By CHRIS POWELL
High school students were brought to the state Capitol last week to rally with teachers, school administrators, and others on government’s payroll in support of big increases in state financial aid to municipal school systems.
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Legislators smiled and patronized the kids, thereby encouraging them in the lesson they were to be taught and teach others — that education in Connecticut is all a matter of getting more money.
No one asked the students about controlling education’s costs or about where spending elsewhere in government might be reduced in favor of education, though state government lately has been full of scandals of waste, patronage, and extravagance.
No one asked them whether binding arbitration for the union contracts of school employees should continue to remove wages and benefits — the great bulk of school expense — from democratic control.
While the students understood that inflation has put upward pressure on school spending, as on all spending, no one asked them whether the steadily declining enrollment in Connecticut’s schools should reduce pressure for more spending.
No one asked the students about the curious inverse relationship between school spending and student proficiency in Connecticut — why more spending has correlated with less learning for many years now.
Nor were the students asked about the chronic absenteeism of 25% of their classmates, the negligent parenting behind it, and government’s failure to treat the problem seriously.
The new federal scholarship program for students who might want alternatives to government-run high schools, a program that might save much money in public education by moving students to private schools at federal expense, was not raised with the young visitors either. Governor Lamont has not yet decided whether to let Connecticut participate in the program, though it wouldn’t cost state or municipal government a cent. Did the students know of the outside opportunities available to them? Probably not, but they weren’t asked.
Had the students noticed social promotion in their schools — the policy of advancing students from grade to grade and to graduation even if they have learned little, and did they realize how wasteful, unfair, and harmful this is to everyone, students, teachers, and taxpayers alike? Did they think something should be done about it? They weren’t asked.
Danbury Mayor Roberto Alves, who is also Democratic state chairman, noted at the rally that schools today bear much extra expense because they must educate thousands of “multi-language learners,” a euphemism for illegal immigrants. As a good Democrat, Mayor Alves supports lots of illegal immigration, but how much can Connecticut’s schools afford? Is its cost already far beyond their ability to pay? Of course that question wasn’t put to the students either, since, like all the questions they weren’t asked, it would have collapsed their “more money” platform under the heavy weight of reality.
But being used as props by the teacher unions and the elected officials who happily subordinate the government to them still may have been a good lesson for the students. They got to see the Capitol, meet legislators, learn about the legislative process, and gain the hope that you really can get what you want from government in Connecticut — if you’re also doing the bidding of the biggest and most pernicious special interest.
Nor were the students told or asked about other legislation of great interest to their teachers. The bill would remove from municipal school boards the power to fire deficient teachers and vest it instead with independent hearing officers not chosen by municipal voters. Thus the little power remaining with school boards, and the little democracy remaining in municipal public education, would be greatly diminished.
It is megalomaniacal for teachers to be so sensitive on this point, since it is already almost impossible to fire public school teachers in Connecticut. Their evaluations are secret, exempt from public records law, and their performance is typically discussed at meetings that exclude the public.
A seminar on the teaching-firing bill might have been even more educational for the students visiting the Capitol.
Chris Powell has written about Connecticut government and politics for many years. (CPowell@cox.net)
Chris Powell column 