Thursday, August 13, 2009

Hartford Wants New Britain to Pay for Its Magnet Students may cost city $3M -

by: James Craven
Posted by Frank Smith at 13.8.09

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Here is another example of government incompetence when it comes to running large government funded/mandated programs. A person must start to ask themselves what went wrong? Why are students traveling such distances for education? What is the cost?

First and most frightening is why are our some of brightest students choosing to attend schools outside of our school district. What does these schools offer that ours do not?

As for the $3,000,000 local Board of Education President Beloin-Saavedra said, "according to the Sheff agreement, it is the state’s responsibility, not the local school districts’, to pay for the students tuition".

Well my guess is that if the state owns up to that responsibility it will most likely be diverted from the money that the state provides cities and towns for educational purposes anyways. Or by further raising taxes.

What seems lost on Beloin-Saavedra is that city residents pay property taxes that fund the Board of Education. When proposing budgets the board members and Superintendent of schools Dr. Kurts often cite cost per student. What does it cost to educate 500 plus students per year and where does the money go? Where is the money the school system is saving by not having the approximately 15 teachers it would require to instruct these students?

Why is it that every time there is government mandates or intervenes in peoples lives large sums of money seem to dissipate into thin air?



All I can think of is "Good luck with your government mandated health insurance"!!!

August 13, 2009 at 8:21 AM
Anonymous said...

If and or when we are billed for the Hartford Magnet system, we will
need to just say no and the students will have to stay here in New Britain or their parents can choose to pay for private a private education. My children have and continue to receive a positive education right here in New Britain.

What do students receive in Hartford that is lacking in New Britain?

How do we budget for the children
that leave our city for outside magnet or private schools? Where do those tax dollars get applied within the per pupil spending?

August 13, 2009 at 9:16 AM
Sally Eigenraam said...

It is reported today in the Courant
that 589 children leave New Britain
to attend Hartford Magnet Schools.

August 14, 2009 at 8:19 AM
Anonymous said...

Wasn’t it Tim Stewart who suggested on this blog that people with children in the schools should be taxed more than those who don’t have any children in the school system? Strange thing is he suggested this outlandish idea after both his own children have graduated.

What’s next Mr. Mayor; tax our elderly or being old? Tax those whose houses have burned down for using the services of the Fire Department? Tax those who get in car accidents for using the police services?

How about we tax the drunks for being drunks?

August 14, 2009 at 12:49 PM
Anonymous said...

Maybe if our Mayor and City Council were more reasonable with the BOE budget and gave the BOE all the Education Cost Sharing (ECS) grant monies that the State allocates for the BOE to use for education then the parents wouldn’t look for better alternatives for their children’s education.

Currently the Mayor uses some of this money for the city’s budget. Classic “robbing Peter to pay Paul”.

August 14, 2009 at 6:16 PM
Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
Maybe if our Mayor and City Council were more reasonable with the BOE budget and gave the BOE all the Education Cost Sharing (ECS) grant monies that the State allocates for the BOE to use for education then the parents wouldn’t look for better alternatives for their children’s education.

Currently the Mayor uses some of this money for the city’s budget. Classic “robbing Peter to pay Paul”.

Have I missed something?

The Distribution of these funds is blaming the Mayor for with holding these funds from the BOE funneled by the state into the city budget

I don't recall a democratic Majority proposal for the transferring these funds to the BOE.

Nice try Candidate O'Brien and or his supporters.

August 14, 2009 at 7:42 PM
Anonymous said...

“AND” a co-ordinating conjunction; linking individual words, phrases, and independent clauses of EQUAL IMPORTANCE.

“Maybe if our Mayor “AND” City Council were more reasonable with the BOE budget and gave the BOE all the Education Cost Sharing (ECS) grant monies that the State allocates for the BOE to use for education then the parents wouldn’t look for better alternatives for their children’s education.”

You are correct that the City Council never proposed for the transferring of these funds to the BOE in their entirety, but neither has the mayor.

If it was wrong for the City Council not to propose the transferring of these funds to the BOE in their entirety then it was also EQUALLY wrong for the mayor not to propose the transferring of these funds to the BOE in their entirety.

The reason why Hartford is asking the other towns and cities to pay for their children is because the State hasn’t finished finalizing the State Budget. I have a novel idea, how about these politicians stop blaming one another for each others faults and get to work doing the job that the people elected them to do and represent the people and not their own egos.

In the past the BOE had said it cost New Britain approximately $8,000 to educate each student each year. If you do the math you will notice that Hartford is asking approximately $5,000 per student. This is approximately $3,000 less than what New Britain says it would cost to educate each child. A $3,000 discount for a better education for those children who have shown they are serious about their education, this is a bargain! Please explain to me why it is fair to these students to keep them from a better education simply because of the district’s test scores?

If the BOE truly were interested in what is best for the student, as we have been told all along, then how could it be best, not to send them to these magnet schools?

I have an idea; why not leave the choice up to the parents, who know what is best for their own children, to choose which school their child attends? Allow the parents to pay for their children’s education and give these parents “tax vouchers” so they don’t have to pay twice for education.

With all that being said, I believe we will see that the State will, in fact, end up funding these magnet schools as is mandated by law. As we all know, most politicians aren’t the smartest, fastest people around.

August 15, 2009 at 9:49 AM
Anonymous said...

The city gets about $80 million in ECS funds and the BOE's budget is about $120 million. How does that translate into the city keeping some of the state money. The city gives the BOE $40 million from local property taxes, so obviously all the ECS funds go to the BOE.

August 15, 2009 at 5:51 PM
Anonymous said...

“so obviously all the ECS funds go to the BOE.”

I know for a fact that is an out right lie!

I may have been born at night, but it wasn’t last night.

Nice try.

August 15, 2009 at 8:49 PM
Anonymous said...

typical liberal math:

$120 million school budget
$80 million from state funding (some from New Britain taxpayers)
$40 million from city taxpayers

and the schools were shorted how?

600 children educated in Hartford

New Britain BOE pays $0 for these 600 students.

To me this is a massive windfall for the New Britain BOE. Where did all the money for those 600 students go?

August 16, 2009 at 6:11 PM
Anonymous said...

Frank:
Don't know where one of your commenters got the $8K/child/yr. figure to educate a child in NB. It's closer to $10K/child/yr. In one sense Beloin-Saavedra is correct; the 589 students don't come from just the high school so you can't take the figures from the budget for one school. The BOE can however consider the funding gap earliere in the budget process. E.g., the Alternate school near Willow Brook park has never had the number of student enrolled for which the school was designed - perhaps only one tenth of the number. Question. How much is budgeted for that building? Perhaps the new financial tracking system in which the city has invented will help solve this problem issue.

August 17, 2009 at 12:26 PM
Anonymous said...

I'd like to know when the mayor proposed taxing anyone at a higher rate just because they have kids in school? Typical liberal bull! Say it enough and someone will believe it, sound like the firefighters. The only time the city did not give all of the ECS funding to the district was when they were allowed to take a small portion of a one time allocation to cities and towns about three years ago. That was bwecause they were already overfunded by the city that year. Go back and get your facts right before you spew your venom. And how about tax the idioits for clogging these blogs with nonsense!

August 18, 2009 at 12:16 PM
Anonymous said...

The mayor’s unfortunate comment was made here on this blog, go back and check for yourself. I’m sure others will also remember his unfortunate comment.

As for your example of $120 million, you are way off on your information.

Let’s say for example, that the city gave the BOE $46 million. The city’s budget is always passed before the State ECS monies are allocated and dispersed to the different cities and towns. In most years the city doesn’t know how much the State will allocate prior to the deadline for the cities budget. Then the State allocates and disperses to New Britain the ECS monies totaling $80 million which $74 million is given to the BOE and $6 million the mayor keeps for the city budget.

These numbers are only an example but the scenario is played over and over again every year, like a bad record. I believe if you were to check the records, in my example, I was more forgiving with my percentages, when in all actuality the ECS monies the mayor with-holds from the BOE are much, much higher.

The “venom” you say I “spew” is called the truth! I know it must sting like venom when it hits your ears since you are so accustomed to twisting it till it is nothing more than a big fat lie. It truly is sad when someone lies and others believe their misleading lies, but nothing is more disturbing then when a liar starts believing their own lies, as you have apparently have done.

August 19, 2009 at 6:31 PM

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