Bassick High School – Politics of Perpetual Failure

Thanks again to Lenny Grimaldi over at Only in Bridgeport for highlighting this story of the half century of challenges at Bassick High School in Bridgeport.  Graduation rates have “improved” to 62% as opposed to the state average of 85%; Common Core proficiency levels were 15% in language and 0% in math. As sad as the story is, it is even more disturbing to realize that there are hundreds of schools across the country in similar positions. I’m no education expert and I know the challenges that certain school districts have is enormous. But it seems to me that one of the keys to making progress would be much more stability in the school leadership and much more money for better infrastructure and programs. Admittedly, both are easier said than done. But no organization can be effective with the constant rotation of principals and major shifts in direction that have whipsawed this school in the last few years. And it is clear that the reliance on local property taxes to fund the public school system will inevitably end up being an inequitable system – Bridgeport spends about 33% less per pupil than Greenwich. At some point, the State or Federal government is going to have to put policies in place that somehow makes these funding differences more equitable. It is essentially the equivalent of the illegal red-lining that banks have engaged in in poorer neighborhoods for years, except it is being done to our children by government itself.