Sheff v. O'Neill Creates Financial Panic in Hartford Schools

Some would say that you cannot put a price tag on justice, but Hartford Schools Chief Financial Officer, Phillip Penn, is doing just that.  At a January 9th Hartford Board of Education meeting, Penn warned of a financial tsunami approaching Hartford. 

A “key factor” in creating this financial wave of destruction is the settlement agreement reached in the Sheff v. O’Neill desegregation case of 1996, or of 2022 if you prefer, since it took 26 years for the Connecticut legislature to secure a final settlement.  So, it’s not like they didn’t have time to feel the quake and see the approaching wave caused by the error of their ways.  Looking to punish white folks for behaving badly, the Connecticut Supreme Court in 1996 told communities around Hartford that they must accept Hartford’s minority students.  From the Sheff decision came the creation of multiple magnet schools in and around Hartford, supposed schools of excellence to entice suburban kids to come to Harford, and the creation of an Open Choice program, designed to allow Hartford students to look toward the suburbs for their education – apparently you need suburban type folks around you to get a good education.  What seemed at first to be a case for plausible celebration, and then serendipitous as the Hartford Board of Education was kicked to the curb in 1997, Sheff is now threatening the educational well-being of Hartford students, and the financial interests of many third-party fingers stuck in Hartford’s pie.

At the celebration for the final settlement in June of 2022, the warm feeling of justice was tempered by the cold warnings of reality.  Elizabeth Horton-Sheff, the lead plaintiff in the case, a Hartford City Councilwoman while Hartford Schools was imploding during the ‘90’s, fretted that “when court oversight ends, re-segregation occurs.”  However, it is not the return of segregation that is threatening your child’s Spanish classes, it is economics.   State Representative Edwin Vargas and State Senator John Fonfara both warned that more funding for Hartford neighborhood schools should have been in the agreement, an attempt at that failed in 2018.  Superintendent Torres-Rodriguez said the “settlement fiscally threatens the district if too many students leave and could have a potentially destructive impact on the students of Hartford Public Schools.”  This was said after a February 2019 BOE meeting at which she displayed slides trumpeting the “stability” in the “new budget process” developed within the District Model of Excellence: “schools are protected from most extreme year-to-year resource shifts, even if student need and current funding are misaligned.”  And here we are.  At the January 9th BOE meeting, CFO Penn called the economic impact of Sheff a “very serious threat…it worries me significantly,” and one that “I don’t know how to solve, candidly.”  Rest easy, my friend, the Superintendent has Educational Resource Strategies (ERS) on the job, advising her since day one on how to get the most out of “people, time, and money.”  

At the heart of the budget issue is the Sheff decision.  CFO Penn said at the January 9th meeting that “all expected and potential impacts need to also be considered through the lens of the recent Sheff settlement and the unknown effect on Hartford Public Schools.”  Sheff’s impact has been twofold.  First, Hartford students could now grab a bus to the burbs for Spanish class, but Hartford’s money would follow them, whether it be the cost sharing funds from the State, or the tuition funds that go from Hartford to the CREC and Open Choice schools that are receiving Hartford students (CREC has announced a year-over-year tuition increase for the next 3 years).  According to the State’s educational data hub, EdSight, Hartford Schools experienced a 21% drop in enrollment between 2013 and 2021.  What’s the matter with Hartford, we have great Spanish teachers? Too few, but the few we have are awesome.  Interestingly, the demographic group (a list consisting of Black students, Hispanic students, White students, “high-needs” students, special ed students, those students eligible for free meals, and non-English learners) which saw the smallest decrease over that time span were Black students, who suffered only a 2% drop in enrollment; Sheff was for these students!  No, matter the demographic, a 21% drop in student enrollment is enough to cause financial agita in any district.  Figuring a 21% decrease in 22,000 students at roughly $18k a pop, amounts to a nearly $85 million gross loss, or nearly 20% of Hartford Schools’ annual budget.

So, enrollment, which hasn’t risen in Hartford Schools during any single year since Superintendent Torres-Rodriguez arrived on the scene, is the first Sheff bogeyman, what is the second, impacting the financial woes of the district?    As Hartford students leave Hartford Schools, the out-of-towners, who once sought out Hartford’s magnet schools, are also turning around and heading back to whence they came, taking with them State “Magnet Operating Grant” dollars (sort of like tuition, only not), dollars once paid to Hartford coffers.  The Sheff settlement was crafted with the belief that if you build it, they will come.  So, there came to be Hartford magnet schools that were supposed to attract more blonde folks into Hartford, creating a more segregated school community.  Over the last 9 years, according to EdSight stats, the White student body in Hartford dropped 4 percent.  During a December BOE meeting, CFO Penn said that if you listen to the wind, you can hear that suburban students do not want to come to Hartford.  Enrollment at Hartford magnet schools Sports and Medical Sciences, Betances Stem, Environmental Sciences, Trinity Magnet, Kinsella, and University High, have all seen 4-5 consecutive yearly drops in enrollment.

It appears the lights have been dimming in Hartford Schools for several years, but the OMGs are just starting.  The unintended financial consequences of Sheff (psychological and academic consequences are another story) have Hartford Schools staring down the barrel of a $24 million budget deficit for next year.  Penn went on to say that solutions may have to come from further legislation or even court action.  Sitting in the State’s Education Committee collecting dust like a 6th grade Spanish textbook in Hartford, is a pending bill, An Act Increasing Flexibility And Autonomy In The Administration Of Education In School Districts, H.B.5238, that Penn says will help keep the wolves away, as its passage by the legislature will have the State pick up the tab for CREC and Open Choice students who leave Hartford.  However, that bill appears to have died in committee.  Other deficit mitigation factors will come by way of Hartford Schools tightening its budget belt.  In April 2019, reporting that Hartford Schools had endured it’s tenth consecutive year with flat or decreased funding, Penn stated that between 2015 and 2019, $117 million had been cut from the budget.  Presented at the January BOE meeting were other mitigation strategies Penn suggested may occur; there may be a hiring freeze on current vacant full-time positions (classroom-based instructional staff not included of course), reducing or restructuring current vacant positions, and the reduction and/or consolidation of programs, platforms (stop contracting with LincSpring?), and non-personnel expenses.  

             Districts across the country received millions of dollars in federal relief money, and continue to receive it, for the impacts of the COVID pandemic on students and their education.  Will the programs started with these funds be sustainable when the funding is shut off, or will they be suddenly yanked from the grasp of struggling students as the Hartford Schools budget crisis prevents their continuing?  Will the crisis continue, forcing another State takeover, another muddled mess with privatization, and another sacking of the Board of Education?  Some may argue that the last one would be welcomed during good times.