Stamford bad at math regarding partnerships

There is a concerning trend taking shape across the elected boards governing our city that must be addressed.

Too many of our elected officials have come to believe that organizations capable of raising private funds and garnering federal funds are less deserving of local funding than those that are disproportionately dependent on the city for meeting their operating budgets. This backward logic costs our taxpayers millions of dollars, threatens vital services our citizens depend on, and rewards dysfunction over dynamism.

A few weeks ago Trailblazers Academy gave up a decadelong battle with the Stamford Board of Education to maintain funding that had already been reduced by more than 50 percent of what they allocated some 20 years ago.

This was a school that provided middleschoolers with an alternative to traditional, overcrowded classrooms, had a family centric approach, and ran a program rooted in traumainformed care for some of our city’s most resourceneedy students.

It had the enthusiastic support of our former and current superintendents as well as our district middle school leaders. It had also gained financial support not just of community members and corporations but prominent philanthropists. And here was the warped math calculation that the board applied in voting to reduce the city’s funding by $50,000: It is a publicly, undisputed and documented fact that that it costs Stamford Public Schools between $25,000 and $40,000 per student to educate typical special education and disengaged and disconnected students, depending on the extent of the special needs. Between private funding as well as state and federal charter school funding, Trailblazers spent $29,000 on each of its 205 students with SPS only contributing $6,850. Put another way, our Board of Ed’s vote to save $50,000 cost our taxpayers $4,540,750 when the school decided to close rather than keep justifying its existence and need for the city’s partnership!

This is only one example of misunderstanding that private funds maximize public dollars. We are fortunate to live in a city with many capable nonprofits that provide critical public functions such as Inspirica, Mill River Park Collaborative and Pacific House.

They each fill a void that would otherwise demand the public sector pick up the costs entirely if they didn’t exist. Nonprofit organizations that have achieved a healthy balance of private and public funding should be sought out and celebrated by our citizens and elected officials.

Standing up to the scrutiny of corporate giving committees and earning the trust of donors who have endless causes to support is a sign of a stable organization with responsible governance.

Sadly, too many of our leaders believe that they would be better served funneling tax dollars to organizations that lack accountability and selfreliance by perpetuating a false narrative that organizations with private donors don’t need or deserve public funds.

It’s time to rethink this faulty logic and, with it, seek out new leaders who understand that healthy private and public partnerships are the key to our city’s longterm prosperity.