Mayor’s criticism of schools sparks battle

Teachers union, Democratic leaders strike back in debate over education funding

New Britain Mayor Erin Stewart demoralized teachers and school staff when she used her annual State of the City speech last week to publicly condemn the city’s education system, teachers union President Sal Escobales said Thursday.

Escobales acknowledged it’s valuable to discuss improving student performance, but said “That’s not an argument to be danced on some social media circus.”

Stewart’s comments have stirred long and angry back-and-forth postings on several Facebook threads since her speech last week, many with political overtones.

Looking ahead to the spring’s budget deliberations, Democrat aldermen are stepping up their campaign for more education spending. Republicans are mostly doubling downonStewart’s assertion that low student achievement is due to flaws in the school system itself, not a money shortage.

Democratic state Rep. Robert Sanchez, whowants to run against Stewart in November, organized the press conference, and common council Assistant Majority Leader Chris Anderson took the opportunity to call on Stewart to put up money for schools.

“Mayor Erin Stewart and the Republican caucus have continually chosen not to fund education. Erin Stewart has raised taxes three times since she became mayor ... only once has education received an increase,” Anderson said. “She’s willing to raise taxes and find grants for her priorities, but it’s clear that education is not one of them.”

In a preview of her budget proposal next month, Stewart said last week “What I will not do is blindly throw additional tax dollars into a massive bureaucracy that is failing our students.”

She condemned how the city finishes at the bottom of all Connecticut school systems in standardized achievement tests, saying “Dead last doesn’t cut it in New Britain.”

This week, she said on Facebook that she’s pleased she got the community talking about what’s wrong in the schools.

Stewart’s initial comments drew plenty of applause on social media from posters condemning the state of public education as well as teachers’ pay and benefits.

But there were also plenty of detractors who pointed out that New Britain has the second-lowest funding rate for public school students, even though it serves a high percentage of desperately poor families, one-parent homes, recent immigrants, special needs students and English as a Second Language learners.

Escobales on Thursday said city officials are hypocritical if they publicly claiming to support education while voting against money for school.

Social media posters took the criticism much further, slamming Stewart for making frequent public appearances at school events but then flat-funding education for five straight years.

Alicia Hernandez Strong, who is running for Democratic backing to challenge Stewart in November, said in a video that Stewart’s logic goes against all professional research concluding student performance and funding are linked.

Better schools and social programs for youth will also get kids off the street and reduce the car break-ins and thefts that took off during the pandemic, she said.

“The reality is, if you want to decrease crime, you fund education, you fund services for those kids,” she said.

In a written statement to the school system’s 1,200 teachers and staff, Schools Superintendent Nancy Sarra defended the system’s performance.

“We are not failing students. We are not a failing district but rather a district that has been consistently failed by lack of equitable funding,” said the statement, co-signed by the district’s union leaders.

The district is asking for more than $2 million in additional funding this year.

“This will be the fifth year in a row that the city has short-changed education,” Sanchez said Thursday. “Even before the pandemic, wewere dead last in the state for school testing and funding. It’s simply and ethically wrong to blame this on our hard-working teachers ... we need more investment from the state and from our local government.”

Stewart said in her speech last week that with New Britain getting more than $70 million from one-time federal COVID19 relief aid, there is no reason to raise the school budget this year.

Stewart, a 2005 New Britain High School graduate, also posted a comment on Facebook emphasizing that she thinks most teachers do good work. Escobales, however, said her remarks slighted the work of teachers, classroom aides and other school workers just as they’re completing a year of upheaval and extra work to get students through the pandemic.

Violet Jimenez Sims, secretary of the school board, said there’s more to student achievement than standardized test scores.

“There are measures within the districts in which we’re seeing students consistently make gains in reading, in math,” she said.