Letter: City Council Candidate Veasna Roeun On 'Charter Schools'

To The Editor:

All charter schools in Connecticut are public schools, but Danbury state legislators along with local Democrat politicians prefers lying to our community. Such an embarrassing tragedy the discourse around charter schools is an ideological debate rather than a logical policy discussion informed by facts.

In the last four years, supporters helped our community to gather over 5 thousand signatures. The proposed school received a $25 million pledge for its construction and proponents offered to meet nearly every condition. Still, it’s not enough to bring some local Democratic politicians to the table. Note of fact, the school is supported by nearly all democrat lawmakers at the state level.

Bringing a public charter to Danbury will inspire healthy competition and promote best practices; it will encourage our traditional schools to strive and achieve higher standards. How so? If the charter school does not perform to high state standards, they are put on probation. This is good because for decades our schools receive more money when students are failing; consequently, rewarding terrible practices. This current system has no incentive for innovation and tangible improvements. It hurts the most vulnerable population of primarily immigrant kids who are condemned to becoming a permanent underclass. So, we ask ourselves why and need to reimagine the way our educational system operates.

The grasp of the Union, Andrea Gardner, Senator Kushner, Bob Godfrey, Roberto Alves, Kenneth Gucker, David Arconti, and Kate Conneta are pushing Danbury down a precipice wherein the near future, we may have much of our population poorly educated and Danbury becomes an undesirable location for families. It is disgraceful for them to continue preying on the lack of knowledge and misinform the community. The first lie starts in conversation with them stating, “we support public schools and not charter schools”. They are deliberately misinforming our community into believing charters in CT are private and for profit. Fact is they’re public and closely monitored by the State.

To give this more urgency, the proposed school already has a home at 358 Main Street, which is the site for the future building. Our previous and current mayors were willing to sit down and explore the reallocation of funds to cover the shared special education expenses.

The community is asking for educational options…they’re asking for choice. Some politicians refuse them and revert to “parrot politics”. These “politicians” repeat the same lines and misinformation, once again, completely disregarding facts. They repeat “charter schools take money away from public schools” and we respond, “ok let’s have the mayor agree to a reallocation of funds while exploring a larger grant for all schools”. They pause, then back to parrot mode, “charter schools take away money from public schools”. It’s almost comical if our children’s future wasn’t at stake.

Kate Konneta always says because the charter school only helps 770 students, about 6%, then it is not worth opening the school. We then ask why Abbott Tech? Why does the Magnet school exist? They serve less of our Danbury students than the charter school would. In fact, they enroll students from surrounding towns. The only difference is Union control. All 770 enrollments in the public charter will be for Danbury students only.

The uncomfortable fact is Teacher’s Union forces all candidates to oppose the public charter in order to receive their endorsement. This endorsement comes in the form of monetary support, canvassers and votes. This takes away the ability of our representatives to be objective and independent which should never be a practice we want from our politicians. It tears the community apart.

Let’s convene an educational summit where all stakeholders can compromise towards a solution that allows the public charter school downtown while addressing all concerns and providing more resources and assistance to our traditional schools. The solution to this impasse must be a comprehensive one and it must include all stakeholders. We have a new way forward—to assume our best intentions and unite. Let's all work on a holistic approach moving our city forward.

Stop the “parrot politics" and let's engage in a fact-based honest conversation where the common goal is to do what is best for our community and children.

Respectfully,

Veasna Roeun
4th Ward City Council Candidate