Sanchez Blasts Stewart Over Education Comments and Underfunding

Rep. Bobby Sanchez (D-25) blasted Republican Mayor Erin Stewart over comments in which she doubled-down on her underfunding of the city’s schools.

In her annual state of the city address to the City Council, Stewart bluntly said that her longstanding policy of low-funding to New Britain’s schools will continue in the city budget for the next year.

Stewart curtly said that, “what I will not do is blindly throw additional tax dollars into a massive bureaucracy that is failing our students.”

“To be honest,” Rep. Sanchez said, “I wish I was more surprised by the mayor’s decision to continue to underfund education and blame others for their struggles.”

Sanchez’ press release noted that, “She recently made statements that blamed the school system itself, removing any responsibility from her administration, which has refused to increase funding in recent years.”

“Similar to blaming the Governor’s office for New Britain having one of the worst COVID responses in the state,” Rep. Sanchez said, “this new attack on the hardworking educators in our schools is part of a larger disturbing trend where if you’re looking for someone to take responsibility, you’re not going to find them at City Hall.”

Earlier this year, Rep. Sanchez opened an exploratory committee to consider running for Mayor.

“This type of leadership is unacceptable, especially in the midst of a pandemic,” Sanchez added.

Stewart has been criticized for repeatedly flat-funding the city’s funding for the operating budget of New Britain schools.

Stewart essentially admitted, in her comments, that she has flat-funded the city’s schools, saying, “Every year, the Consolidated School District of New Britain receives about $126 million of taxpayer money, and today, it is dead last, when every metric within the state of Connecticut education performance index.”

But critics have pointed to Stewart’s flat-funding of schools as an important reason for those low academic scores.

The New Britain Progressive reported in 2019 that, despite New Britain receiving, “the fifth highest state Education Cost Sharing grant funding of all of the cities and towns in the state,”

New Britain’s own local commitment to education, on the other hand, is among the lowest municipal school districts in the state. Only Bridgeport allocated less local funding per student than New Britain in the 2015-2016 state data.

While New Britain residents have less money than the state average to fund local services, the New Britain Progressive reported that, even looking at a percent of the city’s ability to pay, the city of New Britain still appeared to allocate to its schools, “the second lowest among municipal school districts in the state.”

Hartford’s contribution was not in that data and may have been lower, still, which would have made New Britain third lowest.

“During Mayor Stewart‘s term,” Rep. Sanchez said. “New Britain has gone from middle of the pack to dead last in achievement and funding.”

The New Britain Progressive also reported in 2019 that,

Comparing the amount of local support for education, using the 2015-2016 data, to the most recent academic test scores appears to show a general correlation between how much a city or town provides in local funding for their schools and the test scores of the students in their schools. The comparison appears to show New Britain’s place near the bottom of both local education funding and test scores as part of a larger pattern, with New Britain near the low end of the scale.

In 2019, the New Britain Progressive reported that, at that time, it appeared that it would have taken a $14 million or more per year local education funding increase from the city to get the city up to the average amount cities and towns spent as a portion of their local ability to pay, apparently leaving New Britain’s city commitment to annual school operating budgets far behind the benchmarks that appear correlated with higher educational outcomes.

“As Chair of the Education Committee in our State Legislature,” Rep. Sanchez said, “I have worked tirelessly alongside the other members of our delegation to deliver as much money and resources as possible to our city.”

The current two year state budget increases state Educational Cost Sharing Grant funding for New Britain schools by $8,146,298, according to the nonpartisan legislative Office of Fiscal Analysis. Senator Rick Lopes (D-6), then a state representative, and Rep. Peter Tercyak (D-26) joined Rep. Bobby Sanchez in voting to approve that budget. Rep. Manny Sanchez (D-24) was elected to the state legislature later that year.

“We have delivered millions back to our city but without partners on the city level that care about education our schools will continue to be underfunded,” Rep. Bobby Sanchez said.

“What is most tragic in these discussions,” said Rep. Sanchez, “is that we lose track of the kids. When adults who are in positions to improve their lives are simply pointing fingers they lose. As a former teacher this truly saddens me because our kids have enough to deal with here in New Britain.”

“During this time,” Sanchez said pointedly, “we need leaders who are ready to step up and find solutions, not blame others.”