Hartford Public Schools has many problems.  One of them is you.

While watching news reports on Mayor Arulampalam’s creation of a Blue Ribbon Commission on Education, it’s interesting to see how much attention the media and the public give to the narrative of school funding.  When it comes to school funding, as the news reports show, there is no lack of public voice and a willingness to show up.  They will appear at city council hearings, picket outside the capitol building and city hall, waving cute little signs with slogans about justice, equity, and saving schools.

However, where are the citizens and the so-called city activists and advocates with their cute little signs when the funding is being spent?

When they cry for more education funding, why are they not showing up at a board of education meeting and demand that Hartford teachers, those doing the educating, receive equitable salaries and supports?

When a failed superintendent of the district seeks a bonus and a contract extension and then cries to whomever will listen that more money is needed to educate Hartford students, where are the voices and cute little signs of those demanding justice and saving schools?

When tens of millions of dollars are given out to non-profit and for-profit organizations without showing any data that their programs have been effective on student academics, attendance, or social emotional wellbeing, where are the voices and advocates for accountability?

When school construction projects are millions of dollars over budget before a shovel is even stuck in the ground and when those projects become overdue by two years, where are the voices of the skewered taxpayer and the voice of the parents of the students affected by the construction boondoggle?

Where are the community voices and their cute little signs showing support for teachers and other district employees who are having their retirement accounts siphoned off to pay for the financial malfeasance of the superintendent?

Where are the voices of equity and justice when the district spends millions on esports gaming while schools go without libraries, teachers go without supplies, and students go without adequate lunches?

Where are the voices of the parents and public when the superintendent staffs the largest central office of any school district in Connecticut but a very autistic, high needs student is left to flounder in a regular classroom with a non-certified special education paraprofessional?

Where are you when the money is being spent?

It is a myth that an increase in school funding means an increase in academic success.  If this were true, why are some of Hartford’s brightest students those who came from impoverished countries and even from refugee camps in foreign countries?   If this were true, why does Hartford, which ranks 15th in spending among Connecticut’s 36 Alliance districts, rank no better than 34th in measures of academic success?  If this were true, why didn’t an extra $50 million a year in COVID relief funds added to HPS bank accounts over the past three years get student assessment numbers back to where they were prior to COVID?

The problem is that you do not bring your voice and cute little signs to bear on district leadership when she is spending the funds she already receives.  You don’t demand proof of the effectiveness of her spending, instead, you rely on her rhetoric and phony numbers and then join in her narrative that more spending is required.  That makes sense to you?  If you answered in the affirmative, then one of HPS’ problems is you.