Education partnership must be public

Government must operate with complete transparency for a democracy to work. When taxpayers’ money is involved, the public has a right to know exactly how it is spent. This right should not be compromised, even for worthwhile purposes. Yet when the nonprofit Partnership for Connecticut was formed last year that right was ignored. The General Assembly unwisely granted the organization exemption from state Freedom of Information laws. Now this can be, and must be, corrected.

The Partnership for Connecticut is a novel privatepublic entity aimed at education. Its mission is to help “Connecticut’s disengaged and disconnected youth and young adults (ages 14 to 24) access the educational and career opportunities they need to succeed in life.” It estimates that at least one out of every five high school students in Connecticut fit the category.

The mission is laudable. It can make all the difference for disenfranchised young people to have the means to lead productive lives. And the result would be good for society as a whole.

The partnership is possible thanks to the generous donation of $100 million by Greenwich resident Ray

Dalio, a billionaire hedge fund leader, and his wife Barbara, the co-founder and director of Dalio Philanthropies. The state is fortunate that the Dalios are committed to improving education and training for young people at risk.

The public part of the partnership is a matching pledge, at $20 million a year for five years, by the state. A third $100 million will be sought from private donations.

The use of public funds — no matter the purpose — means the organization ought to operate with complete transparency under FOI rules.

Five elected state officials — Gov. Ned Lamont, Senate President Pro Tempore Martin Looney, Senate Minority Leader Len Fasano, House Speaker Joe Aresimowicz, and House Minority Leader Themis Klarides — are on the 13-member board.

At Klarides’ insistence, the public officials have to follow FOI rules and ethics guidelines in their participation. This is good, but awkward to the smooth functioning of the board.

To be fair, the partnership states it is “deeply committed” to transparency. It pledges to provide information to the public through its website at connecticutpartnership.org, by posting meeting minutes, and delivering semiannual reports on “progress, challenges, learnings, and priorities.”

We have no quarrel with that commitment — except that decisions on what is public should be made in accordance with FOI, not decided by any group.

Already questions are arising on how the first staff, a president and CEO with a salary above $300,000, will be selected, possibly as soon as next month.

A remedy is within reach. The assembly’s Government Administration and Elections Committee on Wednesday raised the concept of “Subjecting the Partnership for CT, Inc. to Freedom of Information and Public Disclosure Laws.” A hearing on that, and 34 other subjects, is scheduled for Feb. 28.

An organization that takes on a question so clearly in the public interest as education needs to be fully accessible.

An organization that takes on a question so clearly in the public interest as education needs to be fully accessible.