Suburbs Profit Off New Haven’s Magnets

by Christopher Peak | Jul 5, 2019 1:29 pm

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Posted to: Hamden, Politics, Schools, State, True Vote

Suburban school districts are being paid millions of dollars for students that they don’t teach, while sticking New Haven taxpayers with the bill for educating their kids. Thanks to a funding formula that experts say is broken, the state has been paying out money to the municipalities where students live, rather than where they go to school. Last school year, because of this little-understood technicality, the state government sent nearby towns $13.8 million for students who go to New Haven’s city-operated inter-district magnet schools. The suburbs got to pocket that money, even though the kids were no longer being educated in their schools. In the process, they cushioned their budgets — sometimes with millions of dollars in free cash — as New Haven raised property taxes, shuttered schools and laid off teachers. Staring down a $20-$30 million budget deficit this year, local officials are vowing to get that cash back from the suburbs. The city’s 16 inter-district magnets are highly coveted schools that were rebuilt in a failed attempt to voluntarily desegregate across town lines. In an examination of records and in interviews, the Independent found that suburban school districts are being subsidized to let their kids go. In total, nearby towns are keeping $13,823,000 for the 2,645 students who they send off to New Haven’s inter-district magnet schools. The Independent reached that estimate by multiplying the state’s per-pupil subsidy with the number of students each town sends to New Haven. (Click on the towns on the above map to see how much each keeps in ECS money.) The amount that other towns get to keep varies widely, largely based on how many students they send and how wealthy the state thinks they are. Some towns, like Madison, are retaining just a couple hundred bucks, while other towns, like West Haven, are raking in millions. The towns that profit the most from this arrangement are West Haven, which keeps $6,032,000; Hamden, $2,573,000; East Haven, $2,030,000; Ansonia, $886,000; Derby, $384,000; and Naugatuck, $308,000. Those towns do retain some responsibilities for the kids they send to New Haven, the most expensive being the excess costs of special education services beyond what New Haven receives on a per pupil basis from public and private sources. Recognizing the inequity, state law does allow for New Haven to collect the cost of educating suburban kids by charging other towns tuition for its inter-district magnet schools. That idea has been floated since 2016, but New Haven’s administrators haven’t pursued it. Katie Roy, the executive director of the Connecticut School Finance Project, said that New Haven is leaving millions of dollars on the table — money that, she added, the city shouldn’t have to hunt down in the first place. “The state shouldn’t be sending money to the sending district that doesn’t educate these students, then leave it up to the receiving district to go after that money and decide how much to charge. That creates this inter-town relational problem,” she said. “In my opinion, if a kid lives in Hamden but goes to school in New Haven, we should not be giving the money to Hamden, then telling New Haven, ‘You have to go get that money.’” A Broken Formula In a legislature dominated by suburban interests, it’s unsurprising that suburbs come out on top — except when the state’s main school funding formula was explicitly designed to redistribute the largess from country estates to poorer cities, where the tax base is severely curtailed by the presence of universities, hospitals, social-service agencies and government offices. Ever since 1977, when the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled in Horton v. Meskill that it’s unfair to fund schools solely based on municipal property taxes, state lawmakers have tried to equalize funding across towns. A decade later, in 1988, the General Assembly first introduced the Education Cost Sharing (ECS) formula, as an attempt to make sure each town had the minimum amount it needed to keep its schools functioning. At its core, the ECS is designed to make up the difference between the price of teaching each child (including a bit extra for high-needs students) and a local government’s ability to raise the tax revenue to pay for it. Advocates have long pointed out that the formula isn’t based on any research about the true cost of an education. They argue that it drastically underestimates what it takes to teach a student dealing with learning disabilities, language barriers, concentrated poverty or even just city life. Even then, the legislature has routinely shortchanged the formula, distributing aid instead through block grants that have been about $800 million short. During the last legislative session, lawmakers committed to meeting their obligations within the next decade, which would lead to a $20.9 million increase for New Haven by 2028 at current enrollment levels, according to the Connecticut School Finance Project. As they’ve attempted to tackle some of those bigger issues besetting the formula, state legislators said they’ve been aware that they eventually need to deal with the fact that ECS money is being diverted from city-run magnet schools, but they haven’t gotten around to fixing it. In total, between ECS and supplementary grants for the magnet program, New Haven receives roughly $12,550 for each city resident and $8,385 for each suburban resident in its inter-district magnet schools. While the problem lingers, New Haven’s schools are being forced to make cuts. “You’re seeing part of this play out in New Haven right now. You end up with a situation like this: New Haven is educating a large number of kids from the surrounding suburban districts and frankly not receiving as much money as they should to educate those kids,” Roy said. “Now, you have a deficit situation in New Haven that is going to result in cuts to the schools, which obviously impacts teachers and kids and everyone else; is going to result in New Haven taxpayers having to pick up part of the bill; or a situation where you have a little of both. It’s already a town with a high mill rate and cuts at the school level. “It really creates a system that I think is fundamentally unfair and ultimately disadvantages students,” she added. “It results in a situation in which a school district does not have the money that it needs for the kids enrolled in their schools.” New Haven’s school system also benefited from the creation of the magnet program for years. State support counted for the lion’s share of $1.7 billion in school construction, and the city still gets money from another inter-district magnet funding stream, which pays $7,085 per suburban student and $3,000 per city student. The legislature initially paid ECS money to sending districts to get buy-in on those programs. But the real question now is how long that arrangement makes sense, when the last school is being completed and the ECS formula’s per pupil payment is outpacing the magnet grant. Time For Tuition? In 2016, New Haven’s former chief financial officer, Victor De La Paz, proposed charging a $750 fee per suburban student who attended its inter-district magnet schools. In the following three years, that tuition would gradually increase to $2,250 per suburban student. Almost as soon as that was proposed, state legislators passed a law requiring districts like Bridgeport and New Haven to seek state permission months in advance. Darnell Goldson, the president of New Haven’s school board and a Hartford lobbyist for a concert ticket reseller, said that he’d never seen the Connecticut legislature, with the support of New Haven’s delegation, act so quickly. “When we talked about charging additional tuition for the suburban kids, not only did those legislators strike bak, but so quickly and so efficiently that we could not do that without a year’s notice,” he said. “The legislature worked faster than I’ve ever seen them work to pass a state law.” After the Independent shared its findings with him, Goldson said he was shocked, explaining that he hadn’t realized that suburban districts were being compensated for the kids New Haven has been educating. Goldson said it was a failure of leadership for New Haven to not have taken steps to start discussing tuition fees — especially this year, as the district faces down a $30 million deficit, about one-third of which is expected to be covered by state grants. “I’m extremely frustrated that our staff — our well-paid staff — had not identified this as a budget-mitigation activity and acted on it,” he said. Goldson, who’s running for reelection on a platform of pushing the state to better fund urban education, personally committed to making it his priority at the next board meeting and in future legislative sessions. “We’re going to get that money, one way or the other, to make sure that our kids have what they deserve. That would eliminate the budget deficit right there, maybe a couple times over,” he said. “We are going to, in the future, work with our state legislators, so that the money is following the kids. If the kid is in our district, the money should be there.” Suburbs Weigh In Every morning over the last year, close to 100 West Haven students drove across the bridges over West River, headed down Legion or Davenport Avenues and pulled up in the parking lot behind their school, Hill Regional Career High. Near the end of the year, those same students found out that Superintendent Birks was trying to involuntarily transfer out four of their teachers, who taught social-studies, music and world languages. They staged a walkout, heading to the front of the school to yell into bullhorns, “Don’t mess with our education. Don’t mess with our rights. Don’t take away our teachers.” Meanwhile, West Haven helped itself to $642,600 in ECS money for the students it sent to Hill Regional Career High — enough money to fund about 10 teacher salaries. West Haven’s top education official defended that setup, saying that he’d always seen the ECS payments to the suburbs as part of a bargain that had been struck decades ago that allowed the inter-district magnet schools to get started. Neil Cavallaro, West Haven’s superintendent, said that simply deducting the cost of each student who goes to a magnet school from his budget would leave his district underfunded. That echoes the same arguments made by charter school opponents, who point out that the cost of, say, a utility bill or a principal’s salary doesn’t go down proportionally each time one student leaves. “The ECS formula that was in place remained, because just removing students from a classroom doesn’t necessarily reduce the cost of operating a school district,” Cavallaro said. “Now, however, that the New Haven Board of Education continues to run deficits, they are becoming desperate and are looking for ways to charge their partners and break promises and commitments that went along with accepting the funds necessary to build those schools.” Cavallaro said he was stuck in a bind. He said that his town — whose finances are so shaky that they’ve had to take a state bailout — can’t afford to start paying tuition. But he also said that his schools — including the high school that’s undergoing a $130 million renovation — aren’t big enough to fit every student they’d need to take back. Cavallaro said that he thinks state lawmakers, including the governor, the education commissioner and the legislators, need to decide what to do, especially about the ECS formula. “For years, it’s been known that the ECS formula needs to be recalculated, and be made more fair and equitable. It’s a difficult subject, one that no one wants to address [and] one that can’t be settled just by charging cooperating cities,” Cavallaro said. “It seems to me that New Haven shouldn’t be allowed to settle this issue on their own.” Lemar: Change Coalition Growing “The next step is to reform ECS and get the balance right. Trying to find equity in the ECS formula has allowed us to have the conversation about what equity looks like more broadly,” said State Rep. Roland Lemar (pictured at left in above photo). “Being that school districts align so closely with towns, there’s very little incentive to break out of the status quo. We’re trying to build a political consensus that’s hard to reach. A lot of these towns would lose out on funding so that one town can gain.” Wouldn’t suburban towns still benefit from giving New Haven a bigger share of ECS money? After all, wouldn’t their students who choose to go to inter-district magnet schools be better off with adequately funded schools? If only the politics were that easy, said Lemar, a public-school parent who sits on the legislature’s Education Committee. “We’re supposed to come back with more money for them; that’s what a legislator is inclined to do. If Hamden is told, ‘You’re losing out on dollars and now we want to charge that town tuition too,’ that’s a huge cost for the sending town. They’re not told that hundreds of students are getting a better education under this model; they’re told that thousands of students are being shortchanged,” he said. “That’s where the political realities come in,” Lemar continued. “Those of us in New Haven might see this as inequitable, that we’re not getting our fair share, but the vast majority send their kids to public schools in their towns, in which the status quo is perfectly acceptable to them. They want it to remain exactly how it is, to protect the privilege and status that they’ve accrued.” Lemar added, though, that a group of legislators “who see the big picture” about reforming ECS are coming together. “The coalition is growing,” he said. The Independent plans to continue to look at the various ways that New Haven’s 16 inter-district magnet schools have changed public education throughout the region. Do you have a story you’d like to tell us? Is there something about the schools that you want to know? Get in touch by emailing tips_photos@newhavenindependent.org. The Independent will not share nor publish anything you tell us without first obtaining your explicit agreement.

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posted by: Barking up the right tree on July 5, 2019 1:49pm More proof that NH is mismanaged by people clearly over their head when it comes to leading this city to prosperity.

Clueless and bamboozled “leaders” running this city into the ground.

Does anyone here know what they’re doing ?

posted by: Where there’s smoke on July 5, 2019 2:01pm A couple point here. The poll question of Let cities charge tuition is misleading. We can charge tuition and just don’t for some reason. That gets to my second point. The issue isn’t suburban districts getting the money it’s our district not billing them for the service, which the law explicitly allows. With these overpaid administrators we cant get one off their ass to bill the suburbs. Just a clear disregard by the New Haven District of the taxpayers and our children. The third issue is how many New Haven kids go to the suburban districts? The whole upper management and most of our BOE folks should be fired. There’s no excuse for not recouping millions of dollars, NONE!

posted by: ClassicalLib on July 5, 2019 2:07pm Headline seems a little inflammatory seeing as most of that money went to West Haven, Hamden, and East Haven. It’s not like more affluent suburbs were ripping New Haven off. I recognize almost every town budget is affluent compared to New Haven’s (Although Hamden may give NH a run for its money).

posted by: Samuel T. Ross-Lee on July 5, 2019 2:17pm This is unconscionable. The suburbs KNOW that they are taking money from an urban school district, which has so many other disadvantages, and the suburbs are ok with that. The fact that this is a “glitch” in the state’s plan is not the point. The fact that suburban schools know that they are getting over on urban schools and disadvantaging us more is. The suburban district’s leaders should be ashamed. Unfortunately, there is no evidence that they are. The Rev. Samuel T. Ross-Lee

posted by: Elmer's Glue on July 5, 2019 2:23pm Pow! The only thing wrong with this brilliant piece of journalism is that it’s being published on Friday, July 5th, when no one is paying attention. Publish it again, Monday, Mr. Peak. And thanks.

posted by: 1644 on July 5, 2019 3:09pm 1. Given that a Bolton student was the lead plaintiff in Horton v. Meskill, it is wrong to say : “[T]he state’s main school funding formula was explicitly designed to redistribute the largess from country estates to poorer cities ....”

2. The suburbs are not subsidized to send students to New Haven. They just don’t get penalized, just as New Haven doesn’t lose money for its students who attend out of district schools.

3. New Haven does get extra money from the state for magnet schools, both in capital and extra operating subsidies.

4. As the article points out, New Haven could charge tuition. If New Haven isn’t, that’s New Haven’s issue.

5. This problems would not exist if we had a money follows the student model. Students could enroll wherever they were accepted, and the school district would pay a set per pupil fee for tuition, say the non-special ed per pupil charge. That would include religious and independent schools. Suburban districts might be all lot more open to Open Choice students if they get $15K per student enrolled rather than $3K. [Chris: To give some more context to your second and fifth points, the state’s funding formula does treat Open Choice, the program that allows New Haven students to go to school in the suburbs, differently from the inter-district magnet schools. For Open Choice, the districts each count the student as half a resident. The vocational schools, like The Sound School, are at the other end of the spectrum from the magnets, counting students entirely for the receiving districts’ ECS allocation.]

posted by: CityYankee on July 5, 2019 3:37pm Thanks to NH Mayor, Alders, BOE for not pursuing the money or tuition for this injustice. Using the schools to solve a social issue has caused suffering in the cities and no real solution to the issue of segregation that Sheff vs O’Neill tried to address. What is the answer? Shall we go back to local schools for local kids and fund the crap out of them so the education is top notch. Then, let those kids go out into the world ready to claim their space? Why must the schools bear the burden of social experimentation? Let’s just get some housing out in suburbia that is affordable and start makin’ friends!!

posted by: Where there’s smoke on July 5, 2019 4:35pm @rev Ross-lee I don’t think you can blame the suburbs if New Haven has the ability to charge and doesn’t. I also think it would be a hard argument to parents who pay for school in New Haven but send their kids to private schools. If the money should follow the student than it should follow the student to whatever educational institution they attend. New Haven would lose the money if they went to North Haven public school so why shouldn’t that same money go to St. Aedans or St. Bernadette’s. It’s hard to argue against that if you support money following the student. I don’t disagree with the notion that New Haven is getting the short end of the stick on this case but the failure is on our schools leaders, not the burbs.

posted by: Ex-HVN on July 5, 2019 4:51pm This whole article is a load of bull and deflection. Two years ago Bridgeport sent tuition bills to the suburbs for students attending interdistrict magnet schools in Bpt. No suburb paid and there are cases pending in court.

In fact, Trumbull prepared a bill for Bridgeport students attending interdistrict school in Trumbull and Bridgeport owes Trumbull more than it is billing.

The state and Feds provided extra grant money for the interdistrict schools. It is based on a certain percentage of non-city students attending. if the suburbs pull their kids the city loses funds. It is a shell game, state funding for magnet schools determined by the school census on October 1. If a suburban kid starts a magnet school, doesn’t like it and wants to return to home district, he/she is held until Octoiber 2 so the magnet school gets funds for the year. The student then returns to the home district who gets no state support for that child.

I taught at an interdistrict magnet high school in Bridgeport.We’s suspend discipline problem suburban students in Septemebr, grab the money on Oct 1 and exile them to the home ditrict on October 2. Lastly, The cities with the interdistrict schools are receiving a huge amount of state funds to run their school systems, funded by the taxpayer across the state, I don’t have the New Haven figures, but Brisgeport gets 74 cents of every dollar spent on their school system from the taxpayers in the other 168 CT municipalities. The New Haven School system is a similar welfare recipient of state taxpayer money. It is nonsense to say even more state funds should come to the NHPS. Bad management and waste should not be constantly bailed out by the rest of us.

posted by: Big Blue on July 5, 2019 5:16pm @Ross Lee: Your outrage should also be directed at New Haven’s “leaders” who instead of working to right this wrong are wasting energies on one scandal after another.

posted by: yim-a on July 5, 2019 7:18pm There is some sort of imbalance in the equation to be sure. But also many more aspects to the relationship between services, revenues and taxes of the burbs and cities. Thinking, though no real data, that suburbs, through state and federal taxes, help the cities out with their large bills for Medicaid, section 8 housing and other essential services (food stamps etc) The injustices go both ways, most likely. And we hope the at times ugly political process smoothed the rough edges out.

posted by: Samuel T. Ross-Lee on July 5, 2019 11:05pm @Pentothal and Big Blue,

After writing my statement, I was on the verge of including in it a sentence or two about not wanting comments addressed to me suggesting with whom else I “should” be frustrated. If you want to lay blame on New Haven for this deplorable situation, then you do that. I choose to focus my ire at the largely white suburbs who usually escape deserved condemnation for the plight of those who are less forturnate, while they are taking resources from the less fortunate that the suburbanites should not have. Rev. Ross-Lee

posted by: Big Blue on July 6, 2019 9:51am @Ross Lee You are in a position (reverend?) that affords you the clout to work with New Haven’s “leadership” and/or the state to right this wrong, which just happens to be the law. Laws can be (and have been) changed. Instead, and once again, you’ve chosen to focus on race and hold only one side accountable. Sadly, it seems that’s more convenient than doing the hard word necessary to facilitate meaningful change.

posted by: missthenighthawks on July 6, 2019 12:17pm Excellent investigative piece by Chris Peak. Obviously the system is broken and needs the attention of the State legislature. The whole formula needs to be rewritten or just eliminated. Further investigation, as Chris intends to do, is warranted. The majority opinion of commenters is justified, but Ex-NHV raises a lot of good points that need a further look.

posted by: dad101 on July 6, 2019 12:46pm @yim-a please for a half second dont kid yourself into belivesng that all these wealthy towns are subsidizing big cityt. Non of these small towns offer the services and amenities needed to their own. If you go to the average shelter guess who is there just as many out of towners, guess who goes to the methadone clinic ..those who left there little hub town where they could no longer rob peoples houses without getting caught becaseu they have security cameras etc. When you need social services and interventions for your children you go to inner cities, Hell Hamden didn’t have special resources for a troubled five year old ..what did they do they kicked him out of their schools and sent him elses where.Big cities dont have that luxury. Hamden PD used to give wooden nickles to homeless to take the bus to new haven under the threat that they were giving thehoomeless a break by letting them leave town before they got locked up. Small towns dont have hospitals so guess what big cities do and hospitals dont pay property tax to those cities…wake up towns cant afford to take in the children they send to other towns, They don’t have the space or teachers to cover all those students and yet they don’t feel obligated to pay for those students.

posted by: 1644 on July 6, 2019 1:40pm Chris: Does New Haven lose half a student for ECS purposes when a resident chooses Open Choice? Or does the receiving district just gain for ECS purposes? I had though the only gain receiving towns got was about $3K/per student, maybe $7K if the town had a lot of Open Choice students. In any case, for all but the deeply troubled suburbs like West Haven, Hamden, and East Haven, which are Alliance Districts, virtually no ECS is given anyway.

posted by: Offtherails on July 6, 2019 1:52pm These suburban towns are becoming more and more integrated . Are the students coming in from these towns ALL white or Mostly black/Hispanic or an even percentage of both? Do these students fall under meeting the criteria of living in the suburbs but not meeting the racial quota ? There’s levels to this . It’s not cut and dry.

posted by: yim-a on July 6, 2019 3:32pm Just to belabor the point regarding the complexity of fiscal relations between, for example, New Haven and Hamden (my former and present city/town of residence, respectively). Healthcare. State of CT spent 7.8 billion dollars on medicaid in 2016, 42% from state coffers. New Haven: 62 000 residents on medicaid, at about $ 7000 per person per year, a cost of $ 434 000 000 per year to cover New Haven residents on medicaid. $ 182 million from the state budget. Total of New Haven suburbs mentioned in articles (Hamden, West Haven, East Haven, North Haven): 28 000 on medicaid, $ 196 000 000 per year to cover medicaid residents. $ 82 million from the state budget. Taxes paid to the state in recent year:

New Haven: 96 million

Hamden + East Haven + West Haven + North Haven: $ 168 million

Population New Haven: 131 000 (state tax per resident $732)

Population NH + WH + Hamden + EH: 182 000 000 (state tax per resident $ 1142) Suburban residents paying 36% more state tax, per person, than New Haven residents, while, at least for medicaid, New Haven residents taking $ 100 million more from state coffers for medicaid. All of which is to say, NHI article titles such as “Suburbs Profit off New Haven Magnets” (and portraying suburban legislators as hell bent on selfishly protecting their constituents from fiscal/tax stress) seems a juvenile approach to the very complex, codependance between New Haven and its surrounding suburbs.

posted by: 1644 on July 6, 2019 7:05pm Offtherails: NHI has reported that many of the suburban students applying to NHPS schools are not white or “Asian” (actually East or South Asian), but black or moreno. Anecdotally, it seems many black and some Hispanic parents do not want their children attending a predominantly white school, so enroll their kids in NHPS schools. I believe the PTA president for Daniels school may be moreno, but lives in predominately white Orange. As I have commented before, many of the magnet themes, such as “social justice”, are more likely to appeal to POC than whites. Sound School is pretty well integrated, but it has a selective application process.

posted by: darnell on July 6, 2019 7:17pm @YIM-A, New Haven pays more in total state income tax returns than each of those towns 2017

Municipality #of Returns CT Income Tax Tax Per Capita

EAST HAVEN 13,620 $34,040,369.00 $2,499.00

NEW HAVEN 49,101 $96,567,123.00 $1,967.00

W HAVEN 24,459 $44,681,171.00 $1,827.00

HAMDEN 25,632 $81,488,504.00 $3,179.00

https://data.ct.gov/Tax-and-Revenue/Personal-Income-Tax-By-Town/pvqv-e235 Below are town-by-town numbers that show how the residents of each city and town have been affected by two of the major vehicles for this expanded coverage, Medicaid and insurance sold through Access Health CT, the state’s exchange.

https://www.cthealth.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/2018-Town-Totals.pdf

@YIM-A, There are less New Haven residents enrolled in the CT paid program than the Federal Medicaid Program< East Haven, Handen and West Haven have more residents on the State programm

Town Enrolled in Access Health CT* Enrolled in Medicaid** Percent Enrolled in Medicaid***

East Haven 906 7922 28%

Hamden 1566 12485 20%

New Haven 2232 61193 47%

West Haven 1423 17715 32%



EH, HDM, WH 3895 38122 27%

New Haven 2232 61193 47% Medicaid in the United States is a federal and state program that helps with medical costs for some people with limited income and resources. Medicaid also offers benefits not normally covered by Medicare, including nursing home care and personal care services.

posted by: Jill_the_Pill on July 6, 2019 8:14pm The state double-pays for those suburban magnet students. The town gets its regular ECS (amount varies) and the district gets $7000—which is approximately the amount NHPS receives for a resident’s ECS. The state partially covers magnet busing. The towns supposedly remain responsible for their kids’ Special Education expenses, which is significant.

posted by: yim-a on July 6, 2019 10:24pm @ Darnell…. Point being, it’s easy to make urban political hay (or catchy journalistic by line) pitting suburbs against the cities. The reality of the many layered and multidimensional financial and political relationship is far more complex.

posted by: Samuel T. Ross-Lee on July 7, 2019 4:48am @Big Blue, You’re right. I do have a position. I don’t know if you have one, because you don’t use your real name. Nonetheless, you try to use my courage to tell me what I’m supposed to do. So, let’s talk about my “position.” I am a Pastor of a church. I am not a government official. I have no government appointment. I’m am not responsible for running the government in any way. Maybe you have such responsibility, but, again, you’d rather hide who you are and what your responsibilities are behind juvenile appellation. My choice to talk about race is my business. And I’m SOOOO Damn Glad that it bothers you. Because you apparently are one of the people who want to look at problems like this from every angle other than race. And, that’s likely because you’re indicted and implicated in the racial injustice going on here, but you then want me - A Black Man - I’m sure you googled me, if you don’t already know me - to fix your racist crap. Well, I won’t fix the problems you and people like you created and greedily benefited from; I’d rather talk about the racist reality that helped to create the problem and anger the racist who did it. (I don’t know if this will be published, but I’m sick and tired of these pseudonyms hiding their identity and then coming for me. Don’t come for me, if I didn’t send for you. REV. Ross-Lee

posted by: CityYankee on July 7, 2019 7:06am Downtown plants on the Mitigation Committee tell them whatever they want to do , can’t be done but they should look over here! Look at this; not that. They recommend that the BOE should follow the City’s procurement policy?!?!? Really?!?!? Have you seen the shape of the City finances? Why not focus on big contracts and big money ???? Because it’s easier to go after benefits like workmen’s comp. and cut staff. The big guys feeding at the trough must not be disturbed (Imagine that in your mind!) The mitigation committee should not be distracted from its mission to mitigate the budget problems; don’t be told by those who helped create the current mess , what to do and what not to look at.

posted by: JMS on July 7, 2019 10:26am @ Samuel T. Ross-Lee (and others), Quick sidebar note but one that I believe is important to put out there. I enjoy reading your posts (more often then not agreeing with you) as well as the thoughts and comments of everyone who comes here to the NHI to read and contribute to this long running public dialogue and try to better understand what is happening in New Haven. Agree or not with every reader this makeshift public forum seems to have become one of the better sources of information and opinion available to all of us. For the record I could not possibly care one way or another whether a reader chooses to publicly identify themselves or uses a pseudonym. It means absolutely nothing to me. I read written words and comments and thoughts that sometimes advance the dialogue and sometimes do not. Admittedly it can be helpful sometimes to know that words are coming from a particular source. But in no way does this preclude me from reading, enjoying or considering the weight of the words of those of us who choose not to use our real world names. Think about it. A teacher posting insightful insider comments might choose to remain anonymous to avoid repercussions from spiteful school administrators. A municipal or private business employee might offer valuable insider perspective to a conversation but choose not to expose themselves to possible professional retribution. There are endless valid social, professional and political reasons why any reader might prefer to remain anonymous. This notion is at the very core of 1st amendment public discourse in my humble opinion. So again I am glad that some readers choose to identify themselves. It can at times be helpful and make assessing their comments a little easier. But again it’s just not that important to me. Back to the conversation at hand.

posted by: missthenighthawks on July 7, 2019 11:49am @Rev. Ross-Lee

JMS was very polite in the comment on anonymity.

I would like to be a little more direct. People comment because they have an opinion that they would like to be considered. They do not want to be labeled as racists or any other derogatory slander. I truly doubt that Big Blue is a racist despite your comment. I also do not want to be slandered and possibly labeled unfairly, so I choose to comment under an alias.

posted by: Big Blue on July 7, 2019 12:29pm The “pseudonym” and “racist” complaints are stale, pathetic excuses to avoid accountability (JMS explained the benefits of anonymous contributors perfectly and accurately.) As for ECS, there’s no question reform is needed and I applaud Goldson for noting New Haven’s failed leadership and working to see that the city gets its fair share.

posted by: Samuel T. Ross-Lee on July 7, 2019 3:27pm @missthenighthawks and JMS, I’m going to assume that both of you are intelligent people, which means I must also assume that you intentionally missed the essential nature of my comment to THE OTHER pseudonyms. My ire is not raised at the persons who choose to post comments anonymously. But, it is raised when they decide to do so while using my name and position to tell me what I should do or how I should think. If for some reason, you cannot must the courage to speak freely in a country that protects your right to do so, that’s your business. But, don’t make criticizing comments aimed at me because I’ve used my name and title and by that, you think you “know” me. Your tacit defense of and engagement in such behavior makes your comments aimed at me no better than the original comments to which I responded. It is not clear that a person hiding behind a false name is not an official of one of the schools that have received millions of dollars for an urban school illicitly. So, I don’t take kindly to those person telling me not to call out this behavior. In other words, don’t throw rocks and hide your hand. Such conduct has not earned my respect, and it never will. Rev. Ross-Lee

posted by: MyTwoCents on July 7, 2019 4:06pm @missthenighthawks and JMS I totally agree with your comments re posting anonymously because I also post that way. However, there are those who do use their anonymity to express racist views on this site. There is one who likes to use the term “knee grows” (so cute), and other asinine terms. Most people do post with honor because they are just trying to get their opinion across, but this site does have cowards who use the anonymity to spew vile crap that they wouldn’t have the courage to say to your face. And these people know who they are.

posted by: Multinucleate on July 7, 2019 4:15pm Just out of curiosity, since I didn’t grow up here, how do public New Haven high schools fare relative to the rest of the nation? Are we spending more or less compared to other cities of similar size?

posted by: JMS on July 7, 2019 5:07pm @ MyTwoCents, I hear you. Some of the “cute” wordsmith trolls out there find all kinds of creative ways to post profane or hate speech and avoid detection from moderators or software designed to catch it. It’s frankly silly and I don’t really pay much attention to comments from such folks other then to make note of their existence and shake my head in disgust. @ Samuel T. Ross-Lee, I understand the distinction you are making about the specific direction of your comments about anonymity. I wasn’t really commenting about your specific point. I just thought this might be a good opportunity to make a broader and IMO overdue point since I have often read what I interpret as criticisms or challenges to the validity of comments from anonymous readers. Again my personal take on the matter is that I really don’t care who any of you are in real life. Words either ring true or fall flat. I neither add nor subtract an ounce of credibility from written words here based on the known or unknown identity, vocation or title of the source. And this includes the author’s of the articles here on the NHI not just us peanut gallery comment section participants. I don’t care who you are. Everyone is capable of injecting their personal or political agenda (for better or for worse) into their writing. I read words and I assess accordingly. PS. Thanks for “assuming that I am an intelligent person”. Not sure that your confidence is fully warranted but I appreciate it anyway. @ Multinucleate, I recently did some online searching for stats and numbers related to your question. Some of the data is readily available with minimal searching such as NHPS graduation rates, continuing college drop success or drop out rates after high school vs. national stats and so on. But as we see here in this article some of the financials can be murky at best. This is in part what drew me to this particular article. The NHI is IMO the best local source for information and discourse on these questions.

posted by: 1644 on July 7, 2019 6:00pm Multi: New Haven and Connecticut spend far above the national average.

https://www.governing.com/gov-data/education-data/state-education-spending-per-pupil-data.html

New Haven is pretty much in the norm for per student spending in this state.

I believe NHPS spends a little less than Hartford, but more than Bridgeport, New London, Danbury.

This is a somewhat dated link:

http://ctschoolfinance.org/news/2017/district-per-student-spending-for-2016-17

posted by: THREEFIFTHS on July 7, 2019 9:41pm posted by: MyTwoCents on July 7, 2019 4:06pm

@missthenighthawks and JMS I totally agree with your comments re posting anonymously because I also post that way. However, there are those who do use their anonymity to express racist views on this site. There is one who likes to use the term “knee grows” (so cute), and other asinine terms. I can answer you post because you are taliking about me.Who are you to say that when a person post anonymously that is not there Names?I stand by my Name.I came out of a Pan-African,Black Nationalist home.I gave up my Slave name years ago. Malcolm X on his last name https://youtu.be/_-X9yMnhM6w Malcolm X : Slave Names https://youtu.be/MBtZwVioc_I

However, there are those who do use their anonymity to express racist views on this site. There is one who likes to use the term “knee grows” (so cute), and other asinine terms. How is the term “knee grows” and Judas Goats a racist views?Let us take a look at what a Judas Goat is.

A Judas goat is a trained goat used in general animal herding. The Judas goat is trained to associate with sheep or cattle, leading them to a specific destination. In stockyards, a Judas goat will lead sheep to slaughter, while its own life is spared. Judas goats are also used to lead other animals to specific pens and onto trucks. So how is the term a Judas goat racist view? Now let us look at the term knee grows. Kneegrow Also known as negro, this term is a comical way of addressing an African(-American) usually used by the way of writing a letter or on the internet, as common speech would be interpreted as negro. So how is the term knee grows a racist view? You every hear of the Term The House Negro and the Field Negro? MALCOLM X - The difference between the House Negro and the Field Negro https://youtu.be/3TE3WYUVj4U Again so tell me How what I post is and the names I use are of a racist view? Tell you and all.Run into me and I will show you my D .L. with my name on it.

posted by: THREEFIFTHS on July 7, 2019 9:44pm posted by: JMS on July 7, 2019 5:07pm

@ MyTwoCents, I hear you. Some of the “cute” wordsmith trolls out there find all kinds of creative ways to post profane or hate speech and avoid detection from moderators or software designed to catch it. It’s frankly silly and I don’t really pay much attention to comments from such folks other then to make note of their existence and shake my head in disgust. When you say wordsmith trolls out there find all kinds of creative ways to post profane or hate speech and avoid detection from moderators or software designed to catch it.Maybe the reason why they can no catch it is maybe it is not profane or hate speech they are posting?

posted by: THREEFIFTHS on July 7, 2019 9:48pm Maybe someone cas answer this for me.the school Engineering & Science University Magnet High School was bulid in West Haven.But I was told it belongs to New haven.So does New Haven.Pay West Haven any money for that school being in West Haven?

posted by: MyTwoCents on July 7, 2019 9:59pm @ THREEFIFTHS SIGH.

posted by: Samuel T. Ross-Lee on July 7, 2019 11:07pm BigBlue wrote “The “pseudonym” and “racist” complaints are stale, pathetic excuses to avoid accountability.” Your comment would make SOME sense if I, in fact, were responsible or accountable for running the NHPS. As I don’t. your comment makes NO sense. As JMS “perfectly” explained, his comment is about the anonymity issue. He was not defending the tired practice of people like you addressing people like me, while you hide behind the cloak of anonymity. So, AGAIN, if YOU allow your job to snatch away your freedom of speech, that’s on YOU. Stop using the lame excuse that there will be repucussions on your job if you speak on public issuss while using your name. It is a sad and pathetic reason to throw a rock (and other users of this site) while hiding your hand. Rev. Ross-Lee

posted by: okaragozian1 on July 8, 2019 12:25am I very partially agree with Ex-HVN. New Haven has to be very careful on how it proceeds as there are New Haven kids going out-of-town for an education and that the out-of-towner may charge New Haven for the New Haven kids in their out-of-town schools. In the end of the calculations, I do believe that New Haven is really owed money, even after deducting the costs of its own students going out-of-town, but the fear I have is that there may be a tuition war looming. For instance, if New Haven charges Hamden $2,300 for each Hamden student going to a New Haven school what is there to prevent Hamden charging New Haven $3,300 for each New Haven student going to Hamden school? The only people making money are school bus companies. If you take all the money spent on busing and spend it on schooling then there will be no schooling problem but there will be a cultural diversity problem. So the question now is do you want your child to get a good education and no cultural diversity or do you want your child to get a substandard education with cultural diversity? There just doesn’t seem to be enough money around to do both good education and bussing. I feel fairly comfortable in my reasoning but welcome thoughts to the contrary.

posted by: WhatAJoke on July 8, 2019 9:24am “Recognizing that inequity, state law does allow for New Haven to collect the cost of educating suburban kids by charging other towns tuition for its inter-district magnet schools. That idea has been floated since 2016, but New Haven’s administrators haven’t pursued it.” That’s either a lie or things have changed in the last few years. I know for a fact that Chesire and surrounding areas have paid New Haven for each child that attends New Haven Magnet Schools. It is not fair that only cities like New Haven and Hartford get all of the Magnet schools. These schools often offer free pre-school and a larger number of special instruction and programs not available elsewhere. every child deserves the same opportunity. Put 1 or 2 magnet schools per town rather than 5 or 6 in one city.

posted by: BRAMS mom on July 8, 2019 9:29am As a suburban mom sending my child to a NH magnet, I find this article interesting and confusing at the same time. I had no idea how complicated the funding system is. When I effectively signed my child out of her previous district to be able to register in NH, they seemed sad to see her go. I thought it made them “look bad” that she was leaving but little did I know that they were collecting money so NH could educate her. Anyway, my only contribution to this discussion is that transportation is a huge, inefficient burden to NH and if families like mine want our kids to go to magnets, we should find a way to get them there. There are eight children on her full size bus!! At the same time, other buses are packed with local NH kids from DIFFERENT schools sharing the same bus and have to ride around town for up to 90 minutes in the afternoon. I am grateful for the magnet experience that my child is getting but maybe the tuition could just be an “even exchange” if you remove the transportation piece. I understand it is not that easy and NH families would like the chance for their kids to attend suburban schools too. Is there a suburban lottery also? I know I should know more about this as a parent so please be kind to a first time poster.

posted by: Thomas Alfred Paine on July 8, 2019 11:12am It is always interesting to me to see how many comments get sidetracked from the issue of the articles and then degenerate into personal debates, attacks and counter-attacks.

Anyone who decides to express their views on this forum is should be open to CRITICISM OF THEIR VIEWS, but personal attacks should be avoided.

There is no virtue in using one’s own name. There is no shame in using a pseudonym. Individuals have a right to make their own choices in that matter. Many great political leaders of America’s past, including people like ALEXANDER HAMILTON, have used pseudonyms.

So stick to the issue at hand: the funding of magnet schools and how suburbs unfairly profit off New Haven.

All this other stuff is distraction and diversion and hubris.

posted by: 1644 on July 8, 2019 12:43pm What do the “haves” owe the “have-nots”? Are the “haves” responsible for the poverty of the “have-nots”? I posit that, as a rule, middle class values are required to obtain and maintain middle-class status. In a generation or two, a family which embraces the values of hard-work, delays and limits childbearing, and avoids substance abuse can enter the middle class. Those born middle class who eschew those values will soon find themselves, or at least their descendants, in poverty.

posted by: Ex-HVN on July 8, 2019 12:55pm @WhatAJoke “It is not fair that only cities like New Haven and Hartford get all of the Magnet schools.” It isn’t fair, IT ISN’T TRUE!!!!! There are Magnet schools in towns as small as Danielson

Suburbs have magnet schools that draw students from the cities Trumbull has an Agriscience High School that draws students from 9 municipalities, including Bridgeport Don’t forget that the original Interdistrict Magnet Schools were not set up for correcting racial imbalance, they are the Vo-Tech High Schools such as Eli Whitney in Hamden. The difference is that they are run by the state not municipal Boards of Education. I taught at Eli Whitney 30 years ago, I ended my teaching Career at Fairchild-Wheeler InterDistrict High School in Bridgeport. This building houses 3 high schools. It was built on land belonging to Trumbull. But during the planning and building, First Selectman Tim Herbst got greedy and made one too many demands from the state. The state used its power to take 48 acres of land from Trumbull and give them to the city of Bridgeport and built the school there. “These schools often offer free pre-school ...”

Only magnet schools that serve primary grades. In my immediate area there are 2 interdistrict K-8 schools, BUT also 1 interdistrict middle school and 7 interdistrict High Schools. 8 of 10 area interdistrict schools DON"T offer Pre-K….........The 2 interdistrict magnet schools in Bridgeport that offer Pre-K are no different from any other K-8 or K-6 school in the city in that they have 1 or 2 Pre-K classes, students are chosen by lottery and demand far exceeds seats available. Pre-K seats are only available to Bridgeport residents as there is no transportation provided for half day students from other communities. FYI>Aquaculture HS in Bpt has its students attend their own high schools 1/2 day

All students at the 3 high schools at Fairchild Wheeler play sports in home districts

Sending districts bear all these costs