Over the past decade of Hartford school financing, little change has occurred in the available resources. The District remains flat funded by the city, the availability of special funds has decreased over time, while costs have risen each year.  It’s a depressing situation, but it’s also the exact problem our public leaders have signed up to solve.  How bold have we been in addressing our situation?  We would say not bold enough, and maybe even not bold at all, begging the question, What is it going to take for necessity to actually be the mother of invention here in Hartford?

Looking in the rear-view mirror, we see that last year’s Fiscal 2017 budget discussion, detailed here by Dr. Narvaez a year ago, forecast the current Fiscal 2018 mess.  A strained financial situation resulted after theme-based academies proliferated for a decade but then could neither be adequately filled nor funded.  And, similarly, the year before talked of financial hardship and predicted a crisis in the following year as well.

And this year? “It’s challenging, not having enough to do the bare minimum,” the superintendent reflected in her statement at the 3:50 mark of this video.  If it was a crisis then, it is really a crisis now.

With not much changing each budget season these past three to four years, other than shrinking staffs, it seems like Hartford is stuck in a time of drought simply waiting for rain.

Does our public leadership not yet realize that more money might never come, and so we must deliver education in fundamentally different ways?

The only way to reach hundreds and even thousands of students with great programming is to leverage more and more resources outside of the schools, and to think in terms of new business models.

Using the Hartford Performs innovation as an example, the very capable HPS leadership can figure out how to:

• Deliver sports differently, tapping private nonprofit entities to help run fewer, more robust and diverse cross-community teams citywide;
• Market all CREC and HPS schools together, with community partners doing heavy lifting with their constituents helping guide them in the process;
• Tap Hartford NRZs and other community hubs to rethink and take ownership of family engagement in our schools;
• Share school and nonprofit budgets to serve kids on site at schools, and
• Work with nonprofits to “double employ” teachers who already stay after school to help students catch to grade level using technology, among other strategies.

If we continue to refuse to innovate – and even worse, slash public investment in innovation, like HPS seems ready to do to one of its most compelling inventions, Hartford Performs – we send a message to every corporation, foundation, and nonprofit partner in this city that when the going gets tough, we just tighten our belts.  To save money, HPS is choosing time and time again to use a bit less electricity every year, while completely ignoring the fact that they have the ability to build wind turbines – it may not be the prettiest wind turbine, but it can get the job done.  Divesting from innovation at this time sends the opposite message needed right now.  Now, is the time to be bold.  If we wait for a better financial situation to foster innovation, we will be waiting for a long, long time, sacrificing another generation of children.

The unfolding choice lottery scandal, focusing on Hartford’s Capital Prep, and coming on the heels of the Office of Child Advocate report on child abuse and neglect in the Hartford schools, strikes another blow both to community trust and to the regional confidence (or lack thereof) in Hartford’s ability to manage itself.  Very bad timing in budget season.

As Hartford’s fate becomes more and more linked to the willingness of state legislators to invest in it, and as Mayor Luke Bronin begins vetting law firms specializing in municipal bankruptcy (as reported by the Courant), the last thing Hartford needs is a front page scandal on government mismanagement in Hartford.  For those who missed the screaming headlines last week, it seems like we have yet another example of this.  Apparently, up to 40 percent of the incoming class of students at Capital Prep Magnet School sidestepped the lottery in 2013 and 2014.

The State Auditor’s report, beginning on page 12, has the details on the lottery.

For further context, the Courant also had a cogent editorial on the matter, which in the argument “Lottery Deceit Hurts Magnets”, correctly called the situation a betrayal of the public trust.  An op-ed by Rand Cooper also was illuminating.

A History of Mismanagement 

The State takeover of the Hartford schools in the late 1990s was one thing; the resignation and prosecution of former Mayor Eddie Perez was another. The alleged erasing and correcting of student answers on state tests at the Betances Early Reading Lab School was one thing; the use of dots on SAND School students’ shirts to brand their issues was another.  The accosting of a visiting student by former administrator Eddie Genao – at an event designed to understand the impact of systemic racism, no less – should have been sufficient scandal for the decade; the latest regarding “lottery fraud” better be the last.  Each of these incidents is an anomaly … but as they recur, doubts and distrust are raised.

As an independent partner working to cultivate more stakeholder involvement in education in Hartford, we can’t forget the litany of management errors over the past nine years that make it so hard for people to believe success is possible in our city.

Nor are we trying to forget those mistakes. They are signals of our current reality – the current status of our city. And, unfortunately, they are why 11 years into the reform launched by Mayor Eddie Perez, his Board, and Superintendent Adamowski, we are right back to talking about ways to keep kids safe and keep lotteries fair, instead of being at a point where we can talk about which four-year colleges and employers merit the application of our incredibly well-prepared high school graduates.

Clearly, Superintendent Leslie Torres-Rodriguez’s focus must be on management, similar to that of Mayor Bronin at City Hall this past year-and-a-half. But, we must also ask the question whether or not success in the current configuration is possible at all. If the District could focus 100 percent of its attention and higher percentage of its resources on the 10-15 chronically low-performing schools, could that give those schools a better chance? How could we restructure our system to allow for that?

We will revisit this question later on in the summer, as it may point the way forward in Hartford. One thing is being made clear yet again in Hartford, the way we have always done things can no longer be the way we do them.

For Hartford high school students, having no money and staring at the prospect of life-changing debt can mean not even attempting (much less going on to finish) college.  Many students consider just leaving when the pressures mount midstream.  The work of the Hartford Promise Scholars program is all about guaranteeing students with a 3.0 GPA and 93 percent attendance a path.  This year, 14 percent of Hartford high school seniors have earned these scholarships.  This is a major victory … but really just a start.

Hartford cannot stop here.  With the vast majority of Hartford Promise scholars presenting as low-income and first-generation college-going students, plainly, the scholarships of up to $20,000 are all about taking luck out of the equation, President Richard Sugarman of the Hartford Promise program told us in a recent interview.  Poor kids don’t need luck; they need ways to succeed.

The 113 Hartford Promise scholars this year were among 823 Hartford-resident students in the freshman class of 2013; 47 attended the seven traditional high schools, 51 attended 10 magnet schools, and 15 attended one charter school, Achievement First.

“Clearly, we want to grow the numbers,” President Sugarman said, as well as to push the numbers all the way through college graduation.  From the 2016 high school graduating class, he said, 95 percent of the Hartford college-going students are persisting through their first year of college right now.  That’s a very impressive data point.

For the future, President Sugarman said, “We plan to be very aggressive in developing fundraising,” because while this year’s 14 percent Hartford Promise contingent “is a big enough chunk to change culture and create expectations for success,” it will be the $50, $500, $5,000, and $50,000 donors who will open doors for more Hartford kids.  “We want to have many, many supporters.”  This is an important contribution, warranting support from any and all who care about our capital city, our region, and our state.

Student Perspectives

At Bulkeley High School, we were able to meet last week with Hartford Promise Scholars Cavana Carey, Klay Clarke, Paola Garriga, Kerry Ann Genas, Destiny Gonzalez, and Rebecca Vazquez, who share a common characteristic: At one time or another, all went to Renzulli.

Here is a sampling of their views as to the thought and other processes concerning going to college:

Plan well but be flexible.  “You get motivated from others,” Paola Garriga told us, noting that she has evolved through aspirations of being a teacher or a pediatrician – but now is inspired toward fine arts.  People grow and make adjustments, especially in high school and college.  As senior class president, she is balancing helping other students with getting inspiration from them.  Her senior class vice president colleague (and fellow Hartford Promise Scholar) Rebecca Vazquez, works at Shop Rite now, but wants to take lessons from there and move up and on.  She will.

Money in the Bank Is Key.  “I’ve been counting on this since last year,” Cavana Carey told us.  She plans to attend Central CT State University, as it is the only college she can afford.  Her aunt, who has a broad human resources, psychology, and biology background, has helped her to love science.  She advises her younger peers, middle school students, to visit a variety of colleges and not get caught up in going to a place just to say you did.  As in basketball, you have to finish.

Disincentives about Destiny.  On reflection, when choosing a college or a college major – or taking on immense debt – “There is a fear of what you are doing for the rest of your life,” Destiny Gonzalez observed (she does her homework late at night because she is participating in three internships).

It’s Not Moot.  Klay Clarke recently won events at the Washington, D.C., moot court competition led by Bulkeley Teacher Justin Taylor.  Fearing law school debt, he says, he will likely choose another field.  “College is a gamble; so much debt with no job” after matriculation can be a devastating result, he said.

Here is the link to the District’s information on the Hartford Promise Scholars and, on a related note, here is the CT Mirror article on the graduation requirements of our state, as currently being sought.

The Bottom Line

These 113 students – and those who came before and are lining up – are the future of Hartford.  If you have the wherewithal, supporting the Hartford Promise Scholars can change lives.

Please consider banding together with a few friends and doing so.