BOE chairwoman advocates in Hartford
HARTFORD — The chairwoman of the Bridgeport Board of Education asked state lawmakers on Thursday to be supportive of traditional public schools as well as charter schools when they put together a budget for the new fiscal year.
“We are all facing challenges,” Jessica Martinez, who also works as a charter school lobbyist, told members of the legislature’s Appropriations Committee at a hearing Thursday evening.
As she spoke, the first of three district budget forums, hosted by Michael Testani, Bridgeport’s acting schools superintendent, was taking place 55 miles away.
At it, Testani warned that without a $14.5 million boost in the local operating budget, cuts to school programs would be huge. There were three board members in the Blackham School audience: Joseph Sokolovic, Joseph Lombard and Albert Benejan.
Martinez said she was sorry to miss the forum but said it was important to advocate for all children in the city, which she said includes charter schools.
“I don’t understand it,” Martinez said of how much less per pupil Bridgeport has to spend — $14,697 with 20,100 students — than Hartford — $19,8380 with about 19,800 students. The district, she said, needs a minimum of $7 million more from the state to avoid more cuts.
“We all want to be funded like Hartford,” responded State Rep. Toni Walker, D-New Haven, co-chairwoman of the appropriations committee.
Martinez brought her son, a sophomore at Bassick High School, with her to the hearing.
“The challenges we face as a district and city create many obstacles for the future of my son,” she said.
She also decried Gov. Ned Lamont’s proposed budget that would cut funding for state charter schools by $4.6 million, largely an adjustment based on the closing of two Stamford charter schools. Existing charter schools would continue to get the same funding and seats they get now.
Martinez was not the only one to advocate for charter school funding at the hearing.
Bridgeport City Council President Aidee Nieves said she has a responsibility to all students regardless of the type of public school they attend.
“I am disheartened to see the Lamont administration’s new budget does not fully support our city,” Nieves said.
Jamilah Stewart, executive director of FaithActs for Education, a Bridgeport-based advocacy group made up of a reported 70 pastors, also expressed concern about the level of funding that seeps down to Bridgeport as well as the proposed cut to charter schools.
“Every child should have the opportunity to attend a quality school,” Stewart said, decrying what she called a justice deficit.