March 4,  2008

Susan Kniep,  President
The Federation of Connecticut Taxpayer Organizations, Inc. (FCTO)
Website:  http://ctact.org/
email:  fctopresident@aol.com
860-524-6501

 

 

 

 

THE COST OF PUBLIC EDUCATION IN CONNECTICUT IS BANKRUPTING CONNECTICUT TAXPAYERS!

 

 

ARMAND FUSCO IS ATTEMPTING TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT INSPITE OF SOME PUBLIC OFFICIALS WHO ARE TRYING TO STOP HIM!     

 

 

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Armand will be a guest of Concerned Southington Citizens on March 6 at 6:30 PM at the Southington Police Station on Lazy Lane where he will be making a presentation on HOW TO PROTECT, MAXIMIZE and MONITOR SCHOOL RESOURCES.  The Public is Invited. 

 

 

 

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There is a saying among the politically powerful elite – KILL THE MESSENGER! Translated:  Divert the real issues having a negative effect upon the public to a smear campaign against the person exposing the issues!

As the following editorial written by Dowd Muska illustrates such a campaign has been launched against Armand Fusco, the author of the book "School Corruption: Betrayal of Children and the Public Trust."  Since the publication of Armand’s book, the following news article was released.  It begins …. Changes in the way the El Paso Independent School District awards contracts is weeding out companies the FBI has implicated in its public corruption investigation.  The full article can be accessed at the following hyperlink … .  http://www.elpasotimes.com/newupdated/ci_8346781

Armand is a friend to the taxpayers and the children of our State. He donates his time and expertise as an accomplished educator and former School Superintendent.  His ultimate goal is for boards of education throughout Connecticut to run efficiently, effectively, and honestly.  

 

Armand’s goals however are not shared by everyone.  On December 18, 2007, Robert Radar, Executive Director of CABE (Connecticut Association of Boards of Education) and David Larson, Executive Director of CAPSS, (Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents) issued letters to all local Boards of Education and Superintendents throughout Connecticut, in an attempt to thwart the efforts of Armand Fusco.  

 

Recently,  I had the opportunity to appear with Armand in a one hour cable program which reached thousands of taxpayers living in and around New London.   Armand received a warm welcome from the listening audience during the call in show, hosted by Jim Louziotis of the taxpayer group, Lower our Taxes.  Armand is now assisting residents and officials of Enfield as they seek to review and analyze their financial procedures, practices and operations to ensure that they provide optimal protection of school resources and that resources are maximized and monitored effectively.  The following link offers insight into this project and the issues Armand must confront when attempting to assist concerned public officials and taxpayers who want to be assured their tax dollars are being spent appropriately.  http://www.journalinquirer.com/site/index.cfm?newsid=19287393&BRD=985&PAG=461&dept_id=569380&rfi=8

 

 

If you are concerned for the high cost of education in your town and wish to contact Armand, he can be reached at fusco.a@comcast.net or 203-453-1301.  Armand will conduct workshop presentations to any group and his only charge is a Dunkin Donuts cup of coffee--in a pinch, he will take house brands.

 

The following are links to important information pertaining to education in Connecticut and are worthy of your review. 

 

SCHOOL MATTERS, How Does Your School Rank, a service of Standard and Poor’s ….http://www.schoolmatters.com/

 

Quality Counts 2008: Report Card Grades States on Education Performance, Policy http://www.pewtrusts.org/news_room_ektid33264.aspx. 

 

State Gets C+ In Education Study -- Courant.com Hartford Courant. January 22, 2008. Search Courant.com ... The study, part of the newspaper Education Week's annual "Quality Counts" report, offered a mixed ...  SEE ARTICLE BELOW

 

 

Stopping School Corruption http://www.yankeeinstitute.org/files/pdf/80478_Yankee_Stopping_School_Corruption_PROOF.pdf

 

 

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 The following Letter to the Editor by Dowd Muska appeared recently in the Journal Inquirer newspaper of Manchester and shines further light on this issue. 

 

The smearing of Armand Fusco

By: D. Dowd Muska , 01/17/2008

http://www.journalinquirer.com/site/index.cfm?newsid=19206833&BRD=985&PAG=461&dept_id=569380&rfi=8

 

The Nutmeg State's education monopoly has never borne criticism with aplomb. Question the efficiency and performance of government schools in Connecticut and you're likely to face the wrath of the state's most powerful political and public-relations machines - even if you're a longtime member of the education establishment.

Just ask Armand Fusco. With 35 years of experience in education (17 of them as superintendents in Connecticut and Massa-chusetts), the Guilford resident's career exemplifies everything the government-school lobby would have taxpayers believe about professional educators.

But in 2005, Fusco violated omertà. He self-published "School Corruption: Betrayal of Children and the Public Trust," a 300-page exposé of "cheating, deceit, waste, mismanagement, fraud, and stealing" in government schools across the nation.

Even worse, he's devoted the remainder of his life to training elected officials and taxpayer groups to ensure sound stewardship of school districts' revenue.

Rather than embrace the retiree's warnings and proposed reforms as vital tools that would surely be useful to rebuild taxpayers' faltering faith in government schools, educrats' first reaction was to pretend Fusco didn't exist. His offer to conduct corruption-fighting workshops for the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education and Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents was ignored.

When shunning didn't work - when it became clear that Fusco was finding an audience with members of the media, elected officials, and good-government activists - the monopoly attacked.

Last month, in a memo distributed to all Connecticut superintendents and board of education chairs, the executive directors of CABE and CAPSS claimed his "attacks" on government schools "are so far removed from the reality of public schools that we see no common ground to even have a conversation on this subject." (Translation: We're afraid to debate him.)

Things got even uglier when Fusco offered a presentation on sound fiscal management to Enfield's Board of Education earlier this month. Educrats turned out in force, muttering and hissing their disapproval.

But they needn't worry - their allies on the board were all too willing to toe the CABE/CAPSS line.

Board member Thomas Arnone launched a lengthy, fact-free berating of Fusco, capped off with a tactic straight from the left's playbook: an ad-hominem attack. The retired educator's activism, Arnone claimed, was designed to "instill fear in people to sell books."

Happily, Enfield's board is moving ahead with one of Fusco's proposed reforms: an external audit committee. Eleven residents have offered their time to probe and prioritize the district's spending. Board member Sue Lavelli-Hozempa is pleased with the quality of volunteers who have stepped forward, describing them as "professional, either retired or still working ... (with) a background in either finance or insurance."

Scrutiny from such outsiders terrifies the K-12 education establishment, because in its view, Connecticut's government schools are completely corruption-free.

The Connecticut Association of Boards of Education's (CABE) /Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents (CAPSS) memo whined that Fusco's "charges are broad brush, unfair, unproven, untrue, and frankly, outrageous." The anecdotes used in "School Corruption: Betrayal of Children and the Public Trust," the memo bizarrely averred, "are from other states with different fiscal and governmental structures" - as if Connecticut's government schools aren't funded with tax revenue and overseen by politicians, as is the case in every state.

Between 1981 and 2001, enrollment in Connecticut's school districts rose by less than 10 percent. Inflation-adjusted spending on government schools, however, doubled. The notion that not one dollar of that expenditure explosion wasn't wasted is laughable.

In recent years, Connecticut government-school employees have been caught abusing sick days, stealing industrial-arts equipment, and submitting fraudulent reimbursement forms.

In 2006, according to the New Haven Register, the West Haven Board of Education "not only let friends and relatives of the board chairman and a school principal off the hook for essentially stealing services to which they weren't entitled, it has effectively lent them, interest free, the money they need to cover their misdeeds." An investigation is reportedly under way into whether the New Haven School District exaggerated the number of projected students for a new school in order to inflate state subsidies. And a grade-changing scandal is swirling in the Windham School District.

For the sin of refusing to follow the script of government-school happy talk, Connecticut's education monopoly is doing everything it can to portray Armand Fusco as a bitter crank. But as more officials and advocates solicit his aid - and more citizens grow concerned about the way waste and mismanagement in Connecticut school districts surely drive the state's runaway property taxes - the indefatigable reformer's credibility will only grow.
D. Dowd Muska is a writer, commentator, and public-policy researcher. He can be reached at muskacolumn@cox.net.

 

 

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HARTFORD COURANT

State Gets C+ In Education Study

Performance In Key Areas Mixed

By ARIELLE LEVIN BECKER | Courant Staff Writer

January 10, 2008

Connecticut ranks near the top of the nation in many indicators considered key to a child's success, and its students' performance on standardized tests is among the highest in the country. But in recent years, state students' test results have fallen more than those in nearly every other state, and low-income students in Connecticut lag further behind their peers than anywhere else in the nation, according to a study released Wednesday.

The study, part of the newspaper Education Week's annual "Quality Counts" report, offered a mixed picture of Connecticut, one familiar to educators in a state with some of the wealthiest and poorest families in the nation.

"These data points are not surprises, but the kind of compilation of them is hard-hitting," said Tom Murphy, a spokesman for the state Department of Education.

Overall, Connecticut earned a "C+", slightly higher than the "C" the average state earned.

By the report's standards, Connecticut children still stand a better "chance for success" than those in all but three other states. The report uses 13 indicators to measure students' "chance for success," and Connecticut scored above the national average in all but two categories.

The state ranked third in the nation in the percent of children whose family incomes are at least 200 percent of the poverty level and fourth in preschool enrollment, with 57.1 percent of 3- and 4-year-olds enrolled compared with 46.1 percent nationally. Connecticut also ranked fifth-highest in the nation with its public high school graduation rate — 79.8 percent graduated with a diploma in 2004 — and in the percent of adults in the state with a postsecondary degree.

The state fell short of the national average in two categories — kindergarten enrollment and the portion of adults in the labor force working fulltime — but by tenths of a percentage point in each.

Massachusetts, New Jersey and New Hampshire topped Connecticut on the "chance for success" index, while the bottom states, in descending order, were Nevada, New Mexico, Louisiana, and Mississippi.

Other indicators in the report offered a less promising view of the state.

The portion of students achieving proficiency on the National Assessment of Educational Progress test was higher than the national average in 2007, but student performance dropped between 2003 and 2007 in fourth-grade reading and eighth-grade math and reading. Fourth-grade performance on the math portion of the exam increased during that time, but the gain was near the lowest in the nation, behind 45 other states.

The gaps between Connecticut's low-income students and their peers on the fourth-grade reading and eighth-grade math exams were the highest in the nation last year, and, over the past five years, had widened more than in nearly any other state, according to the report.

Murphy said the declining test scores and widening achievement gaps were of particular concern, and part of the motivation behind an ongoing effort to redesign high schools with increased standards. "We pride ourselves on the notion that we have an outstanding education system, really top of the charts, and in many ways we still do, but now we're seeing data that refutes that notion, that says, 'Yes, we're good but others are catching up and surpassing us,' " he said. "So we can't rest on our laurels and we need to take steps to address some of these issues."

This year's report also included new standards for states' efforts to improve teaching, designed to focus on areas that research has indicated are important in effective teaching. In that area, too, Connecticut showed mixed results. The state outperformed the national average in accountability measures such as requirements for licensure, evaluating teacher performance, and teacher education programs. But the state fell short in other areas the report identified as key for teachers, such as incentives, professional development, working conditions, and pay on par with their counterparts in comparable occupations.

Teachers in Connecticut earn $0.917 for every dollar earned by people with comparable occupations — defined in the report as requiring comparable skills — including auditors, architects, computer programmers, registered nurses, and reporters. Nationally, teachers earned an average of $.88 for every dollar earned in comparable professions.

Contact Arielle Levin Becker at alevinbecker@courant.com.

The report is available at www.edweek.org.

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Armand is currently working with concerned officials and taxpayer in Enfield and will be a guest of Concerned Southington Citizens on March 6 at 6:30 PM on Lazy Lane at the Southington Police Station where he will be making a presentation on HOW TO PROTECT, MAXIMIZE and MONITOR SCHOOL RESOURCES. 

 

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You can Contact Dr. Armand A. Fusco at fusco.a@comcast.net or 203-453-1301