False Choice: Taxes vs. Teachers

"In the more recent past, labor's voice has diminished"

Sorry but I'm calling BS; New haven is not the same as our whole nation.
In New Haven, 8 years ago UNITE HERE Locals 34 and 35 staged a coup and took over the New Haven BOA and later the mayors seat by getting Tony Harp elected. Its been an unmitigated disaster and they should all resign in disgrace.

Is Cameo Thorne a resident of New Haven?

@Robn: and it was Camelot before?
Personally, I'd like to take the money spent on busing and use it for neighborhood schools.
Busing has not solved American Apartheid. It has just made it costlier. The suburbs don't seem to miss out on the benefits of diversity. But they will later in life when kids who grew up in white ghettos can related to the majority of Americans.
It's either back to robbing banks ("because that's where the money is") or tax the rich, stop tax subsidies for developers and cut back on weapons for the police. Technology will not solve problems of income inequality and the crime it generates.
I adore teachers and public schools. I was lucky enough to have French in 7th grade and thru high school, music appreciation and other things that moved from the working class to the middle class.
Cancel all the pay raises and rehire the professionals that work with the students.
The Mayor recently held a fund raiser to retire her last campaign's debt.

It's an interesting screed, but provides zero practical alternative to layoffs for closing the $20 million gap. The longer we wait, the more severe cuts will have to be to end the year in balance. The plain fact is that Harp, the BoA, and the BoE don't have the money to support the services they want. Birks did ask the union president for alternatives to layoffs: he had none.

Considering that both parties can produce various statistics that they claim support their side of the "do taxes drive away rich people" debate, I think it is safe to assume that no one truly knows what would happen with the wealthy in Connecticut should taxes on them be raised further. Anyone who claims to know for sure one way or the other is full of it. A lot has to do with factors outside of Connecticut, such as tax rates in other states and the overall economy.

What if the Republicans are right though and even just a few dozen very wealthy people move to lower tax states? It would make the financial situation in Connecticut even more dire than it already is with more budget cuts and higher taxes on the rest of us. Is it worth taking that chance?

New Haven already spends more than the state average per student and the state average is significantly higher than the national average. I am not saying that I know how to fix the problem but it sure seems like throwing more money at it is not the way to go, regardless of where that money comes from.

It's a crock that schools always suffer when there are budget issues. Does she have a clue as to just how big the school budget is? How much is spent per kid? It's like $18K a year. The problem with the schools is that they do a poor job of educating the kids - and might do a better job if there were fewer schools, fewer teachers, less overhead, fewer assistant principals at the high school and less bussing so that gigantic pot of money is less diluted by providing nearly useless and redundant jobs. More schools should be consolidated - at least 3 maybe 5. The savings should be used to balance the budget first - and then spend the rest of the money on the classrooms that are left.

PK,

I remember NHV in the late 80s and yes, the 2000s were Camelot relative the past. DeStefano had a plan to rebuild the school infrastructure using mostly state money and then retire the debt over time. Harp and this BOA have abused taxpayers by refinancing that debt to hide an expansion of government spending. They also failed to allow execution of many construction projects teed up by the former administration notably the tenth square and even more notably the hotel project near Howe street which was a flagrant Union shakedown (almost repeated this year with the Duncan hotel renovation.)...agreed on bussing and most centralized school functions. That's where the fat is and the cutting should happen.

MOOKS,

The problem with increasing upper tax rates a bit (something I'm not opposed to) has more to do with accounting than fear of exodus. The more you rely on a few large taxpayers who (like hedgefunders) have wildly variable income based upon economic cycles, the more volatile budgeting can be. Bottom line is the state of CT has a spending problem, not a revenue problem. Not salaries but Retirement benefits for state and municipal employees are wildly inflated.

NOTEWORTHY,

The bloat in the school system is in administration, not classrooms.

Difficult to find one's way through here.

It seems to be both a discussion of the decline in power of labor unions in private industry, and a lamentation that property taxes are what fund public schools. (What?) It seems to say that because American private-sector unions used to be more powerful, children have become victims. (What?) It seems to say that because disparities of wealth have increased in America, teachers should not be fired. (What?)

I think I can summarize Ms. Thorne's argument:

Don't lay off teachers. Rather, tax rich people more in order to pay for public schools. (Hence: "a different structure of thinking and acting.")

Concise and clear. And even with some merit.

All the verbiage about labor unions is totally gratuitous.

(Unless the real argument here is: The decline in power of labor unions is the root of all our education problems. What?)

"No one branch of government, no single group of citizens or labor union is to blame. We have collectively allowed this situation to develop over time and become a systemic societal illness. It took root in part because, somewhere in the past, some bought the idea that we need the wealthy to attain and maintain wealth so that the rest of us can maintain economic stability in the form of a job. So we offer tax breaks to the wealthiest, limit the wages that corporations need to pay, and allow the rich to prosper at the expense of the needs of the individual and the community. This thinking has contributed immensely to the increasing needs of our students because there is simply not enough public money provided to meet the needs."

This is largely correct, IMO. The trickle down economics, or a rising tide lifts all boats, is simply false. Where any "tax breaks" need to be given is to those who spend money to live as opposed to those who may or may not spend money to create jobs. Especially given the voracious appetite of Wall Street.

However, I disagree with the assertion that "We need to reject the notion that labor unions are only in it for themselves and remember that they were always about protecting workers, giving voice to those who did not have a voice, and to nurturing economic justice instead of the growing ocean that separates those who have from those who do not," because unions have, again IMO, largely given up worker's interests in favor of "having a seat at the table." Nowhere is this more apparent than in Local 933 - NHFT.

My point is this: We are broke. There needs to be a new paradigm to efficiently and effectively teach our youth. The answer is obvious. There is a large pool of highly educated, experienced and willing people who can handle the job of preparing the next generation if administrative shackles are removed and they are given the tools to create a better future one classroom and school building at a time.

Who are these folks?

Teachers

@CAMEO THORNE | Jul 27, 2018 4:34 pm

You poor thing, you have no clue of what and how the BOE, present and past, have been spending the $400M plus budget per year. Nor does the BOE finance committee inquire publicly. The Full Board and the public do not receive a full and accurate report of information in a transparent monthly reporting format. I can clue you in on this.... whether the BOE receives more money, or less annually, does not translate into more support and teaching supplies for kids. There is no line item in the BOE finance committee report that remotely point towards kids receiving in school support supplies. You stated.... "Now we must work together to build a different structure of thinking and acting in order to fund our schools and address our students' critical needs. Right, but, As a teacher you know this to not be the FAC's...!

I agree that teachers should not be laid off. I also agree the we should fix some of the bloat by closing schools. This people began with the chasing of state grants for magnet schools and building these new buildings that are not mantained adequately. They should have kept the neighborhood schools. Transportation costs would be reasonable. Also these sending towns would have to educate their own. So we wouldn't have to worry about Suburban parents taking all of the pre k slots from the tax payers of New Haven. K-8 schools have been a failure because students in 6-8, need to be in a middle school preparing them for high school. People who take naps shouldn't be in the same place as people who have different needs. Little children are picking up bad habits and are being hurt on buses with older kids. There should be school closures of schools where there are 10-15 kids in a classroom. They should close any school that is not a K-8 and merge the students and then see what happens. There are too many schools and some have 600 kids and some have 200 like at West Rock. Those at Meadow Street need to really put Kids First. Teachers spend thousands on their classrooms every year because of what the district asks them to do. There is no paper, pencils,etc. teachers are providing that.. Things need to be exposed down at the BOE

As a long time New Haven teacher I am just perplexed as to how people who have NEVER walked a day in my shoes as an actual teacher make decisions for us. Sure admins from downtown make scripted walk-throughs. But those are always announced and every teacher in the building is aware that higher ups are coming. Everyone is on their best behavior. They get no real idea of what we do. What do we do? So much with so little. I spend thousands of $ stocking up my classroom every year. I make sure I buy books, crayons, pencils, notebooks, erasers, tissues, hand sanitizer etc. None of this is supplied by the school. We make do. I have 27 students. I pray that I have enough desks. I pray I have enough chairs for all as the ones provided break regularly. Did you know there is a mountain of broken chairs at maintenance downtown? Some teachers have students who sat all year on broken chairs. We know we aren't getting more. Then every year around Xmas we hear, "Go easy on the paper." So some teachers buy their own. I refuse. I'll stop giving homework first! We have no Social Studies textbooks. So it's a dirty little secret that hardly anyone teaches it. Take a look at the supposed Social Studies curriculum on the NHPS website. It's not been updated in 15 years. I use Farmington's or Avon's curriculum and add my own. At least theirs is aligned to the new standards. Then the biggest insult is the Reading Dept, who this year, fed us a "new" curriculum without any support. We got each segment online days before we needed to teach it and had to figure out how it all went together. Teachers helped each other figure it out. The Reading Dept. spent thousands of $ on Plugged In materials for 3-8 and it's been dropped. No explanation as to why. I don't think this "new" curriculum measures up. It's not cohesive and leaves a LOT to be desired. Then there is the Science Dept. who sends us kits and in my 18 years in the district has never had a PD on how to teach the kits. I could go on....

I need to add one more thing. 14 librarians were "let go." How are we to raise literate students if librarians aren't valued as an important part of our schools? Librarians do much more than check out books. They are Library Media Specialists. They are helping classroom teachers with all the technology they want us to use. They are the only ones training us. Downtown doesn't. They run coding classes. They set up websites for their schools. They teach Intervention classes (although it's not in their job description). They get kids excited about reading by running contests. They distribute free books. They make sure students get New Haven library cards. They set up and administer the Common Core testing. They troubleshoot all computer questions for teachers. They read stories to classes. Their job is huge. I think New Haven plans on splitting the remaining librarians between schools. Another slap in the face to them and to us teachers. No wonder our students aren't succeeding.

Nhps Teacher:

This is what I'm talking about. Thwre is after school programs but not enough seats in class; running out of paper? There are basics in education. The NHPS needs to cover those things. It hasn't.

PK: The suburbs don't miss out on diversity because many of them have it, particularly in their school systems. Systems like Hamden, West Haven, East Haven, North Haven, Wallingford, and Branford have lots of ELL and free lunch students. Heck, looking at a link someone posted on another thread to Loomis's board of trustees, five of that school's 25 trustees are people of color.

@1644: Boards of Trustees are not the people kids have to deal with in class, in the lunchroom or on the playing field.

It is a challenge to parent in largely segregated suburbs, but there is another reality that kids should know about as early as possible. My kids did see the contrasts early and spoke about what they saw. I believe it gives them the ability to move among different people and experiences more easily.
None of this is to disparage the wonderful children growing up in certain privileged places. Many will be sensitive and generous citizens and will contribute greatly.
My concern is for those who will approach "others" with fear and discomfort.
Prep schools are eager to recruit diverse students for exactly that reason. It's its own kind of remediation.

PK: No, trustees don't spend much time in the classroom, but, since almost all are alumni, they are representative of past classrooms. Most are also financially successful, and generous donors. I think of Josh Bekenstein on the Yale Corporation. Occasionally, there are "celebrities" like Maya Lin. (Maya has done alright, but nothing like Josh.) Again, living in the suburbs doesn't mean no minorities. West Haven High is majority minority, and most systems are about 20% or more minority.

Tax the rich, hire more teachers. Let's not be tricked into thinking fighting to maintain the status quo at already underfunded schools in the first place is far enough. I promise no old money in CT will move to Florida for lower taxes.

Love: The old money, the Trowbridges, English's, Farnams, et alia, is largely gone. The big money is new money, often highly mobile hedge funders. Remember, six per cent of the state's budget comes from 357 families. So, if only a handful of families moves, a huge hole is blown in the budget.