[JayCT]

Originally Posted by mdovell

I'm just talkin about the purchasing system not regionalizing the actual school districts themselves. Look up the company Tyler Technologies. The product munis is now nearly the default software used by municipalities and school districts across the country. If Connecticut doesn't use it then it creates a patchwork of things that create a higher switching cost. Let me ask you something if somebody is a teacher and goes from one District to another are they using the same systems or not okay so that means somebody gains experience using some software applications they go to another place and find out it's totally different. Who pays for that you do every time because you can't pretend that every single school district is individually special and unique to the point that it justifies everything being different.

Should we have local teacher licenses? No of course not because many of these small towns are not big enough to justify a teacher just getting a teacher's license to go place to place to place it makes more sense to have a state license for teaching just as it does for being a doctor or a dentist or lawyer. With purchasing if you're a contractor would you really want to go place to place and see totally different terms and conditions about what you can and can't do? No of course not you need to have a universal procurement law for the state that lays down what local governments can and can't do the burden should not be on the contractor to understand dates it should be on the local government.

We can talk about taxes all we want but the fact of the matter is until Connecticut can have actual procurement laws then there's really no regulation on best practices for how local governments spend your money..period.

With respect to the quality of the school district's frankly I don't really know what people are using for benchmarks because I don't really see what is being used. If you are the magnet school those magnet schools my specialized and something like the Arts or the Sciences. At the same point are you looking at graduation rates or attendance in the higher education. Knowledge is standardized as it is you're not going to create anything special unique by explaining to them that speed is distance over time or density is mass over volume. The subject matter is what it is it's not going to change. Now you can make the argument that higher budgets can give you access to more specialized content. When I was in high school most of the districts around me had English French Spanish and Latin for languages. More wealthier districts had German and Mandarin and Russian. Again that's all well and good but you can just get that with Rosetta Stone or just pay for private lessons..

The connection with the higher end school district and higher property values did have validity in the past but not so much now. If you're really concerned about the quality of Education you can always send your kid to private school and I would argue that paying for private school for 13 years means you're done after 13 years. Buying into a higher-end community bees a 30-year mortgage for 30 years and then the higher property taxes that go along with it for the remainder of your life.

Relatives of property values I don't think it's the major concern I would be much more concerned about the effects of the traffic displacement with the tolls alongside that of the foundation issue. This might be off topic but if you take out literally a place for people to live them tens of thousands of people and then create higher costs of Transportation you're going to see a lot more people taking back roads to places the traffic patterns in Connecticut could be dramatically different over the next five years.

Connecticut does have a cooperative system that towns use for purchasing. More than 100 communities are part of it and it saves them millions. Here is a link to CRCOG's:

Capitol Region Purchasing Council | CRCOG

You keep bringing up procurement laws but do not explain why or if this really makes a difference. I do not think that the state, any state, should be enacting laws that force towns to things against their will. Again, to me, local rule is best.

The benchmark people are using for quality education is the same as is used in other states. It is the school districts performance and the actual experiences of its students. There is a reason that the majority of the top performing states are ones with smaller school districts. It is accountability. School Boards have to answer to the people that elect them and smaller districts are closer to the public than some regional district based in a far off city. I run into our school board members and school administration and staff all the time at the local market and every election year Board members come to our door to talk about issues. You won't get that with a large regional district.

I also know that if I had an issue with our schools I could go to a School Board meeting and be heard during the public portion of the meeting. At a large regional school board meeting, there is a very good chance you would never be heard because there are so many people wanting to talk. It is that simple.

Also, not everyone that want to send their kids to high quality schools can afford to send them to private schools. You are talking about tuition at a decent school of at least $15,000 per year per kid. If you have two or more kids that is an insane amount of money. And this is not for an elite school like Fairfield Prep or Kingswood Oxford which run over $20,000 per year. How does someone making $75,000 per year afford that kind of tuition? They can't but they likely can afford to pay a bit more for a home in a top performing school district.

I would also like to know where you get that school performance no longer relates to higher property values? The last I looked, property values in towns like West Hartford, Farmington, Simsbury, Avon, Glastonbury, Madison, Guilford, Woodbridge, Orange, Fairfield, Easton, Trumbull, Westport, Weston, Wilton, Ridgefield, Darien, New Canaan, Greenwich and host of other towns that have highly rated schools, are not losing value and are still have a line of people willing to pay more to live there. We get a lot of people on this forum that say they want a town with good schools. Nothing has changed. Jay

[CTartist]

Originally Posted by JayCT

Connecticut does have a cooperative system that towns use for purchasing. More than 100 communities are part of it and it saves them millions. Here is a link to CRCOG's:

Capitol Region Purchasing Council | CRCOG

I didn't know about this. When Lamont says he want to combine school systems save money why doesn't anyone bring this up?

[JayCT]

Originally Posted by CTartist

I didn't know about this. When Lamont says he want to combine school systems save money why doesn't anyone bring this up?

That is an excellent question. It makes you wonder what the true purpose of it is? Looney’s original bill was to merge school districts with less the 40,000 students, not residents. Maybe it wasn’t a typo like claimed (it was later changed to residents). If the state merged all districts with less than 40,000 students, you would see the failing urban school districts test scores go up as they merged with better performing suburban districts. Highly suspicious. Jay

[mdovell]

Group purchasing and procurement laws are two different things. Group purchasing is fine but it still means compliance. Ct consolidated their Pl nning groups years ago. CRCOG does a good job and they are directly dealing the most with foundation.

Let me ask you this what is the process for local governments to buy anything in CT by themselves?

[WouldLoveTo]

Originally Posted by RunD1987

Then add a $160 to $180 year car registration fee and create a State Bank. Towns that need additional funding for education can withdraw X amount of money with no strings attached. Funding for that can be used from that car registration fee.

Wait, you continually complain about your high car taxes, and now you think the state should add MORE to the car reg?

[CTartist]

Here is an update from the Governor.

Major Changes Coming To CT School Regionalization Plan
https://patch.com/connecticut/trumbu...campaign=alert

[kidyankee764]

Originally Posted by CTartist

Here is an update from the Governor.

Major Changes Coming To CT School Regionalization Plan
https://patch.com/connecticut/trumbu...campaign=alert

Aka, we’ll start with this, and move on to that. Allowing merging back office will ultimately lead to merging districts. He knows this, and is solely trying to reduce opposition by way of manipulating.

Sorry - no.

[JayCT]

Originally Posted by kidyankee764

Aka, we’ll start with this, and move on to that. Allowing merging back office will ultimately lead to merging districts. He knows this, and is solely trying to reduce opposition by way of manipulating.

Sorry - no.

I agree. Jay

[CTartist]

This was passed yesterday by the education committee. I would guess this has to be voted on by the politicians now but I am not sure.


Education Committee approves Lamont’s watered-down regionalization bill.
https://ctmirror.org/2019/03/29/educ...KaXQWpOkg-x_Ak

And then this was yesterday too.
"Reiterating his new found mantra “to just have the state get out of the way,” Gov. Ned Lamont came to Essex on Friday to drill home that point. Lamont was at Essex Elementary School along with politicians and school officials from the area who are seen as innovators when it comes to finding ways to share school services."
https://www.ctnewsjunkie.com/archive...hared_services

[basehead617]

Slippery slope arguments in opposition are the weakest kind of argument.