Board of Ed that continues to play politics and fail the school system and its kids, but failed. It does not matter how much money is given to Bpt’s Public Schools if the money is continually mismanaged time and time again.