I don’t want to hear that kids don’t care about schools ever again! Bridgeport students proved that they absolutely care, even if the information they received was erroneous.
On the same day that Gov. Dannel Malloy vetoed the Republican budget plan, Harding High School students in Bridgeport walked out of class and made the 2.5-mile trek to the mayor’s office, demanding answers after a letter surfaced that implied that Bridgeport Public School would receive no funding after October 1st — it turned out that wasn’t true.
The video above was published by DoingItlocal.com, a Bridgeport news site that
Letter Contained Embellished Claims
Earlier this week, Bridgeport’s Mayor Joseph Ganim sent a letter to superintendent Aresta Johnson, asking that the school district to come up with a contingency plan because the $63.5 million in city contributions would be depleted by October 1st, writing:
“In the event that the state does not remit state funds for Board expenses the city will not have funds to pay any additional board expenditure.”
This alarmed district officials and students who took this message to mean that schools would not have any money if a new state budget wasn’t passed by the end of the month.
While the situation is dire — the school district is set to lose out on at least $8 million in grants this year — the letter was premature. According to the Connecticut Post, the state promised to send out 25 percent of the city’s grant payment even without a budget.
No schools are set to close… at least for now.
What Kind Of Message Does This Send?
What kind of message does it send to students when their mayor writes a letter asking a school board to come up with a “contingency plan” in case there isn’t enough money to keep their school open?
Connecticut’s budget crisis is bad, but how on earth could we have gotten to this point? Where High School students are genuinely afraid that their school will shut down, and they’re not wrong either.
Sure, the letter was likely a political ploy meant to take the flack over the lack of education funding in Bridgeport off the mayor’s office,(This clearly backfired) but the fact that these students saw this as a possibility is bad enough.
State legislators need to work together and come up with a solution. Yesterday, the information was incorrect, but with the way things are going, tomorrow this could be a reality.