Whose agenda: public citizens or personal/private BOE members? You decide.

Below you will find the spoken testimony given by Doreen Richardson to the Education Committee on February 22, 2012 during day 2 of the public hearing on the Governor’s Education Bill.  The testimony provided below has been transcribed verbatim and can be viewed at http://www.ctn.state.ct.us/webstream.asp?odID=7493&odTitle=Education%20Committee%20February%2022nd%20Public%20Hearing%20on%20the%20Governor%20s%20Education%20Bill%20-%20Day%202&caption=true (2:29:20). To note, the public testimony given by Doreen Richardson on February 22nd is vastly different than the printed testimony that she submitted to the Legislators of the Education Committee, and subsequently the version published through the Connecticut General Assembly (the submitted printed version can be read by going to http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CDIQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cga.ct.gov%2F2012%2FEDdata%2FTmy%2F2012SB-00024-R000221-Doreen%2520Richardson-TMY.PDF&ei=ocbcUNu3GOa40QHz4YDwBQ&usg=AFQjCNGixIILQ-TbPR2NItC9Yjp2RINF-g&bvm=bv.1355534169,d.dmQ).

Testimony (D. Richardson): Good afternoon Chairpersons Stillman, Fleishermann, and members of the Education Committee.  My name is Doreen Richardson and I am the Chair of the Windsor Board of Education.  I strongly support SB24, an Act Concerning Educational Competitiveness.

I have served on my local school Board for the past 6 years.  Each year as we contemplate revenues the big unknown is the fate of education cost sharing dollars.  I urge you to address not only the issue of predictability of state funding for public education, but to also address the issue of adequacy and equity in funding.

The Windsor school district was one of the early partners of the CREC magnet schools.  As it happened, my eldest daughter, who is currently a student of NYU, was a member of the first graduating class of the Metropolitan Learning Center, MLC.  As a result of that experience she got to travel, she went to Costa Rica, she was a member of the Spanish Honor Society, she went to China as a member of the National Merit Scholar Society.

For the 2012/2013 school year Windsor Public Schools will invest approximately a million dollars in magnet school tuition for students who attend these innovative, and effective academic institutions.  I want to tell you today what I say to members of my board and community who worry about the dollars we contribute in the education of our students who attend Choice Schools - these children are CT’s children. 

The State’s constitutional obligation to provide an equal opportunity to receive a suitable program of educational experiences, I hope that you will agree, logically extends to public charter schools. The governor’s proposal seeks to reconcile the financial implications of this obligation. 

Needless to say, there is much room for improvement in the funding formula and well-intentioned adults can disagree on the methodology of such improvements.  However, we should never lose sight of our charge, and that is to provide an equal opportunity to receive a suitable program of educational experiences for each and every one of our children.  According to the Governor’s proposal, Windsor’s contribute per charter schools, as a percentage of the new ECS aid, is 20% or 62 thousand dollars, an estimation that about 62 kids will be going.

Here’s what I know, a student of color in the 3rd grade or 8th grade is more likely to achieve mastery at or above goal of the educational concepts measured by the CMT at Jumoke Academy, a high preforming charter school, than in my own Windsor Public Schools.  This is the stark reality of the students of color in my district.

The Windsor Public Schools is an alliance, or conditional funding district, as defined in the Governor’s proposal.  The Commissioner will find in Windsor new Board leadership and a new Superintendent who together is fiercely committed to eliminating this pernicious achievement gap in our town.  As we work towards educational equity and excellence we ask that the Legislature do its part in ensuring that we have an educational infrastructure as evidence in the both policy, practice, and the necessary funding that meets the needs of our students.

Thank you

Question (Fleischmann): … are you supportive of this concept that a certain portion of the bump that you get from education cost sharing would go to helping students attend charter schools at a cost of $1,000 per pupil?

Response (D. Richardson): I think that at that at the end of the day the tax dollars belong to the tax payers of Connecticut and to the benefit of all of our families here in Connecticut.  And if the State so deems, if the Legislature so deems that my district be used as a pass-through for passing those dollars on to kids who are in public school that are alternative to the traditional models, then that’s the methodology that would be acceptable.  But I think regardless of how we choose to allocate those dollars, whether they are passed through local districts or whether or not they go from directly from the State to the charter schools, we have to recognize that these are our children and when they get a high quality education the likelihood is they will go to school here, they will be productive, and they will continue contribute to the economy of Connecticut.

My reaction is this: It just so happened, by coincidence, that during the September 12, 2012 Windsor BOE pubic meeting (which can be viewed at http://www.townofwindsorct.com/towninfo/video.php) Dr. Marlon James reintroduced his proposed study as the Equity and Excellence Review, originally titled the Equity Audit, even though Doreen Richardson stated to the Education Committee on February 22nd that we are, "working towards equity and excellence." There are SERIOUS flaws in this process that need to be addressed.