For months, state officials suggested something was seriously about wrong with financial management in Connecticut’s largest urban school districts, painting a picture of local boards gorging themselves at the public trough.
The State Department of Education called in independent forensic auditors CliftonLarsonAllen LLP to audit the books of both Bridgeport and Hartford Public Schools. By then, the narrative was already set. Local leaders had gorged themselves on public money, and the state was riding in as the white knight (pun intended) to restore order.
Now the forensic audit results for the two largest districts in Connecticut both with a majority of Black and brown, students, both led by African American men, are in. The verdict? No stolen funds, no offshore accounts, non existent criminal schemes, and absolutely no systemic fraud.
Instead, the audits reveal a truth that state leaders seem desperate to cover up, our urban school districts are not gorging and purging funds behind closed doors. They are surviving on a strict sustenance diet, children’s futures left emaciated by a state funding system that for more than half a century has systematically starved our poor and minority children’s future.
Let’s look at the audacity of the state’s self serving narrative, look at the math. Connecticut still bases its Education Cost Sharing formula on a foundation of $11,525 per student, a ration frozen in time while the real cost of nourishing a child’s education, adjusted for inflation, is well over $16,500. While the state points to local shortfalls, it conveniently overlooks the nearly $1 billion racial funding gap separating wealthy, well-fed suburban districts from low-income, majority Black and brown urban district that are left to scrape for crumbs at the garbage dump.
Of course, the forensic reports identified operational flaws in both districts that should be acknowledged. It highlighted poor internal tracking and communication breakdowns between central offices and local boards. Those gaps warrant stronger internal controls and immediate remediation. But our districts are starving to death. The vultures are already overhead. We cannot afford to lose a single calorie.
Misclassifying line items does not create a multi-million-dollar structural deficit out of thin air. When districts are forced to stretch $11,525 to cover more than $16,500 in costs, the resulting deficit is not necessarily a sign of local waste. It is the predictable result of long-term starvation. When you starve a body of basic sustenance, its organs eventually begin to fail. Blaming a district for its emaciated budget is like blaming a starving person for being thin.
Rather than providing the necessary calories and fixing the broken ECS formula, the state offers bureaucracy as a substitute for bread. We see it in the creation of election year “Blue Ribbon” panel and in state oversight options like the Municipal Accountability Review Board (MARB).
While studies and commissions are framed as helpful partners, they share a central flaw, neither one guarantees a single crumb of additional revenue. Telling malnourished districts to practice “LEAN” austerity targets is like asking already emaciated group of students to tighten their belts even further. These panels shift focus away from state funding obligations and burden central office staff with endless red tape, while threatening the local autonomy of the boards elected to serve these communities.
The state’s political playbook is transparent: starve the district, point to its weakness, convene a panel to prescribe further austerity, and divert public attention from state-level funding failures in order to protect the food the ruling class hoards behind their precious guardrails.
This intentional neglect is not just a policy debate, it is a violation of civil rights. Article Eighth, Section 1 of the Connecticut Constitution guarantees a free, suitable, and equitable public education for every child in this state. By keeping urban districts on a starvation diet, the state is failing in its’ constitutional duty to Black, Latino, and low-income students.
We cannot wait for legislative goodwill that never arrives. It is time for civil rights and advocacy organizations, the NAACP, the ACLU of Connecticut, Hispanic Federation, Center for Children’s Advocacy, and others band together and draw a line in the sand.
We need a coalition of civil rights leaders, legal scholars, and courageous advocacy groups to step up and file a class-action lawsuit against the State of Connecticut for blatantly violating Article Eight of our constitution. To every public interest law firm, constitutional scholar, and legal aid organization in this region: I am begging you to take this fight to court pro bono.
Our urban students do not need another Blue Ribbon panel, MARB, or another lecture on how to manage their state-imposed starvation. They need an updated, fully funded Education Cost Sharing formula that provides real nourishment. Until state leaders stop pointing fingers at local school boards and start funding urban districts to meet actual student needs, the real fiscal mismanagement isn’t happening in Bridgeport or Hartford central offices, it’s happening under the golden State Capitol dome where the grain bins are already overloaded.
Our children need a revolution. And they need it now.
Joseph Sokolovic is Vice Chair of the Bridgeport Board of Education. The opinions expressed here are his alone.