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Eddie Perez on Schools: Compare and Contrast
by Ken Krayeske
12/13/06
Hartford, CT
As long as Eddie or his cronies thought of the idea, it's worth pursuing. If he or his administration didn't think of it, then it's crap.
Rachel Gottlieb of the Hartford Courant has written two stories in the past week about themed charter schools. On Dec. 4, she wrote "Battle Lines Drawn On Military School," subtitled "Magnet Plan Has Opponents Arguing Whether Program Would Build Character Or Exploit Lower-Income Students."
The relevant parts of the story:
"Picture this: Hartford middle and high school students standing at attention in formation for morning roll call, walking quietly in single file through school hallways, addressing their teachers as `Sir' and `Ma'am' and sporting neatly pressed military uniforms.
"Child soldiers?
"Military school. A public military magnet school.
"It's a school that the new superintendent of schools, Steven J. Adamowski, says the district should consider. Ditto for Mayor Eddie A. Perez, chairman of the school board, who also suggests a role for boot camp, a residential reform school and perhaps some other residential magnet school if funding can be identified.
"It's like the performing arts model or the classical academy model," [Perez] said, referring to other magnet schools in the city. "A military academy is another model we should be looking at."
Now compare that to Gottlieb's reporting in the December 11 about "A School For Public Safety: Regional Group Plans Magnet Academy For Police, Firefighting, Security Careers."
"Hartford Police Chief Daryl K. Roberts has a hard time finding candidates who he thinks are smart enough and fit enough for a job on his force. Even more rare is the Hartford resident who is qualified for a job on the force.
"A lot of applicants in general don't pass the reading test or they can't pass the background test," Roberts said. "A lot of crimes are committed by sophisticated criminals," so police need to be smarter.
"Police and fire departments throughout the state and around the country are having the same problem.
"So the Capitol Region Education Council is creating a magnet school focused on preparing students for careers in public safety. The focus on academics will be so pronounced that students who enter the school, probably in Grade 6, will be expected to complete high school and then earn an associate's degree in one of the area community colleges before leaving the program. The school is designed to operate all year with a short summer break, and there will be time built into the school year for students to enter internships.
"Hartford Mayor Eddie A. Perez, who also is chairman of the city's school board, stopped short of endorsing the public safety academy, saying that it deserves consideration but suggesting that Hartford does not necessarily need to be the school's host city. It's difficult to find property in the city for new schools, he said. In the past, Perez has expressed reluctance to remove buildings and property from the tax rolls for new schools."
Of the many words I can think of for this kind of happy horsedookey, I'm not sure which to assign first, and none of them would be kind for this type of leadership.
Perez must go.
12/13/06