These days the Board of Education is a messy food fight of charges, counter charges, threats of lawsuits, marathon meetings into the next morning and personality clashes. It’s a noisy place. For a long time, the city’s school system was that sleepy place political players could take care of their peeps. Maybe it wasn’t the traditional political dumping ground, but construction projects, renovations, paint jobs, transportation and custodial positions helped to grease the political system. When a department occupies at least one third of the overall city budget, opportunities exist to build political marrow. Sometimes little things mean a lot. But things have changed.
Families left the city because public schools in suburban towns provided a representative education without the costs of private schooling, publicity about underperforming schools gave residents pause, businesses balked at relocating to the city because of school system challenges and wealthy suburbanites watched their tax dollars finance beleaguered urban schools without a say in how they operate.
In 2011, city and state officials set about quietly to white out the elected school board in place of an appointed body under state control. It wasn’t one of those things where the city and state had declared publicly dramatic change will take place if things don’t improve. In the summer of 2011, the elected school board threw in the towel, dissolved itself and bowed to state control. Residents, whether in support or opposed, had been blindsided.
One day, everything seemed to be okay, publicly at least, the next day it was white flag. The state came in, an appointed board took over, a new school chief was hired, education advocates opposed to the move filed suit and the Connecticut Supreme Court reseated an elected board. Following record-shattering expenditures, voters defeated a charter amendment proposal for a mayoral-appointed school board. Candidates aligned with Connecticut’s Working Families Party joined forces with insurgents opposed to the political establishment to seize control of the school board.
The Democratic political establishment no longer controls the school board. It’s been one gigantic push and pull between reformers who support school choice and charter schools, and activists protecting local turf from financial interlopers.
As assortment of groups from inside and outside the city have been fighting for public support of their respective agendas. A new group to the mix is the pro charter school organization Families for Excellent Schools that has bought air time and web time (including OIB) trying to build public support against the school board’s threat to challenge the legality of two new charter schools, funded by the state, that operate independently.
Meanwhile, the personalities on the nine-member elected Board of Education engage in a back-and-forth about finances, school construction, charter schools, lawyers, consultants and conflicts of interests. And judging from recent history and community chatter, the lightning rod that is the Board of Education won’t end any time soon.
Sidebar:
Pleasure Beach
Volunteers needed May 17th 8:30 am to 3:00pm
Lunch provided
Park City Magnet green squad and Wheelabrator Bridgeport Clean up Pleasure Beach
contact PCMGreensquad@gmail.com
Twitter: @Greensquad_PCM
Facebook: ParkCityMagnetGreenSquad
website: PCMGreensquad.webs.com
transportation provided from Park City Magnet School to Pleasure Beach, buses leave promptly at 9:00am
There HAS NOT BEEN ANY PUBLIC ACCESS TO PLEASURE BEACH SINCE 1996. IT WOULD BE NICE IF ELECTED OFFICIALS OF THAT DISTRICT WOULD SHOW UP AND WOULD BE NICE IF THE CITY GOT BEHIND THIS AS WHEELEBRATOR WOULD BE RECYCLING ALL THE GARBAGE.
THANK YOU FOR TAKING THE TIME TO READ THIS POST. HOPEFULLY THE GREEN MAYOR WILL ASK HIS EMPLOYEES TO VOLUNTEER FOR THIS CAUSE AND SUPPORT PARK CITY MAGNET SCHOOL WHERE THE STUDENTS ARE AWESOME.
Buses leaving 9am School on 1526 Chopsey Hill Rd.
On “choice”:
From a Washington Post blog on education
www .washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/ravitch-will-school-choice-kill-public-education/2012/06/25/gJQABAor0V_blog.html
A reader posted a comment that I think is profound. The more that people begin to see education as a consumer choice, the more they will be unwilling to pay for other people’s children. And if they have no children in school, then they have no reason to underwrite other people’s private choices.
The basic compact that public education creates is this: The public is responsible for the education of the children of the state, the district, the community. We all benefit when other people’s children are educated. It is our responsibility as citizens to support a high-quality public education, even if we don’t have children in the public schools.
But once the concept of private choice becomes dominant, then the sense of communal responsibility is dissolved. Each of us is then given permission to think of what is best for me, not what is best for we.
Here is what the reader wrote:
Parents have always been free to direct their personal funds to the private schools of their choice, for what they see as the additional private benefit of their own children.
But people pay taxes to support the public school system whether they are parents or not. If only parents are given a choice in the type of school system that tax dollars support, then only parents of school-age children should pay school taxes, and based on the number of children in school.
Private individuals are not entitled by any consideration of the common good to divert public funds for the sake of private corporate profit and personal religious preferences.
When people start seeing education as a private commodity that parents buy for their own children–just another personal choice, like whether to buy designer duds or that hot new toy–then we are going to see a taxpayer revolt like we have never seen before, and public-funded education will cease to exist.
Also see:
“The Odd and Shifting Logic of School Choice”
dianeravitch.net/2012/12/01/the-odd-and-shifting-logic-of-school-choice/
the Wall Street Journal op-ed:
“Why I Changed My Mind About School Reform”
online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052748704869304575109443305343962
Pete–you can’t be serious. First off, all these comments are from Ravitch. Secondly, Ravitch might be crazy. Her premise is charters will ruin public education because people will not want to pay for other people’s kids to go to charter schools. I have a little secret for you. People do not want to pay for kids to go to public schools either. As our population ages, they do not want to pay for services they do not use. The odds of a school budget increase passing drops as the average age of the community goes up. Old people in BPT get a property tax discount. If someone gets a $1000 discount, $600 of that comes out of education and they do not care. Children already have choices and no one is refusing to pay. Kids can pick from public schools, magnets, tech schools and inter-districts.
Communities like Stratford are more apt to raise school budgets than BPT and this is why People in Stratford, simply, have more money. People in Stratford see schools as an equitable investment (worth the cost). The success/cost ratio for Stratford schools is seen as acceptable. If anything is going to ‘kill public education’ by making people not want to pay for it, it will not be charters. It will be exorbitant costs coupled with poor performance. If anything, by increasing performance and reducing costs, charters will help this. Charters will actually save public education.
People are more willing to spend money, especially money they do not have, on something they believe has value. Would you be more apt to pay $1K for an ounce of gold or an ounce of coffee? The ounce of coffee is far more useful. The ounce of gold is useless. However, you perceive the ounce of gold as something of value. The BPT schools are not perceived as having value. They are seen as ‘dropout factories’ due to their poor performance. The two main reasons people do not move to BPT are the schools and the taxes. In reality, the property tax out-of-pocket cost is low in BPT. The average person in Greenwich pays ~$13K in property tax. More than double what someone in BPT would pay. However, the taxes someone pays in Greenwich are seen to be ‘worth it’ and people in Greenwich can afford it.
Lennie, I find your last couple of sentences intriguing. Do you know something the rest of us don’t?
Another question, who is financing this latest group? This sort of reminds me of the myriad groups all supposedly separate but all financed by the Koch brothers. These school reform groups all seem to be financed by the same hedge fund, education mogul billionaires and millionaires.
FES is funded by the Kochs and Waltons.
In the early eighteen hundreds, the British outlawed Catholicism in Ireland and banned the Irish language. The priests responded by conducting “Hedge Schools” literally under hedges where the Irish educated their own in secrecy, imagine … The Irish immigrants conducted their own Catholic Schools when they came over to America and they had the education attained in Catholic schools to learn how to read, write and do arithmetic to succeed in a capitalistic society. This was at no cost to the taxpayer. This same spirit today resides in the Charter School movement, not entitlement as in Moales’ case.
Bridgeporteur, what do you mean “no cost to the taxpayer,” when charter schools are funded primarily with public funds, also known as costs to the taxpayer. Charter schools are tuition-free private schools.
I am sick and tired of all this arguing. I have no kids in school. I do pay taxes in Bridgeport and I DO NOT want to pay for charter schools in Bridgeport. If parents want a separate education, they should pay for it themselves.
All parents want a better education for their kids and the way to get it is go after the BOE and make them provide it. There are many ways to do this and to start they MUST have principals at each school who are qualified and are not in place because of diversity. It is obvious the schools that do a decent job have strong competent principals.
It is obvious all children can be mainstreamed; nice in theory, wrong in reality. Teachers spend most of their time dealing with these disruptive and troubled students, they belong in a separate setting. There has to be a way to hold teachers responsible for their students and their education, teachers having tenure (union protection) are detrimental to the students plus under the present system bad teachers are reward the same as good teachers. While the union contract has raises for all teachers the step raises should be left to the principals and a grading system.
The BOE has got to stop a lot of these issues they are wasting their time on and go about getting the kids the best education possible and in the case of the high schools that means in many cases changing the curriculum so the kids not college bound are ready for the real world when they graduate. I have read a whole year on this blog and in the papers about education in Bridgeport so WHAT REALLY HAS BEEN ACCOMPLISHED?
Nothing has been accomplished, Andy. We just like to argue with each other. Didn’t you say you had a senior citizen property tax break? 2/3rds of that money is the BOE’s. That would mean you do not pay as much toward education as some do. Why don’t you be a sport and send the BOE the MBR it is due? I wouldn’t like to think you are pulling a Finch.
BOE, the check is in the mail. I also sent a check to pay next year’s taxes in advance. I also have a bridge for sale.
This is the thing, Andy. I do not mind paying for education. I believe it IS important to have an educated population. It makes our country strong and stupid people are annoying. But this is what happens. I pay $3K to the city, $3K to the BOE and high state taxes to supplement the BOE and $12K to send my kids to private school. For $18K in ‘taxes’ I could have lived in Greenwich and sent my kids to public school. Even if I had to pay $3K tax to the BOE and $3K to the charters, I would be better off. If the BOE can’t straighten itself out, let the charters do it.
BOE–I am with you. The sad reality in BPT (and other cities) is the public schools are not getting it done. It is not just money, all the money in the world will not help if those in charge of spending that money are inept. Look at BPT, you have Moales and his many issues. But on the other hand many on this board are too controlled by outside influences (whether it’s City hall, political parties, or “city activists”).
Andy–I agree with your sentiments regarding holding teachers accountable and doing something about the disruptive element in the classroom.
But the biggest issue is, and will remain, the lack of cohesive and focused parental engagement. The parents need to realize they are the most powerful voice for their children. The current division in the parents only serves to maintain the status quo on the BOE. Some side with the Charter proponents, other side with the non charter, and the kids are crushed in the middle of the political games.
The charter parents should understand their solution does not work for all, the numbers and opportunities are not there.
The non-charter parents should be furious that even within the public school system, there is inequality (magnet vs. non-magnet) and more should be done to close that gap. Just demanding more state and city money is not going to fix things.
Neither set of parents are “the enemy.” the broken school system is the enemy, and they are fighting the war, but on different fronts. Divided efforts do not work. If the parents could (without “activist” input) find common ground, their voices would be more powerful.
Not too long ago I said to a parent of preschool-age children if 3000 to 3500 parents got together for the good of the children, we could change Bridgeport. That group would swing every local election.
The magnet v. non-magnet problem has been around since the magnets were created. One solution I came up with is to regionalize Classical Studies and the new Roosevelt. Classical continues as it is, and Roosevelt becomes a performing arts school. This would be a great start to allowing “neighborhood schools.”
The issue with charter schools is the fact they are private schools. Education is a civil right. If people start to think society is not responsible to our children, chaos will be the norm. Market-based education will become de rigueur and our children will learn only what their families can afford to teach them. We will truly be an oligarchy then.